The Rev. Canon Dr. Brett Cane, January 24, 2010
Epiphany 3; 8:30 and 10:00 a.m., Holy Communion
Beginnings # 2: “The Garden”
Genesis 2:4-25
Heavenly Father, you have made us in your image and given us the role of caretakers of your creation, help us now, by the power of your Holy Spirit, to see our responsibility and relationship to you, the world around us and one another, as we seek to fulfil your purpose for the world, that all things in heaven and earth might be brought together under one head, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
The movie, “Creation,” was released this weekend and it tries to tell the story of Charles Darwin and his theories from the perspective of his inner struggles and family relationships. I am looking forward to seeing it – we do not have to view Darwin and his theories as an “enemy” to faith or the Bible. In the first sermon in this series on Genesis 1 to 3 – “Beginnings” – I pointed out that we must be careful not to impose upon these chapters a truncated view of looking at reality – which much of the modern debate over evolution has done – from both sides! I explained that the scientific method tries to explain the “how” of life but can not deal with the meaning of existence. I also said that ancient cultures concentrated on the “why” of life without reference to fact. I then explained that Genesis 1 marvellously brings together both the “how” and the “why” approaches to reality in a comprehensive whole which transcends all the debate. We saw that Genesis 1 revealed great truths about God, the world and ourselves which impact the heart of our lives today.
This week we move on to Genesis 2 where we have even more challenges from the nature of the material and yet even more powerful truths that touch our day-to-day lives. I will begin by looking at how truth is told, then move on to truths about humanity revealed in this chapter and end with some implications of those truths for our lives today.
How Truth is Told
In Genesis 2 and 3, which obviously go together, we are faced with a new challenge. How is the truth being presented here? Whereas in chapter 1 we were dealing with a poetic structure of a more “documentary” nature, in chapters 2 and 3 we are dealing with pure story. There are gardens, and trees, and talking serpents. What do we have here? Is this just a myth with no factual basis in history but an allegory which relates what happens within each one of us? Is it an account handed down from Adam and Eve by word of mouth through the generations? Is it a divinely-inspired picture the author received word for word?
There is a way that truth comes to us which I have discovered through my counselling experience. It is the way of dreams. This is a Biblical concept – for example, Joseph, son of Jacob, dreamed dreams and he and Daniel gave divinely-inspired interpretations of dreams. Acts 2:17 tells us that the coming of the Holy Spirit is going to lead people to see visions and dream dreams. God can speak through dreams.
I have the experience of knowing someone who had an awful dream – a nightmare really. He saw himself in a huge cavern, as an adult, and the cavern had soft, orangey, translucent and palpitating walls in a dome-like shape over him. Then, he was horrified as knives came thrusting through the walls which he tried desperately to escape. The rest of the dream was related and it became obvious that this person had dreamt the entire period from his birth back to conception. The counsellor to whom he related this dream knew the person’s mother who had confided to her that she had tried, unsuccessfully, to abort him during the whole 9 months. The person had not known this before but knew in an instant that this was the truth. God had recalled this person’s experience through a dream so he could begin the deep healing process through prayer and counselling. Now, the details of the dream were not exact – there were knives, not drugs, as had been used, and the person was full-grown – but the truth was there.
Is the story in Genesis 2 and 3 of a similar nature? Did God give this dream to the author, to reveal events rooted in history? This way of communicating the truth would account easily for the serpent representing the devil – this happens in many dreams today – and also for the two trees and what they represent. Reality filtered through a dream – not necessarily a forbidden fruit taken literally, but an attitude and action with exactly the same import and meaning – historical facts described symbolically. Whatever the nature of the text, we have described before us the beginnings of humanity made in the image of God but fallen from grace – in history and which we ratify in our personal experience. It is a story we must all heed deeply. Let us now turn to the truth it tells about humanity – us.
The Truth about Humanity
The truth about humanity we learned in Genesis 1 is that we are both a part of creation and also made in the image of God. These are expanded in Genesis 2. Our creatureliness is even more emphasized when it says, “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (verse 7). I said last time that the Bible does not elevate us as much as Darwin did when he said we were descended from the apes because it says we are made of dust! Indeed, “Adam” or “man” is related to the Hebrew word for “ground.” We are placed securely within creation, as a part of it and intimately related to it.
