Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension- a set? *mumbles*
(in fake mumbly voice) This is Ascension Presents.
(normal voice) OK, sorry. There was a thing on top of my "mooth".
Mouth. Roof of my mouth.
Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So one of the things when it comes to love, I mentioned this in the video previously
about when God made humanity and placed us in the garden, right,
so the original story of creation that he, it seems, according to the Bible,
that we're made for three things: for, for leisure, for labor, and for love
but we experience brokenness in all those areas.
When it comes to that brokenness,
if you know how the story goes, here's God who's good, who makes the world good and everything he sees is,
"This, this is so good. This is very good."
Makes humanity, makes man and woman and looks at them, "Very good. This is so good."
Made for love and yet we know that the story of the Bible doesn't end with chapter 2 of Genesis.
It goes into chapter 3.
In chapter 3, it talks about, you know, the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that God made.
So it talks about the fall, right? You know, there's something really interesting in this,
that when Adam and Eve fall, there's these consequences, these curses,
there's actually a curse of the serpent, right?
So the Lord God looks at the serpent and says, you know, "Cursed," you know, "cursed are you," basically,
and then turns to the woman and he says to the woman, he says this, he says the following, he says,
"I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing and in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your urge shall be for your husband; he shall be your master."
This is kind of like like, wow, this is really, wow, it seems almost like God is angry
then he goes to the man and says, "Cursed be the ground because of you and in toil shall you eat of its yield
all the days of your life and thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you; as you eat the plants of the field,
by the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat until you return to the ground for which you were taken.
You are dust, to dust you shall return."
And it sounds almost like wow, God is ticked, right? It sounds like God is upset,
that God is always ... it sounds like God is angry with this man and this woman.
What I find interesting and here's a theory: that God isn't cursing them.
He cursed the serpent, right? There's ... that's a demon, right? It's Satan, that's the devil,
but he hasn't cursed the man and the woman.
This is less of a curse and more of a remedy.
God is saying to Eve, "In pain, you shall bring forth life."
God is saying to Adam, "In pain and toil and drudgery that you'll bring forth fruit from the earth."
That this is less of a curse and far more of remedy, why?
Because Adam and Eve, you are made for love. What is love? Love is this being a self-gift,
being a gift of yourself, willing the good of the other person.
And what did they do? What did they do when the serpent came into the garden
and came up to Eve and challenged her?
Well she A) didn't love God and B) Adam didn't love Eve.
Neither of them trusted and what they did was they had self-preservation, it was self-choice, it was self-involved,
whether ... when they could have been ...
when Eve ... when Adam could have stepped up and he could have fought for his bride,
he could have defended his bride, he did not lay down his life for his bride. He just didn't do anything.
Eve, when she could have called out to the Lord and could have trusted in the Father, what did she do?
She didn't. She just wanted that pleasure that she wanted, apart from any kind of sacrifice.
Adam wanted the the good things of the- the fruit, apart from any kind of sacrifice.
You know, it's interesting.
The apple or the fruit, not apple, whatever the fruit is, right, in the, in the Scripture
doesn't have- some people have said, "Well, that's about sex." It's not about sex.
But it is interesting that virtually every sexual sin that human beings commit
is an attempt to get the pleasure apart from the sacrifice that goes along with that pleasure.
When we think about using another person sexually, that's typically an attempt to get pleasure from that act
without the sacrifice of saying, "Actually, I give my whole self to you, not just me right now
but for the rest of my life."
There's an interesting kind of this thing going on here where here Adam and Eve, they were made to be self gift
but they were simply being self-interested.
It's into that, into that brokenness that God says, "OK Eve, you're made for love.
Eve, you're still made for love, but here's the problem: You don't know HOW
so I need to ... you need to learn how to love. How are you gonna learn how to love?
Well, when you bring forth this life into the world that you love with your whole heart,
it's gonna hurt. Why?
Because you have to learn that love costs something.
And Adam, when you go to work and you bring forth, you know, fruit from the ground,
you're gonna go to this job that you hate, you have to get up every single morning,
have the commute, it's gonna be an hour both ways and traffic's gonna be awful
and the job's gonna be, it's gonna stink and your boss doesn't understand
all these coworkers are terrible and you're gonna do this day in and day out, why?
Because Adam, you don't know how to love. You have to realize that love costs something
and you're gonna do this every day because your wife and your kids need you to do this
and you're gonna both learn this. This is the REMEDY.
This is not just a curse like, "I'm trying to punish you."
It's, "I'm trying to help you."
God, in this moment, doesn't just give a curse, he gives a remedy
but he also promises a redeemer.
That's remarkable because we don't do it on our own, right?
We don't just like, we don't become holy on our own. We need God completely for this,
but God himself promises Jesus in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, where God says to the serpent,
he says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman,
between her offspring and yours" or "your offspring and hers.
He will strike at your head while you strike at his heel."
What theologians call this and the Church has called this throughout history is the protoevangelium
or the the "pre-good news".
Basically, from the very first moment that God recognizes, "OK," acknowledges in Scripture,
that there's a fall here, that there's a brokenness here, he says, "Cursed may the serpent be,
but I promise,
I promise a redeemer."
in this moment, God promises a redeemer and he offers a remedy.
In fact, the very next thing that happens is, as they leave the garden, it says in Genesis 3 verse 21, it says,
"The man and his wife, the Lord God made for the man and his wife, the Lord God made leather garments,
with which he clothed them."
Think about that. He made leather garments for them.
Well, where do you get leather?
From the skin of an animal.
Basically even God's saying, "OK, I'm going to love you and it's gonna cost," right?
In order for me to love you in this moment and clothe you with leather garments,
something has to die.
Something has to die in order for me to love you and take care of you.
And God is saying, "No, I haven't abandoned you, I haven't cursed you.
I'm gonna love you but love costs something."
He goes even further because what happens? We know the end of the story. Well, not quite the end
but there's the protoevangelium or the pre good news but then there's actual good news.
What happens? Here is Jesus Christ, who is born of a woman, comes into this world and what does he do?
With the sweat of his brow, he works amongst thorns and thistles, even think about Jesus on the Cross.
The sweat of his brow with thorns and thistles in his forehead around his head
saying love costs something.
Yes, there's great joy in love. Yes, there's great fulfillment in love,
there's a great meaning in love
but there's almost always a great cost to truly love another person.
There may be someone in your life that you need to forgive.
There might be someone in your life you need to reach out to,
there might be someone in your life who is hard to love, but you know you're actually supposed to.
There might be some people in your life that you need to stay away from.
There might be some people in your life that you say, "You know, I want to be there but I can't,
because it's not healthy, it's not good for anyone here,"
but I'm guessing there's someone in your life today
whom you find it difficult to love but you know you're supposed to love.
Who is that person and how can you love them?
Loving when it hurts, it teaches us that love is meant to be a self-gift,
that you are meant to be a gift, that you are meant, you're created to be a gift
to the people around you, meant to be a gift to God.
For all of us here Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike.
God bless.