Created For Relationship Transcript

Chapter 1: Exploring Creation and Human Purpose

So we are starting our new year, we are embarking on another year in the narrative lectionary, and if you remember from last year what the narrative lectionary does, what we're trying to do is follow the story of God and God's people from the beginning, some story in Genesis, usually close to the creation. We follow this grand story of God caring for his people, His people generally messing it up, and God calling them back to him. And it goes. And there are these high points when everything is going well and creation seems to be going as God intended. And then there are those really low points where we usually muck everything up and everything in between. And so it moves from that story and follows God through parts of the Old Testament to the birth of Jesus. The redemption of the world is life, death, and resurrection. Then, we move into the birth of the church and the stories of the early church living out this newly created order made possible through Christ. And then we wrap up in Pentecost. Seems simple enough. 

This particular passage, many of which you may remember, is quite long. Today's passage is one of those that's pretty long, so I will be reading the scripture throughout my sermon as we move forward. The first reading comes from Genesis, chapter two; I'll read verses four through seven. These are the heavens and earth generations when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the heavens when no plant of the field was yet in the Earth, and no field herb had yet sprung up, for the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the Earth. There was no one to till the ground, but a stream would rise from the Earth and water the whole face of the ground. Then, the Lord God formed humans from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being. 

I want to stop here. There's a lot here to unpack, and there's a lot of beauty in this that shows us that the God we worship, the one intimately involved in creation, was so from the beginning. We have never had this distant God simply creating things, watching from afar, and not getting involved. However, in the first creation story in Genesis, one may suggest it because in this story, rather than God speaking humanity into being, we have this image of God kneeling and working in the dirt, working in the clay, forming humankind in his image. Now, I'm meticulous in saying humankind here, and that's intentional because the word translated here is Adam, as read as Adam the name. Still, it comes from that root of Earth ad-ad-adama in Hebrew, and Adam comes from the Adam-ma. It's not until later that we see where we get the separation between man and woman and the words for those two things coming back. So there's a long tradition of interpreting this passage as meaning that humankind, this whole being that is not gendered in any way, is not separated. It just simply exists, is what was created. And the importance of this I'll get to. But what I don't want you to lose sight of is this idea of God getting his hands dirty, God working in the clay, working in the dirt, to form humankind in his image, and then, after forming human beings, God breeds his breath of life into this form. And when the breath of life from God is breathed into this dirt being, this thing from the Earth, when those two things combine, there is life and transformation. 

I will read the next part of this passage from chapter 8, versus or sorry, chapter 2, verses 8 through 17. I will ask if you can try to scroll through that, so I'm not tapping when I'm just trying to read. I apologize. I said I was going to control it, but I don't multitask. Well, the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where he put the human he had formed. Out of the ground, the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

A river flows out of Eden to water the garden; from there, it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first branch is Peshon. It is the one that flows around the whole land of Havila, where there's gold, and the gold of that land is good. Delium and Onyx stones are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flows around the whole land of Kush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east to Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the humans and put them in the garden to till it and to keep it. And the Lord, God, commanded them that they may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they shall not eat, for in the day that they eat of it they will die. So we've moved beyond that point. 

Remember before, in this creation story, this version of it, before God created the plants and the garden, and the trees and everything that human beings would need to thrive, God created humanity In the first creation story, in Genesis 1, everything is created and prepared for humankind the food that we eat, the gardens, the water. Everything was already created before humanity was placed on Earth. Instead, in this one, we have God saying there is no one yet to till the Earth, there is no one yet to partner with, there is no one yet who can take on this task of creation care, and so I'm going to create someone to do it, which then God did. And now that God has that partner, God has created that human being, and God starts creating more. God starts creating the plants, trees, and the rest of the garden because we were never meant to sit, wait, and relax by the beach. I am trying to remember this TV show. 