But there is an even greater truth that we learn about ourselves and that is that we are made in the image of God. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over…all the earth’…in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). We need to remember that in ancient Israel – as today, of course, – images of God were forbidden. But here, we are told there is one part of creation that discloses something to us of the reality of God – it is us! What a privilege! What a great sense of worth that gives us! This is one of the greatest revelations of the Scriptures; without this we would not have the support for the Christian doctrine of redemption – we are worth saving; nor for the Christian motivation for compassion – every person has an innate dignity and virtue. This truth has transformed the societies that have known it.
But what does it mean to be made “in the image of God”? These verses imply that this image is reflected in at least two ways. One is that we are given responsibility – dominion – authority to rule the earth as God’s deputies. The second way we are in the image of God is that we are created as relational beings.
- 1. Dominion: Many people have seen the dominion mandate as the root of human exploitation of the earth, but this view comes from a misunderstanding of the text. We, as God’s image, are to be responsible for creation and secure its well-being. Having chapters one and two together helps in this interpretation. The “fill the earth and subdue it” (verse 28) of chapter 1 implies organization, planning, technology. To this is added the picture in chapter 2 where humanity is put in a “Garden…to work it and take care of it” (verse 15). Humans are “gardeners.” In chapter 1, human responsibility is given primarily in terms of caring for animals (verses 26, 28) and this is expanded in chapter 2 where Adam “names” each creature (verse 19). Here we have the picture of Shepherd, one which God was pleased to apply to himself (e.g. Psalm 23). We are called to exercise dominion by caring for the earth.
- 2. Relationship: Balancing the concept of dominion is the one of relationship. In chapter 1, humans are the only creatures God speaks to in an extended, intimate way: “Be fruitful and increase in number…I give you every seed-bearing plant.” (1:28, 29). There is a character of relationship and sociability with the Creator that the rest of Creation does not have. This relational character of the image is confirmed in two very important ways. First, God is revealed as community. He is referred to in the plural, which even shows in the English, “Let us make human beings…” (Genesis 1:26). Even his name is plural – “Elohim.” Whatever the original reason, it remains as a pointer to the fact that God himself is community – a fellowship of love. That God is love is implied all the way through these chapters in his gracious provision and “letting be” – allowing a creation and creatures to exist apart from himself. Our image reflects the same ability to love.
But our relational nature is most clearly confirmed when it says “In the image of God he created him, male and female he created them” (verse 27). Here is relationship, community, at the heart of our being in God’s image. We are not created to be alone, but in relationship with God and with one another. This is expanded in chapter 2, where Adam’s loneliness is seen as “not good” (verse 18) so woman is created as a “helper” for him. In the little poem in verse 23, Adam rejoices in their mutuality. “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.” He calls the woman, he does not name her as he did the animals (verses 19, 20) – there is a different Hebrew formula. It is more in the sense of “recognizes” her. So we are created as community, male and female; we can not develop as full persons without it. This does not mean that marriage is necessary, but living in a mixed community is important to express the relational character of our being in the image of God. In this sense community reaches its fulfilment in the church, the body of Christ, the community of the faithful. It is here, through our love for one another that we fully reflect God’s image as relational beings.
There much more that could be said about these themes as revealed in chapter 2, but I will just touch on three implications of how our being in the image of God works out in our lives.
The Implications
- Vocation: The first implication has to do with our call to have Dominion. It is our vocation, our work. Work, including manual labour which is implied here in shepherding and gardening, is not something to be avoided, only something to do if you need money to live; it is part of our calling as human beings. This is why unemployment is so debilitating. But neither do we live to work any more than we work to live. We work as an expression of our living. This is stressed when we see that God rested on the seventh day. God was not anxious about creation but was able to rest and enjoy it. We need to realize that the world is in God’s hands, that it will not stop if we stop. The Sabbath breaks our effort to achieve and make the world in our image through grasping and exploitation. When we allow ourselves to take a sabbath rest we are trusting the God who provides.
This is shown in Chapter 2 by the gracious provisions in the garden. “And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). This speaks of the breadth of life available, including aesthetics and beauty – “pleasing to the eye.” Then the mention in verses 10-14 of the rivers (Euphrates, Tigris) and regions (Cush, Ashur) and resources (gold, onyx) opens up a broader cultural development and variety of skills and peoples. God has given us a vocation and the resources to carry it out.
