My thesis for this Ash Wednesday is that the worst event in the history of the world was Adam’s fall into sin.

The Lord had given Adam fair warning, that if Adam did the one and only thing that the Lord forbid he do—eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—he would die.

But, death didn’t only mean physical death for Adam. Where the Word of God tells us that the Lord created Adam in His image, after Adam’s fall into sin, and Eve began to bear children, we are told that the next generation of humans were born in Adam’s image, meaning that they were born sinners, that they began their lives already beginning to die, that they began their lives already spiritually dead.

And, every generation that came from them, came from them. As a man and a woman cannot do anything but pass on their physical DNA to their children, so they cannot do anything but pass on their spiritual DNA—their sinful nature, which came by Adam’s Original Sin.

Original Sin is the gift that keeps on giving, yet no one wants it. Thanks Adam. How could you do such a thing?

Adam could do such a thing this way: his fall into sin showed how difficult love is. God is love, and He made Adam from His love. In love, He gave Adam the most challenging gift to give: freedom. You parents know what I’m talking about.

The first time you let your child play at another child’s house, you experienced the pangs of fear which freedom brings. After that, it was your child heading off to school. Then it was sleepovers, then his first job, and traveling out of town without you, and going off to college or the service, and getting married, and moving to another town or another state.

Because you love your children, you don’t build fences around them; you give them freedom to move about, to stretch their wings and find their own joys and test out their talents. But, this freedom, borne of love, comes with a huge price tag.

Your children are free to reject you. Your children are free to associate with people who are not good for them. Your children are free to do things which might harm them. Your children are free to learn ideas and religions which hurt them both now and for eternity.

Your children might not love you back. But, does that fear keep you from giving them freedom? Because God is love—total, unhindered love—He takes the leap, without looking back, and creates Adam with total, unhindered freedom.

It was Adam’s fault, solely Adam’s fault, that death came into the world. While it seems unfair to us that we should be born with no choice in the matter, that we inherit Adam’s sin and death, and there’s not a thing we can do about it, we have only our first father to blame.

We often question God, that if He knew that Adam would sin and bring death to every generation of mankind, why would He create Adam this way—why would He allow it—why wouldn’t He do things differently?

The lesson for us is not to figure out why God did this or not do that. That’s easy to ask. That takes no work to get hung up about. Plenty of people get stuck right there and find God impossible to love because, they think, it’s His fault that we are in the mess we are in.

The lesson for us is not to figure out why God did this or not do that. The lesson for us is to learn what love is.

Love is a hard lesson for us—indeed, without the help of the Holy Spirit, it is an impossible lesson for us—because of this worst event in the history of the world, because of the sin and death in which we walk around. In the pockets of our body of death, we find hatred for God in this one, and complete and utter self-centeredness in that one.

To love means to reach out. To love means to think of the object of one’s love, first, and think of oneself, only after that. To love means to provide freedom to those whom we love, but providing freedom means giving up control, and giving others the right to their own opinion. It means that we must walk around in a spirit of humility, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self-control.

And, that’s not the way we want to be. The worst event in the history of the world has made us the center of our world. Do you want proof? Why do fewer than half of our members worship on a given Sunday? Why will only about thirty percent worship, today? Why are we always scraping the bottom of the barrel in meeting the church budget? Why is it so hard to find officers to fill vacancies on church boards? Why are charities constantly campaigning for your leftover dollars? Why does one country invade another country? Why do the rich ignore the poor? Why do the poor hurt each other in the search for food and clothes and shelter? Why does a man leave his wife, a wife leave her husband, parents harm their children? Why do we kill each other? Do I need to go on? Of course, I don’t—there’s nothing new here.

You are trapped—trapped in a body of death which you inherited from the worst event in the history of the world, the fall of Adam into sin. That’s why you are here, today, because one day, soon, the pastor will say over your casket, "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust."

The worst event in the history of the world requires the same love from the Lord by which He created you. Now, He has to love you enough to save you—to win back your freedom to live.

Over the next five Wednesdays, I will offer the theses that Christmas, and Good Friday, and Easter, and the Lord’s ascension, and the Last Day, are the greatest events in the history of the world. This will be a profitable way for us to work through this Lenten season.

Since you are familiar with the Lord Jesus’ birth and death, His resurrection and ascension, and that He promises to return to this earth to bring about your own resurrection into the Paradise of the recreated earth, place your focus on the greatest event in the history of your own lives.

The greatest event in your lives was the Holy Spirit calling you by the Good News that Jesus was born, Jesus died, Jesus rose, Jesus ascended, and Jesus is going to return. The greatest event was the Holy Spirit created faith in you—bringing your dead spirit back to life—washing you in the baptismal waters of renewal and regeneration.

This is love, dear friends. Not that you love God, or that you love each other, but that He loves you—that He never stopped loving this fallen world—but sent His one and only Son as the sacrifice for your sins—to die your death so that you might live in His love.

And, so you do—and so you do!

This is your Lenten reflection: the greatest events in the history of the world all center around the Father’s gift of Jesus Christ, and Jesus’ gifts to you: forgiveness, life, salvation. Amen.