That quote stuck in my head as a kid. For some reason, it made me laugh a lot more than it should have, and it's just one of those core memories that sticks in. And the line went along the lines of, and we'll get there. If it weren't for Eve, we would be sitting, or if it wasn't for women, really probably is what it was, we'd be sitting all naked playing beach volleyball together. But this passage tells us that we were never meant to rest all the time. We were created for a purpose. We were created to partner and work with God in this creation. Care about what God was about to be doing and what God was about to be creating. God created the gardens, and I often wonder why the rivers were included in this passage. 

It seems extra, like the authors could have skipped over that, or God could have skipped over that as he directed them. However, you want to view that, for me, it tells me that, once again, God is not only working with the hands in the dirt but doing so in a particular place at a particular time. These rivers existed, these rivers were known to the people that were reading this, the cities and the nations that were known in these areas, and that reminder that God not only works in and is actively involved in the creation, but that creation happens tied to a place, tied to a time, and so we have a purpose of tilling and working and caring for creation. We have time and place, all bringing it together, reminding us that God is not some cosmic being working at a distance but is intimately involved in the here and now. But God created the garden, and he created these rivers that would flow from it and feed into the surrounding region. God planted all sorts of plants that produced food and, I would imagine, plants that produced beauty because those things often go hand in hand. And he created those two trees: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. It would have been much better if you asked me, though I'm not God, and he didn't ask me if God had only created one of those trees. The world would have gone a little better, a little differently, had God created the Tree of Life. But I don't believe God wants us to be an automaton, to follow without a choice simply. God doesn't want to control our actions. And in not giving us that choice and not giving Adam and Eve that choice of which trees they would eat from, would they have chosen or could they have loved him fully? If we talk about this idea of a relationship, of God creating human beings to be in partnership with him, to till the Earth, to grow what God was creating, to partner with him in all of that, then he needed to give them a choice, and he does the same for us. 

Chapter 2: The Partnership of Creation and Equality

We read in the Mark passage that Jesus when he came, did not want to go about his creating work, his work of recreating all of creation, of redeeming it, and bringing forth this conquered death, this land, this kingdom of God. He did not want to go about it by himself. He wanted partners. One of the first things he does when he comes out of the wilderness is to find people to work with, and he calls the disciples and gives them a choice Will you come and follow me? Will you come with me on this work that I'm going about? Will you partner with me with what I am about to do, or will you not? And he offers us each the same choice. Our God is doing amazing things in the here and now, inviting us to be a part of it with him. And he says will you work with me? Will you choose to work alongside me? And it's up to us to make that choice. It's up to us to decide whether or not we will seek out him and seek out his life because, remember, our life did not begin life itself, does not begin in this creation story until the breath of God, the breath of life itself, is met with the physical creation. It is the combination of the two that brings about that life and that purpose, and that being, if we choose to inspire and be inspired by God, we get to be a part of that new creation and that new life. 

Now, this following passage has gotten a lot of people into trouble. It has created a lot of aggravation in our world. It has created this constant struggle between whether or not a man was created first and then even women were created out of that. Then, because of that, there's this hierarchy and this meaning that because it was set up in the created order, it has to be carried through for all of creation and has led to a lot of pain, suffering, and death, especially of women. So we will touch on that next with this passage, verses 18 to 25. God looked at these human beings and said it was not good that they should be alone. I will make them a helper as their partner. So, out of the ground, the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to this being to see what they would call them. And whatever they called every living creature was its name. This being gave names to all cattle into the birds of the air and every animal of the field. But there was not a helper as his partner. To the Lord, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon them, and as they slept, they took out the rib and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from them he made into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said this, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called woman for the out of man. This one was taken. Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh, and the man and his wife are both naked and are not ashamed. 

I specifically started saying, or at least trying to intentionally say, man and woman in these verses because that's the first time we started seeing the Hebrew word for both Ish and Isha. This is where we start seeing this separation. But what I want to go into here, what I think is essential, is this word of helper. It's often, or many times, interpreted as submissive, as this lesser than who can help and assist the more significant than. But the Hebrew word here is often used to describe God. It is a powerful helper, it is a powerful companion. It is not just some. You can do these tasks over here, and I will do the important stuff. It is used to describe God's help and God's salvation. It's used to describe the way that God saves God's people and brings them out of trouble. 

