In this sermon, based on Genesis 2, I explore the more ground level account of Creation, as well recognizing that this is only a part of the larger story of this world that we inhabit.
You can listen to the audio of the sermon here:
https://soundcloud.com/revdalen/creation-part-two-7-22-18
You can also follow along with the text of the sermon here:
Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
Most of you probably know that I’ve been a small town guy my entire life, with the only exception being the 2.5 years we lived in the Twin Cities during the back half of my seminary work…we moved to the Cities in the end of December, which was of course, the tail end of Christmas Break on campus…and so I had just a little bit of a break before tackling my first class as a commuter student.
That happened about two weeks after we moved, as the January intensives kicked off. Now this was a bit of a transitional time for me. I’d already been in the habit of the intensive classes in January and June from the distance program I’d been working on…and therefore, the classes that I was taking this particular session were with all of my old classmates from my cohort, who were all on campus…but now I was commuting across the metro.
In the short amount of time that we’d already been living there, I’d driven over to campus a time or two…and I knew that under normal conditions it took me about 30 minutes to drive there. And…because I like to be early for stuff, on that first morning I planned to give myself some extra time…and so I left about 45 minutes before class started.
But here’s the kicker…I had failed to account for 2 different situations…one was rush hour, a period when thousands of cars are clogging the freeways and slowing down the flow of traffic…and the second was the snow storm that had come blowing through overnight…slowing things down to a literal crawl.
I don’t need to go into huge detail here…but needless to say, I was late…and it became apparent from the second I merged onto the freeway that I would be…So I called a classmate, asked them to tell the professor that I was on the way but I was going to be late…because the combination of weather and traffic had me stuck. Creeping along, painfully slow, locked into place.
I was unable to be where I needed to be…unable to do what I needed to do…I was presenting a terrible first impression with the professor…it was just bad…I was utterly…hindered. (pause)
Now this is, admittedly, an odd opening story as we consider the scripture that we’ve shared today. Creation, fitting as we have gathered out here at the park, inside the lodge of course, but still surrounded by the beauty of nature…the beauty of this world that God has made.
But its also a good story to ponder on, which we have done the past couple of years at this worship service…but you might have noticed that this ones just a touch different. Think about for a sec. When we think “creation” and Genesis…what images come to mind? I’m guessing for most of you 6 days…resting on the 7th. God speaking each step of creation into being…then taking a look each time…liking what’s come about…calling it Tov…and culminating in the creation of humankind, each of us made bearing the divine of God…and God’s comment that its VERY GOOD, before settling in for a day long rest. (pause)
But that’s not the story we heard today is it? We get the alternate account…Genesis Chapter 2…some similarities as we find that God is still the primary source of the action here in creation…we hear about the earth and water, and vegetation and animals and even humans…but there are some pretty major differences too.
Genesis 1 takes a pretty cosmic view of things…focusing in on God…including the cosmos…the stars and the sun and the moon and the heavens…and even a somewhat ethereal take on how God does it…simply speaking it into being.
But here in Genesis 2…I can’t help but think things are little more down to earth aren’t they? Almost like this account is taken from ground level…maybe even like a person would see it. Some big events from chapter 1 are missing, and that’s okay. The order is, well, out of order…and that’s okay, too…and I can’t help but think that humanity is much more central this time around…as we hear the story of Creation centering around the Garden of Eden.
The earth and the heavens have already been made…we get that in a brief initial narration, and we also hear that earth is barren and empty…because there’s been no rain and there’s no one to take care of it…and then God gets an idea…and we hear that God forms the man out of the dust of the earth…literally shaping the mud like a potter shapes clay…and God, being a little on the nose sometimes, takes a look at this hunk of mud…this ball of dust…of earth…and the name that comes about is pretty spot on. The soil was called ADAMAH…and this hunk laying there is simply ADAAM…We think Adam…God seemed to think Mud-dude.
But its not enough to simply form Mud-dude…God literally breathes life into him…blowing God’s own life-giving spirit into his nostrils…and Mud-dude comes alive. Now, its not enough that God has simply formed ADAAM…Mud-dude…the man, which by the way is the only thing he’s ever called in this story…but the man needs purpose and place to fulfill it.
