Sermon preview--Grace in the Fall

Most of us like stories with happy endings, but it’s the tragic stories that stick with us. I once had a dream I had lost one of my kids. When I realized it was just a dream, I woke up. Yet there was a part of me that desperately wanted to go back into the dream and find my child. I felt like something was undone. I think that’s why sad stories have such a hold on us. We return to them because each time we hear them, we secretly hope they’ll turn out better. We hope that this time, Romeo will realize that Juliet is only in a coma instead of dead, and won’t take his own life. We hope Scarlett will forget about that wishy-washy wimp Ashley Wilkes and love Rhett Butler. We pray for Rose to get on the lifeboat so that there will be room for Jack on that floating door when the Titanic goes down. This Sunday we read the saddest story of them all, found in Genesis 3. It’s not a nightmare or a movie; it’s a true story…the story of us. This is the story of how one small act of rebellion made God’s perfect world the way it is today. We may want to change the outcome of this story. We wish we could go back in time and stop Adam and Eve from eating the forbidden fruit, but we can’t. But fortunately, we serve a God who can make wrong into right, who can redeem the most tragic story of all. In this sermon, I want to show you how, even in the saddest story ever told, we see the love and grace of God.