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I had the chance to invite a friend to the Aggie football game a couple of weeks ago.  It was around the third quarter when he asked, “What do they keep singing?  I can’t understand any of it.”   I did the best I could, beginning with, “Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck.”  though I will admit there is one phrase that I don’t generally sing.  My friend began to get analytical on me and ask me things like, “Why do they sing ‘Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck?’”  He wondered why 70,000 fans were singing about the orange and the white, when neither team on the field donned such colors.  Then he asked where “Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem” was. I finally told him to just sing the song and watch the game.

However, now I find myself wanting to know.  I went on the internet and discovered there are as many opinions about this song as there are websites devoted to it.  One person wrote, “Hullabaloo caneck caneck was the sound of artillery firing and the recoil mechanism operating at the Rhine during WWI.” And since his e-mail name was OhioAg, I tend to believe this reliable source.  Another person explained, “chig-gar-roo-gar-rem is supposed to be the sound a train makes.”  Though my favorite explanation of this phrase was this, “Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem backwards is Merragoor Raggihc which translated into Hebrew and then into Greek by way of the Sicilian doctrines means ‘Go Farmers!’”

I’m not sure I am any more enlightened, but it was an inevitable journey.  We often wonder, “Why?” 

As we consider questions that matter throughout the month of September, we come to one of those “why” questions.  “Why does evil exist?”  It is an unavoidable question, whether it is prompted by a schoolyard brawl initiated by a bully, or a September 11^th attack that stunned this nation and the world five years ago.  I still remember Chelsea asking me, “Why can people be so mean?” after viewing “The Passion of the Christ”.  The inevitable journey of searching for an answer to this question that matters leads us all the way back to the beginning – to the first introduction of evil.  It was a subtle invasion, but one that overthrew the world as it was.  It is found in Genesis 3, the first thirteen verses.  I invite you to open your pew Bibles to page 3 and follow along with me. Hear now the Word of the Lord: 

¹Now 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’?” ²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; ³but 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.’” ⁴But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; ⁵for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶So 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. ⁷Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. ⁸They 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.

⁹But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” ¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.

The Word of God for the people of God.  Thanks be to God.  In this passage the writer of Genesis 3 reminded his readers of the sin saga so often staged in humanity.  This is a treacherous passage.  The analytical often stumble on the improbability of a talking snake.  The literalist often see Adam and Eve clearly enough, but fail to see themselves in this passage.  This morning I invite you to set aside all theological agendas and let this scripture speak to you.  Let’s do what the first couple had trouble doing on that fateful day, let’s take a walk with God as we explore this question that matters, “Why does evil exist?”  Come on, let’s take a walk with God. 

The first thing we notice is one reason that evil exists is that:

Too many people want to be God.

The Garden was a beautiful place where God had given permission to eat anything, where God had given a prohibition to eat one thing – the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and where God had provided meaningful vocation – to till the earth that was quite receptive to such care.  It was a great place to live and besides that it seems that God would often come and take walks with the first couple.  But then the crafty serpent wanted to talk.  He began with an outlandish claim, “Did God say that you can’t eat from any of these beautiful trees?” 

The woman came to God’s defense, “Of course not!  We can eat anything we want except from that one tree.  We can’t even touch it or we’ll die.”  This was not exactly what God said, but if the serpent could exaggerate one way, the woman could exaggerate the other.  However, now the woman is no longer focused on what God really said, but on what the serpent is currently saying.  When she hears the proposition that perhaps God is just trying to keep her and her husband in the dark.  She starts to look beyond the serpent to that one tree.  She’d never noticed how pretty its fruit was to her eyes and how much her stomach craved it or even how much she wanted more.  She wanted more knowledge, more stuff, more pretty things.  She wanted what God had, she wanted to call the shots, she wanted more and so did her husband who was with her.  It seemed subtle enough, but it turned the world upside down.

Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm caught this craving beautifully in their story, “The Fisherman and His Wife.”  It is a good story and begins as all good stories do, “Once upon a time…”

“Once upon a time there was a fisherman who lived with his wife in a pig-stye close by the sea and everyday he went out fishing.”  On this one particular day he caught a flounder, a talking flounder, who told the fisherman that he was really an enchanted prince and would be no good to eat.  He begged the fisherman to release him and being a good-hearted fisherman did as requested.  When he returned home, his wife asked where were his fish and the fisherman told her all that he had caught was one talking flounder who had requested to be released.  She fussed at her clueless husband stating the obvious -  if this fish could talk it was magical.  He could have at least made a wish in return for his kindness.  When asked what on earth he would wish for, the wife was ready.  “Tell him we want to have a little hut.” she said, “I’m tired of living in this stinky pig-stye.”

So the man went to the edge of the sea which was not as calm as when he had been there before.  He called out from the shore, “Flounder, flounder in the sea, come I pray thee, here to me.”  Sure enough the flounder surfaced and asked the poor fisherman what he wanted.  He almost embarrassingly voiced his request, “My wife said I should have wish for something and she really doesn’t like living in a pig-stye.  She would like to have a hut.” 

The flounder said, “Go home.  She has it already.”

Sure enough, when he got home, he found a quaint little hut with a porch, a parlor and a pantry; fine furniture inside, flowers and fruit trees outside.  It was very nice and the fisherman exclaimed, “This is nice.  Now we will live quite contented.” 

