This was the first sermon I preached of the "Relationships" Lenten preaching series. the first Sunday of Lent was Youth Sunday, and they reflected on the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. If you follow the lectionary, the Genesis text used for this sermon is actually the Old Testament passage paired with the temptation story in the lectionary.
We also have a Lenten project in worship. We are creating a visual art piece with colored fabric squares. Each week, we have a different color and a different suggestion for what to do with the fabric. We are also adding the colored fabric to the art piece each week in anticipation of it being completed for Easter morning. In tandem, our young disciples have a Lenten cross, and each week we add a colored strip of cloth to the cross to match the color of the week. We also have a charm to give each young disciple to add to their Lenten cross at home. the charm ties to the biblical story we read each week. Consequently, in the sermon each week, there will be mention of the color and the charm.
After the sermon, I had someone about a statement in the sermon: "We are all called to a committed relationship." The person wondered if I meant everyone had to be married. that phrase does not show up in my written text, but I have not gone back to listen to the sermon to see if I said that exact phrase. regardless, the intent of the sermon was to point out that God created us to be in relationship with God, with creation, and with each other. We are all called to relationships with others, but that is not limited to the marriage relationship.
“Partners in Crime” 2023 Genesis 2: 15-25; Genesis 3:1-7; Lenten Cross Preaching series; SAPC, Denton; March 5, 2023; Richard B. Culp
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Introduction: During our Lenten preaching series, we will be reflecting on different kinds of relationships we discover in the biblical text and in our own lives.
Not a self-help series with step-by-step plans on how to have better personal relationships, but a reminder of how we are connected, the different aspects of those relationships, and the implications of being connected.
I suspect no new ground is being broken in this morning’s sermon, but as we begin Lent, we go back to the beginning, to the creation story itself, to be reminded of how we are bound together in relationships.
move 1: God’s vision for humanity and all of creation is relational - we are connected to God;
connected to one another
connected to all creation.
- the opening chapters of the biblical story not only reveal God’s desire to create but God’s creative activity.
1. Creative activity based on relationships.
2. it begins, of course, a few verses before the text we read with God taking the mud and breathing the breath of life into humanity.
4. when we think of our relationship with God, we begin with the reminder that we are called into being by the very breath of God.
5. This intimate relationship between God and humanity speaks to how God will be in relationship with us.
NT Wright tries to describe a Christian understanding of God with other understandings:
Love “for the pantheist, God and the world are basically the same thing: the world is, if you like, God's self-expression.
For the Deist, the world may indeed have been made by God (or the gods), but there is now no contact between the divine and human. The Deist God wouldn't dream of “intervening” within the created order; to do so would be untidy, a kind of category mistake.
But for the ancient Israelite and the early Christian, the creation of the world was the free outpouring of God's powerful love. The one true God made a world that was other than God’s own self, because that is what love delights to do.
And, having made such a world, God has remained in a close, dynamic, and intimate relationship with it,…” Simply Christian, N. T. Wright (65).
By God’s loving design, w are connected to God
b. We are also connected with all of the created world.
- Notice that Adam names all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field;
2. Not just revealing a hierarchical structure of creation with humans at the top of the list, but it reveals connectedness.
3. To give a name ties the one naming and the one being named together.
3. The world God creates is not just a world where humans have power over the other created beings, but the world of connection, responsibility, a relationship between humanity and creation.
c. Relationship between man and woman.
1. As many of you know, my daughter Caitlin going through her first year of seminary.
Kind of fun to watch and listen as she makes discoveries. (Sometimes she discovers what I could have sworn she had been taught by me in confirmation or heard preached, but nevertheless, it is fun to hear her excitement about these discoveries!)
Last fall, she called me after an Old Testament class.
“Did you know that Adam is not just a name, but it’s the Hebrew for “human?”
when we tell the story about Adam and Eve, we are telling the story about all of creation!”
2. Her discovery is a good reminder - Adam represents all of humanity.
3.When we read about God creating Adam and God being in relationship with Adam it speaks to God’s relationship with all of us.
d. We notice that God brings animals into being to be helpers for Adam.
1. But that is not enough.
2. Adam, humans, we need more than helpers.
3. We need partners.
4. People with whom we share our lives.
5. People with whom we are connected.
6. By God’s design, humans are created to be in relationship with one another.
d. As you heard during the Time with Young Disciples, the charm they take home today is a knot
1. A symbol of how we are tied together.
2. We know the phrase tying the knot.
3. Many cultures use knots as a symbol of unity and even use a physical tying of the knot to represent this unity in wedding ceremonies. This wedding tradition is called a handfasting ceremony, which is an ancient Celtic custom where a couple holds hands while someone else binds their hands together with a ribbon or cord. The tradition represents the couple being bonded physically and spiritually to each other to show one's commitment to the other person. The cord's color represents something as well, for example, blue symbolizes tranquility, patience, devotion and sincerity. So if you want to have the handfasting ceremony, be sure to research cord colors and choose one or two that mean something special to you and your partner. tied together (https://www.theknot.com/content/tie-the-knot-meaning)
4. the little charm has a fairly intricate knot, a reminder that being in relationship can be challenging and complicated.
5. As you hopefully know, each week we are using colored fabric squares in worship. After the sermon, we will have a couple of minutes of silence each week to reflect - this week, you are invited to tie two of the purple squares together, tie the knot, if you will and take it home with you as a reminder of how but, we are knotted together in a variety of ways with a variety of people.
move 2: In the opening story of creation, we also discover that we are also bound together in our sinfulness.
a. Adam and Eve turn away together
1. they are Partners in creation;
3. they are Partners in life;
4. they are partners in their sin.
5. To steal a phrase about people who get in trouble together, they are partners in crime.
b. Did you notice that God’s warning about not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil appears twice in this story.
1. First, God gives Adam the warning.
2. Eve is not even created at this point.
3. But, when the serpent speaks about the tree to Eve, she knows all about it.
4. Adam and Eve had clearly been talking about it, maybe conspiring about it already.
5. Going against God’s warning is not an Eve thing or an Adam thing, but Adam and Eve turning to sin.
c. All of us are connected, even in our sinfulness.
- When we turn away from God, it impacts others.
2. We do not sin in isolation because we are connected to one another.
d. Fast forward to Adam and Eve being expelled from the garden - they are expelled together.
1. not one sent to time-out, if you will, but both.
2. Bound together in all things.
Move 3: Final word on relationships.
a. If we move to the end of Adam and Eve story, just before God expels them together, we are told that “the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21).
b. The God who blew the breath of life into Adam and Eve, indeed into all humanity, even into us;
the God who desires to be in relationship with Adam and Eve indeed desires to be relationship with all humanity, even with us;
the God who punishes Adam and Eve for their sinfulness; indeed punishes all of humanity, even us;
Is the God who loves and cares for Adam and Eve, indeed all of humanity, even loves and cares for us.
Conclusion: All of us us, we who are bound together in relationship.
15The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
18Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” 19So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.
21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” 24Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
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