NRS Genesis 3:
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'" 4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate." 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate."
14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
17 And to the man he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
20 The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living.21 And the LORD God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them. 22 Then the LORD God said, "See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-- 23 therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

Dear Friends in Christ, may the Lord keep us steadfast in his Word, Jesus the Messiah. Amen.

Do you ever play, "What if?" You know, like:
" What if I won the lottery?
" What if I were President?
" What if I found a magic lantern with a genie inside who would grant me three wishes for whatever I wanted?
Sometimes, too, we have experiences that make us wonder what if.
" What if I had taken that job?
" What if I had gotten on that plane?
" What if I hadn't stopped for that accident?
Then, too, there are times we step back, we look at the grand scheme of human events, and we can't help but think:
" What if John Kennedy had skipped that trip to Dallas?
" What if we'd never gone to Vietnam?
" What if somebody had somehow connected all the dots before 9/11?
History is full of what ifs, and most every year we get a new crop of books and television shows debating what would have happened if so-and-so had done this rather than that, and would the world be any different for it.

Sometimes I play biblical what if. I wonder what if.
" … Abraham had turned down God's call and stayed in Haran? Or,
" What if Moses had gotten some sand in his eyes and walked right past that burning bush? Or,
" What if on the way to Bethlehem Mary had fallen off the donkey and gone into early labor?
What would God have done? How would God have reacted to that crisis?

But the Bible story that still has me scratching my head is the story of Adam and Eve. You can't read this story and not wonder:
" What if Adam and Eve had just said no?
" What if they'd told that snake to go to wherever he belonged? Or,
" What if they'd just walked away?
Would we now be living in the Garden of Eden? Would there be any need for an Ash Wednesday or forty days of Lent to repent and return to the Lord?

In the movie "Oh God!" I remember the John Denver character asking George Burns' God about Adam and Eve. Burns said, "Eh! They were just kids!" And you know, they really were just kids. Not that they didn't know what they were doing, not that they were anything but entirely culpable, but still you can't help but feel a little sorry for them. I think,
" What if it were me?
" What if some fast-talking snake got hold of me?
Ugh! I hate to think. God knows, I've been talked into some really dumb things against my better judgment.

I can understand Adam and Eve falling, but here's where I come to what I think is the greatest what if.
" What if Adam and Eve had just confessed their sin?
" What if they'd immediately thrown themselves on the mercies of God?
It's not like they didn't know they had sinned. No sooner had they eaten the fruit, they became ashamed. Suddenly aware of their nakedness, they ran to cover themselves; they became fearful and anxious. They were, in other words, wired the same way we are, with a conscience that can strike terror in our hearts when we trespass the boundaries God has set for us.

And of course, you know that they were both equally guilty. Sometimes Eve gets the blame as the temptress who lured poor, innocent Adam into her terrible web of sin. Uh-uh! Eve was certainly blameworthy; there's no question but she took the serpent's bait, hook, line, and sinker. She just couldn't resist the prospect of being like God. But if you read Genesis 3 carefully, you'll see that Adam was standing right there when the serpent was tempting Eve. It was to Adam that God originally gave the command not to eat of the tree. But when the snake is lying to Eve about what God has said and what God will do, does Adam say a word? Does he object, "Whoa! Wrong! Back off!" Or when Eve reaches for the forbidden fruit, does Adam try to stop her? And even after Eve does eat, does she then force Adam to take a bite? Does she push the fruit down his throat, or hold a gun to his head, or otherwise threaten him? No. Adam is almost entirely passive. He's just standing around, a big lump who just lets disaster happen.

So Adam and Eve sin, one mostly by commission, the other more by omission, but once they've crossed the line God has drawn for them, once they know they've violated the trust God had placed in them, do they then run to God for forgiveness? Do they lay their shattered lives and sullied hearts before God's throne of mercy? No. They run and hide. They refuse to confront their own sin and further refuse to trust God with the remission of that sin. And even when God gets in their face and directly asks, "Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" Adam still doesn't give God a direct answer. Instead, he blames Eve, and indirectly God, "The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit from the tree, and I ate" (3:12). Eve, too, will not accept responsibility for her failure, and instead points the finger at somebody else: "The serpent tricked me, and I ate" (v. 12).

But what if:
" What if they'd come clean?
" What if they'd laid it all out on the line?
" What if instead of lying to God and lying to themselves they'd trusted God to do right by them?
Do you think God would have turned them down? Do you think God would have denied them mercy? As it was, God didn't strike them dead on the spot. Neither does God curse Adam or Eve, but instead, they bring down judgment on themselves, separating themselves from the earth from which they were made and from the God who made them. Even when God turns them out of the Garden of Eden, God first dresses them. He makes garments of skins for them to wear.

There are, you know, two ways of reading this story. We can, on the one hand, hear the story of Adam and Eve as the tale of our first parents who messed up so bad that they messed it up for the rest of humanity forever and ever. But on the other hand, we can also hear the story of Adam and Eve as our story, and if their story is our story, then that leaves us with some mighty big what if's to ponder:
" What if the next time we mess up, we take the blame that's our due rather than pointing the finger at everybody else?
" What if the next time we sin, we run to God rather than run to cover our tracks?
" What if the next time we break faith with God, and put our will ahead of God's, what if then we throw ourselves on the mercy of God?
" What if we wrap ourselves in the righteousness of Jesus rather than wrapping ourselves in excuses and explanations?
" What if we trust God to forgive us and love us in spite of our sin?
We could be writing a whole new story.

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.