Welcome to Resurrection Parish.  For the past three weeks we have been doing a message series called “Next Door: The Art of Neighboring.”  The premise of the series is that God wants us to be a source of goodness and grace in our neighborhood.  We started off by encouraging all of us to start praying for our neighbors.  Then we took it up a notch by setting a goal of getting to know our neighbors’ names, so that we could say “hello” to them using their name and pray for them by name.  Last week, being that it was the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ and recognizing how often Jesus taught while at a dinner party, we suggested setting a goal that by the end of the summer we do something for one of our neighbors we don’t know well that involves food.
            This is supposed to be the fourth and final week of the message series, but I ran into a hiccup.  When this message series was first done three years ago, the first weekend after the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ was the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.  However, this year it is the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, so the message was based on the first reading of the 10^th Sunday, from Genesis.  Looking at the readings for this weekend, none of them really fit the message, so I debated just skipping the final week of the message series and preaching on the readings for this weekend.  The thing is, I think the final message is a good one, so I am going to do it, even if it is not related to our readings.
            Today we are going to look at the root of our fragmentation in our neighborhoods and the vision God has for us.  In the first week of the series, I briefly mentioned some of the societal reasons for the fragmentation of our neighborhoods:  things like moving to the suburbs so people are more spread out, the widespread use of the car resulting in people spending more time in their cars than in their neighborhoods, and television leading to us spending more time in our houses.  However, the root of this fragmentation of our neighborhoods goes back much further.  In fact, it goes back to “In the Beginning.”
            To truly understand it, we go all the way back to the beginning of the story, which we read about in the book of Genesis. Often, we treat the book of Genesis like a fairy tale or a children’s story because many of us learned about Genesis as children.  However, it is important for us to look at the Book of Genesis as adults so that we can learn the lessons that God wants us to learn.  In fact, in my columns for much of the rest of the summer I am going to be writing a series called “In the Beginning,” so this homily is a something of a preview for that.
            Genesis tells us that God created the world good, without any flaws. Genesis goes to great lengths to tell us it is good.  God created the world good, and he created human beings very good.  It doesn’t take much looking around to see that there is plenty of NOT GOOD in the world.  If humans were created “very good,” why do they do such terrible things to each other at times?  Why is the world screwed up?  Did God make a mistake?  And specifically for this series, why are there so many crazy neighbors in the world?
            The third chapter of the Book of Genesis tells us what went wrong.  God had the world and all in it just the way he wanted it, and he had just one rule:  to trust him.  Our first parents broke that simple rule.  We all know the story, the serpent tricked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, and she gave some to Adam, yada yada.  It is the story of “The Fall.”
            This refusal to trust God introduces sin into creation, and sin introduces a three-fold alienation.  These are three major problems that have affected humanity throughout history and continues to do so today.
            The first problem happens immediately after they eat the forbidden fruit. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves” (Genesis 3:7).  As a result of sin, human beings are no longer comfortable in their own skin.  Before disobeying God, they were clothed in divine protection, in breaking God’s law they discard that protection and are naked before the world.  We became alienated from ourselves.
            That first alienation leads to the second, “When they heard the sound of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God” (Genesis 3:8).  The relationship between God and Adam and Eve changed.  Instead of the relaxing with friends in the evening relationship that they had, after their disobedience Adam and Eve hid themselves from God.  God didn’t change the relationship, they did.  We became alienated from God.
            Genesis continues, “The Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9).  God, of course, knows exactly where Adam is. He is asking Adam where he thinks he is relationally. He is asking Adam to assess his own situation and acknowledge his mistake, which Adam fails to do.
“He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:10).  God responds, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat?” (Genesis 3:11).  Since Adam doesn’t admit the truth to eating the fruit, God calls him out. Whereas before God and man could have this open honest conversation with one another, now Adam is posturing, he is trying to hide what is really happening from God.
            We do this as well. We pray prayers that are posturing before God or don’t really reveal what is going on in our hearts and in our lives. People who have a great relationship with God, on the other hand, are incredibly honest with God.  Look at the way David or Moses spoke with God.  This is the relationship God wants with us, but because of the Fall we tend to hide from God our true thoughts and feelings. We pretend that God cannot see us.
            After God calls Adam out, does Adam acknowledge his mistake? Not exactly: “The man replied, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”
(Genesis 3:12).  Adam blames God and he blames Eve.  This is the third form of alienation which sin brings. We are alienated from other people.
All the problems in the world come down to this threefold alienation. We are uncomfortable with ourselves. We are not in right relationship with God. We are out of sorts with our neighbors.
Even from the first, God had a plan to deal with these problems.  He promises to send a Savior to save us from our alienations.  Of course, that is Jesus.  On the Cross Jesus destroyed sin and all else that causes alienation.
            When we’re talking about the art of neighboring, we’re talking about doing the same thing.  Connecting with our neighbor isn’t just about having a more pleasant neighborhood.  Connecting with neighbors is about overcoming our own fears and moving towards the people God wants us to be and we want to be.  Connecting with our neighbor is about obeying God and putting ourselves in right relationship with him by living in right relationship with those around us.  It’s about living like we’re actually redeemed in Christ