To which his wife replied, “We’ll think about that.”  It wasn’t long before his wife started feeling a little cramped in their hut.  What she really wanted was a castle.  Surely any flounder that could turn a pig-stye into a hut could turn a hut into a castle.  The man tried to stand his ground, but she would not give up, so he did.  This time the sea was dark and brooding, yet when the fisherman said, “Flounder, flounder in the sea, come I pray thee, here to me.”

The flounder came and after hearing the man’s request for a castle for his wife the fish said, “Go home.  She has it already.”  And sure enough, there it was with marble halls, servants all over the place, a huge expanse of land and gardens. 

The man wished for contentment, but his wife said, “Well think about that.”

You can guess what happened next.  She wanted more.  She wanted to be king, then emperor, then Pope.  Each time the man resisted, each time the woman insisted and each time the man relented.  Each time the waters grew more tumultuous and each time the flounder appeared when called and each time the man was instructed, “Go home.  She has it already.”  Yet the more she got the less content she became with it until finally after a sleepless night, she realized the ultimate request just as the sun came up without her permission.  “I want to be God and I shall not rest until it is so.”

The man approached the sea that was raging like a hurricane, winds crushed rocks, treetops touched the ground and even though the man could not even hear himself, he cried out, “Flounder, flounder in the sea, come I pray thee, here to me.”  When the flounder surfaced, the man shouted out, “She wants to be like unto God.”

The flounder quietly responded, “Go home and you will find her back again in the pig-stye.” 

The Brothers Grimm concluded the story with, “And there they are living to this day.”

How often it is that once we get a taste or even a craving for more, we want nothing to do with boundaries, restrictions or prohibitions.  We want to be God.  We want to call the shots.  We are no different than Eve in this regard, no different from the Fisherman’s Wife, we too want more.  Come on, let’s take a walk with God.  Why does evil exist?  Too many people want to be God.  But that’s not the only reason.

Too few people want to take responsibility.

Poor Adam and Eve.  They had always been naked, but now they were exposed.  They were vulnerable, ashamed, guilty and remorseful.  They tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, but they still felt embarrassed.  They tried to hide from the God who only moments before they looked forward to seeing.  When God called them out of hiding, they refused to take responsibility. 

“She did it!” Adam exclaimed. 

“The serpent made me do it!” Eve said in her defense.

The serpent had said enough.

And we are no different.  The Israeli-Lebanon conflict was full of such rhetoric.  “They started it!  They captured our soldiers.” “They started it, they crossed the line into our country.” All the while the number of casualties were increasing.  Last year’s tragedy related to the slow and inadequate response to victims of Hurricane Katrina has been littered with this attitude of, “It’s not my fault.”

But we don’t have to look across the world or even across the state line, we need only look in our own lives this week.  Have there been times when you have shirked responsibility that really belonged to you?  Have you been tempted to blame others for your misbehavior?  Have you found yourself hiding from the God you once craved with all your heart?  Come on, let’s take a walk with God.  Why does evil exist?

●       Too few people want to take responsibility.

●       Too many people want to be God.

But there is a third reason that is rather subtle in this story of Genesis 3. 

An enemy seeks to exploit these opportunities.

There is an enemy of God and God’s people who has devoted his entire existence to undermining the purposes of God.  It may not be accurate to say, “The devil made me do it.” for that is a statement of irresponsibility.  However, know that there is one who seems to always be there to point your eyes to the forbidden fruit and invite you to consider.  Jesus told his followers not to attempt to confront this enemy apart from the power of God Mark 9, Acts 19).  Peter (I Peter 5) reminded his readers that this spiritual enemy broods about looking for those that he can destroy.  But there is One greater than this enemy.  There is One who seeks us out and who calls us by name.  There is One who speaks in the darkness, “Where are you?”  Come on, let’s take a walk with God. 

When I was a hospice chaplain, I spent most of my days going from house to house visiting people all over the city of Houston.  I went to some castles, some huts and to some homes that perhaps could be described as pig-styes.  One fairly modest home had a “warning” on the face sheet that we used to guide us to the location.  “Call before you visit and honk the horn when you get there.  They will need to chain up the dogs before you go inside the fence.”  I called and told them exactly when I’d be there.  I honked the horn when I got arrived, but no one came out.  The dogs, two pit bulls and a rotweiller just looked up.  I went to the gate and hollered, “Hello.  It’s the chaplain!”  My voice stirred the dogs into action they ran toward the fence, jumped on the gate with drool emanating from their mouths filled with very sharp teeth.  I backed away from the fence just as they hit it with their front paws.  The gate jarred open and my blood ceased to circulate.   Just then a little girl, about 5 years old, came out of the house and called to the dogs that forgot about me and ran to her.  She greeted me and invited me to follow her.  “They won’t bother you as long as you are close to me,” she said.  Can you guess how close I was to that little guide?

I awakened the other morning at 3:50 a.m. thinking of that little girl and those ferocious dogs.  I remembered in the dark morning hours how comforting her words were, “They won’t bother you as long as you are close to me.”  It was as if God whispered those words in my ear, while I tossed and turned over this sermon, “Why does evil exist?”

There is an enemy that seeks to exploit our desire to usurp God and shirk responsibility, but listen as God whispers, “The enemy won’t bother you as long as you are close to me.”

We may not be able to eradicate evil from this world, but we can begin through contentment, responsibility and staying close to the God who loves us and calls us by name.  Come on, let’s take a walk with God.  Amen.