- Our sexuality: The second implication for us as being in the image of God is in the area of sexuality and relationships.
a. Sexuality is part of God’s plan: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (verse 24). The community between man and woman is expressed as one flesh, sexual union. Our sexuality and sexual relationship are there at the beginning of creation; it is an integral part of our being in the image of God. In chapter 2 it is not related to procreation – it is a means of expressing and achieving our being in community. Now, it can be said that “one flesh” should be seen as more than sexual union – when the man is to “leave his mother and father” it indicates that that “one flesh” would include all aspects of relational life such as home and family, etc. But, there is a sexual dynamic between man and woman which is described in detail and celebrated. Sexuality is part of God’s plan for us.
b. The genders are equal: Then, we see this gender relationship is one between equals. The section on the creation of woman (verses 18-25) begins with “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (verse18). But, doesn’t “helper” signify woman is a servant for the man? No – the word for “helper” (ezer) is used for God many times in Scripture: “We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield” (Psalm 33:20); “Yet I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer” (Psalm 70:5). So woman here is seen as a “counterpoint” – to help the man become what he is meant to be and do what he is meant to do. “Man alone was incomplete and needed someone to complement him in fulfilling the task of filling, multiplying, and taking dominion over the earth.”[1] Woman is a co-regent in the task of dominion. Some have seen the picture of the rib as symbolizing the equality of woman and man. “She is not from his head, to be over him, nor from his feet to be under him, but from his side, to be beside him.” Woman is not some “lesser” being. “The woman is the perfect counterpart of man, possessing neither inferiority nor superiority, but being like and equal in personhood, and unique and different in function.”[2] There is equality between the sexes.
c. Sexual difference is essential: But there is also sexual difference which is at the heart of healthy sexuality. Adam’s cry, “At last: Bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh!” (verse 23) reveals that as Adam sees “the other” for the first time, he is conscious of his own body. He recognizes himself as human through the other gender. Only now has man become aware of his true being – he didn’t know what he was missing! But it is essential to see that God did not do this by creating Adam’s clone. It is not another being of like gender that God creates as a partner, but one which complements the other – both anatomically and emotionally. In this passage, “‘Adam,’ the human creation from the ground (‘adama’) is literally dismembered. His side is split open in order to provide for him the companionship of a complementary being. Marriage between a man and a woman reunites these representatives of the two genders into ‘one flesh’ and is not simply the union of two individuals. The missing part of man is found in woman and vice-versa.”[3] Learning to love one who is “other” is exciting but is now also frightening (which is why we often fly away from it). But here, “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (verse 25), shows that originally the man and woman were not threatened or alienated by the difference. In the Garden there is harmony between the sexes as they find their complementariness in each other and are at ease, naked and unashamed.
- Our relationship with God: The final implication I wish to explore from this chapter concerns the relationship of God with humanity. In verse 7, we read: “The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” God forms the man – God is sovereign, in control, distant and distinct. But then he breathes life into him – which is an intensely personal, face-to-face intimacy – such as a kiss. This concept of God as being both infinite and personal is reflected in how Jesus taught us to pray – “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Humans are called to have a personal relationship with the almighty God.
But that relationship involves boundaries. God’s grace provides all that was needed in the garden: “And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden’” (verse 16). But this is not cheap grace – take all you want – there is also a prohibition: “But you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die” (verse 17). Prohibition is a very positive thing because it expresses confidence in humanity, that we can make a serious choice and so opens up the possibility of loyalty and relationship (and also rejection). Choice is essential for relationship, for true love. Without freedom of choice, humanity would be a puppet, with no ability to love. Love implies freedom to choose and trust. None of us is overjoyed when someone does something for us out of compulsion or restraint – but we delight when someone freely expresses their love through voluntary acts of devotion! How many of us have been thrilled when a child makes something for us and gives it as a free gift of love – my fridge is covered with such gifts! A loving relationship involves freedom of choice. But what of the choice itself? That we will deal with next week.
Conclusion
We will close our look at humanity in the image of God by noting that it is so difficult to see what this image is supposed to be because, as we shall see in the next chapter, we have marred it so much. But there is one place we can look to see the image of God truly lived – it is in Jesus. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15). It is when we are in Christ and begin to grow in him that we see the image of God being fully restored in us.
[1] http://www.preceptaustin.org/
[2] Ibid.
[3] Robert A. J. Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice; Texts and Hermeneutics. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001), pg. 194.