The other word here is used opposite and translated as opposite. I almost saw a few ears perk up at this powerful opposite, this powerful opposition. What if these two created beings, one wasn't subservient to the other, and that wasn't the created order, but one in which their opposites could come together? That, just as human beings are the opposite of God, in that they are mortal, that we are not all-powerful, and that we cannot create just out of ourselves. And yet God wanted both to work with us for new creation. This man and this woman were opposites. They each brought something to the table. They could contend and fight with one another and work on each other to get to that common future, do the creative task that God hadn't created for this powerful helper to go along for the journey. This is a stark contrast to how this passage can sometimes be interpreted. But we have God again creating, getting God's hands into removing a rib and forming a new being. 

There are a few arguments I want to give you so that if you do run into someone who insists that women are lesser than men because that argument is on the rise, and as we, as Christians, can say, no, that is not the biblical interpretation that you need to go with. It's not the only one, and it probably needs to be the main one. So I want to give you a couple of these things now so that you can go out into the world and if you encounter this lousy theology, you can answer it. I've already given you one that God is creating a helper that is like God, using the same language of God as helping God's people. Another one I want to give you is that at this point in the story, in creation itself, before the fall, they are equal partners. Equal and opposite, they are working together. 

Chapter 3: Restored Partnership and Companionship

It is only in the fall itself that it's established, at least in the biblical text, that men will rule over women. Why this matters is if Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection, calls us to this restored, created order, this restored way of being, this restored way of living in the world and partnering with God to bring about the new creation, that is, a restored to the way things were before the fall, then the Christian argument of order isn't to say put men above women in all things and the church and in the world and all of that. It's this that restores that equality. It's to restore that partnership. It's to restore that co-creating ability that the men and women had in the garden before the fall. It is to undo the curse, it's to undo what had resulted from them eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and unless. 

The third thing I'd like to highlight is that this passage may be less about defining marriage than explaining why we seek companionship. The commentary here about, therefore, a man leaving his father is not what Adam says. It's not the man who says this, it's not the woman who says this, it's not God that said it, it's an interpretation of what just happened. But what if, instead, we say that these helper opposites were created for one another? And instead of saying that's how we have to define marriage, what if it's how we have to define all good relationships, all ways of living in this world, that we are not meant to be alone, we are not meant to travel on ourselves, we are not meant to go about our work, or even God's work, by ourselves, but that we have this natural tendency to seek out companionship, this natural tendency to seek out others who may help us, who may contend with us, that may rescue us as we go about this work. Then we can go about it together. What if it's a commentary that God sees that loneliness is not how he wants us to live? 

It's a condition that all too many suffer from, especially post-COVID. There are people out there, and perhaps people even here, dreading the darker days, the shorter days, because it means more time alone in their homes. It means less interaction with people in the outside world. It means less interaction with and companionship each day. We feel that sense of a need and a desire to be with other people, like us, from whom we can partner, not always agreeing, not holding ourselves over them or them holding it over us. Still, partnership and growth to go about the task that God had set from the beginning before he created the human being, For there was no one yet to till the ground. 

God has created this task for us. God has created us for a purpose and one another to bring about this newly created order that was established and re-established through Jesus Christ. And if we claim to follow him, we, too, like him, will seek others to go with us on that journey. In that way, the church is living out this creation story. We are people who have been created for one another, placed together, hold each other accountable, hold each other as opposites and as powerful helpers praying for one another, which is the most powerful thing that we can do in lifting each other and carrying us on the journey and going about his work To make disciples of all nations, to teach people the love of Christ for them, a love that knows no end, a love that is born out of nothing that we have done, but solely out of who God is, and a love that sees us, wants to see us, restored and recreated and re-inspired. I love the challenges, loneliness, despair, and guilt, calling us into a new being. This is our task. We have been united together to do it. Will we choose to do so? 

Amen,