When you can't go back to Eden

kind of lifestyle.
And then there’s Alice married to Bill for 32 years- not the best marriage but not the worse either. They know each other like a book right down to how many pills she takes each day to
how many steps he walks to the garage. But last week Bill died and suddenly the security
of being close with some one for years, sharing the same circle of friends and activities,
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unaware of this or that because Bill was never interested so they didn’t go or find out. Now like Yokoi or Eve, Alice must leave the security of her Garden for a new way of life.

It is the question of the sermon title: when you can’t go back to Eden where do you go, what
do you do?
The answer is simple, and we all know the answer because all of us have at one time or another for one reason or another been expelled or taken out of our secure Eden, and what did we do about it?
We went right out and began to create another Garden of Eden to live in. Karen went to college and had just as much or perhaps more happiness and security there as she did in high school.
Frank retired from the company and now travels, does volunteer work, and plays a lot of golf; he wonders sometimes how he had time to work before.
Alice missed Bill terribly after he passed away but eventually she adjusted to the change and spends more time with her daughter and son and their families.

And for making the transition from one Eden to the next we usually give the person praise or a pat on the back:
--nice going Frank, I thought retirement might be tough on you at first but you seemed to have
made a good adjustment and are getting along fine…
--well, Adam and Eve you may have to work by the sweat of your brow but you didn’t give up
and here you are going on to have a family and to build a new home- nice going.

For most people this is life or the way they live life, but for the Christian there is another kind
of life than trying to go from one Eden to the next. Instead of going from one temporary security to another; why not head as the Bible says to Zion.
“Zion” sounds like one of those Jewish, biblical words that doesn’t particularly
interest me. Here’s how the writer of Revelation, John, described “Zion”:
--Read Rev. 21:1-4……. there Zion sounds like Heaven.

Years ago we used to sing a hymn in the church, in fact the hymn is in our hymnal #136 that goes:
Come we that love the Lord and let our joys be known; join in a song with sweet accord,
Join in a song with sweet accord; and thus surround the throne; and thus surround the throne;
We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion; we’re marching upward to Zion that
beautiful city of God.

Many Christians today think of Heaven as Zion but there is more to Zion than just being a heavenly place. The prophet Micah described Zion as:
--where the power and authority and Word of God would reign supreme through His prophets
and people…
--there would be justice, nations would beat their swords into plowshares and give up war..
--every man would sit under his vine and his fig tree and no one would make him feel afraid. (Micah 4:1-4)

The prophet, Isaiah described Zion as that place where:
--God’s Messiah would rule