And so in response God makes a Garden…making the trees grow up from the ground…and making a river which gives it life through its water…and these trees, every single one of them are good for food and pleasant to look at…including one in the midst of the garden…this tree of knowledge of Good and Evil…whatever that’s all about.
And now God’s formed this wonderful garden that will provide for the needs of Mud-dude…and also provides purpose for him to fulfill. For God intended that the man tend to the garden…to till it, and keep watch over it. The man has his purpose…but…God also places boundaries…and a command…that one tree, you must not eat it…for if you do, on that day you will die.
Now perhaps this seems odd…or maybe just really simplistic. There is a man…and he has a place to exist…he has a purpose…and yet he has boundaries…and its all good…except for one thing that’s not. The man is alone…and God realized that he needs a helper…a partner…his true opposite…and so God gets to work, forming out of the ground again…making animals and birds…and here where Creation gets cool…because God brings humanity into the work of creation…God forms it…and brings it to see what it will be called. And while animals and birds and all the vegetation is great…its not quite right…until God yanks a rib out of Mud-man and forms it into the woman…and with this the man is pleased…for he looks and he sees one who shares in his existence…this is bone of my bone…flesh of my flesh…this one truly shares my existence…and the man calls her woman.
Now it would seem that the story is complete, as the man and the woman now occupy the garden…sharing in it their purpose with one another…and sharing in the boundaries which exist here in the good creation…but…isn’t the ending a little weird? And the man and the woman were naked and they were unashamed. (pause)
Now I don’t think its odd because they were naked…but rather the lack of shame…and so I dug into that…and here’s the thing about the Hebrew language…the words have a wide variety of meaning, because the vocabulary is actually very small…and this same word that means unashamed…also means unhindered. Think back to that traffic jam. I was beside myself because I was hindered from being where I was supposed to be…from doing what I was supposed to do.
But here in Genesis 2…things seem to end with them right where they were supposed to be…so I can see why they were unashamed…because this existence was Good, as God intended it. (long pause) Do you feel a “but” coming on? (pause)
But…the story doesn’t end here. The fascinating thing about the second account of creation…the story in and around Eden…is that it carries on through chapter 3…it doesn’t actually end with Adam and Eve hanging around in their birthday suits. Anyone remember what happens in chapter 3? (pause) The fall…original sin…the serpent and the apple…whatever we want to call it. Its still part of the Eden story.
And that gives me pause to think about the good Creation of God, becoming warped through disobedience. We can go round and round about who is at fault…but it seems to me, when we consider both sides of the Eden story…that creation…this world, this reality that we are a part of holds the capacity for both good and bad…God made that tree in the middle of the garden just like God made the rest of the trees, pleasant to look at and good for food… And the capacity to overstep the boundaries that were set in with our place and our purpose…well that was there from the beginning as well.
And the result of overstepping, call it what you will…sin, or brokenness or disobedience…it has consequences…Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden. And in their newly found shame…which incidentally seems to happen when the boundaries are crossed…they need to cover themselves…and in the end, God makes clothes out of animal skins…can’t help but think that doesn’t end well for the animals does it? Sin not only affects us…but it effects nature as well. All of creation is hindered by this brokenness.
And that may seem like a downer, when we consider the back half of the Eden story…but there is also good news hiding in this whole thing. When God set the boundary, the command was this…on the day you eat of it, you will die. Now think about the fall. They didn’t die on THAT day did they? Yes they did die later…and as we know there were consequences…but…there is also evidence of God’s mercy.
Even here, in the beginning…right at the point of God’s creation which holds the capacity for both good and evil…God’s mercy is already on display, as the intended consequence is delayed…allowing life to continue. Now we tend to think of mercy and forgiveness and God’s amazing grace as being New Testament…and rightly so because all of those things were manifested in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But from the start…we see that our God, the one who formed all of this, including us…a bunch of Mud-dudes and Mud-dudettes…The Lord God has mercy upon all of creation…a mercy which continues to draw us forward until we reach the day when this creation will be made new. Amen
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