|
To download the text and/or audio file for this week's sermon, please go to the "Sermon Archive" page and follow the instructions you'll find there.
CREATED FOR COMMUNITY
First Things, Part 5
October 7, 2007 – World Communion Sunday
Pastor Bob Sanders
Genesis 1:26-27; 2:18-25
26Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
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.
Becoming Real
We continue in our series on Genesis. For the past few weeks we’ve been exploring what it means to be made in the image of God, what it means to be real. Some of you remember the children’s book by Margery Williams entitled The Velveteen Rabbit. It’s the story of a toy rabbit that eventually becomes real. My favorite part is a conversation between the Rabbit and another toy creature, one who had lived longer in the nursery than any other, the Skin Horse:
The Velveteen Rabbit turned to the old and wise and experienced Skin Horse, and asked, “What is REAL? Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
The Skin Horse replied, “Real isn’t how you’re made. It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. . . Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But . . . once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
What is the Skin Horse saying? He’s saying you can’t become real all by yourself. Being real is all about relationships, about loving and being loved. That’s exactly what Genesis is saying. You can’t become fully human all by yourself. You were made in the image of God, and that means you were made for relationships. You were created for community.
A Me and an Us
The first thing this passage tells us is that we desperately need relationships. And the reason is we’re made in God’s image, a God who’s not just a me but also an us. Remember back in the first part of Genesis 1 where God created the heavens and the earth? At each stage of creation it says, “he created…he created…he created.” But when it comes to creating humanity the pronoun changes. Up till then God is referred to in the singular. Only when God creates humanity does he refer to himself in the plural. “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.’” Not me. Us.
What does that mean? If you were here for the first message in this series, you’ll recall it refers to the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – three Persons in One. It was St. Augustine, arguably Christianity’s greatest theologian, who pointed this out back in the fourth century. Genesis chapter 1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The Holy Spirit hovered over the waters, nurturing creation into being. And God spoke all things into being through the Word – the living Word, Jesus Christ.
I know the Trinity is a tough concept and it gives some of you nosebleed, but hang on to just this much. Genesis is telling us that from all eternity God has been a community of Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – loving each other, delighting in each other, communicating with each other. The Trinity is so important because it tells us personal relationship is at the very heart of what it means to be real, to be made in the image of God.
We’re created for community because our God is a community. And this is the key to understanding chapter 2, verse 18, where the Lord God says “It is not good that the man should be alone.” Up till now everything God made is good. God makes the light and it’s good. God makes the dry land and it’s good. God makes the plants and the fish and the birds and they’re all good. Now for the first time something’s not good. What’s wrong? Why is the first human being unhappy? In Paradise, of all places! Why is the first human lonely?
Answer: we’re made in the image of a God who’s not just a me but an us. And so we won’t be truly happy until we are not just a me but also an us. Adam was made in the image of a community. And so when he was the only individual, he was unhappy because that’s not what he was made for. This is pretty basic, but it’s very important. We’re made in the image of an us-ness God, a Trinity God, a God who is a community. God made us in the image of a me who is also an us. And that’s why you and I cannot be our real selves, cannot be fully human if we’re only a me. We’ve also got to be an us.
We’re made in the image of an us-ness God, a Trinity God, a God who is a community. The Skin Horse was right. Personal relationships are what we need to become real. That’s the first thing we see here. But we also see the two primary relationships we need to be real, and the first is a deep, personal relationship with God.
A Deep Relationship with God
And some of you will say, “Well, yes, I know that. Every week you say the same thing: ‘You need a personal relationship with God.’” But let me try to say it a bit differently. Did you know there are several different creation accounts in the Bible? For example, in Proverbs 8 we have this fascinating image. Remember in Genesis 1 whenever God creates something he does it by a speaking it into being, by a word. And in Proverbs 8 God’s Word or Wisdom is personified and speaks, and this is what God’s Word or Wisdom says,
I was there when he set the heavens in place…When he gave the sea its boundary…and when he marked out the foundations of earth, I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in humankind.
There it is again, you see, this community creating the world. But now go to the other creation account which is found, as we know, in John chapter 1. Here we’re told the Wisdom of God, the Word of God was a divine Person, Jesus Christ. And this is what we learn:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. . . . No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
In Proverbs 8 the Word says that during creation, “I was there, constantly at his side.” John 1 goes further and says that during creation the Father and Son were entwined in each other’s hearts. “Close to the Father’s heart” is how this translation puts it – wrapped up in love, connected at the deepest level. But that’s not all. It says in Proverbs 8 “I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, and delighting in humankind.” The Hebrew word for “delight” here means to dance. It means to frolic, to play. How’s that for a picture of creation? The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loving one another, laughing, dancing. Creation is flowing out of this rapturous interchange of love.
And in verse 26 what are they saying? They’re saying, “Let us make humankind in our image.” In other words, let us make these beings able to give what we’re giving each other, able to love and be loved, know and be known, praise and be praised. Let’s make these beings capable of entering our dance.
This is what we were created for. Is that anything like what the average person thinks Christianity is all about? No, it’s not. Most people think Christianity means you go to church, and you pray when you’re in trouble, and you try to be good but you’re never sure if you’ve been good enough. And maybe once in a while if you’re on top of a mountain or watching a sunset you might get a vague sense of God’s presence. And that’s it. But what this is saying is “You are called into his arms. You are made for the dance. You are called into an assurance of his love. You’re called to be close to his heart.”
Not “I hope God’s up there and can hear me. I hope he likes me and blesses me and takes me to heaven when I die someday.” That’s not what this is talking about. You were made for the dance. You were made to be brought into a very deep, close, personal relationship with him – to give him joy and sense him rejoicing in you, to give him love and know his love for you.
Deep Relationships with Others
That’s the first thing you need to be human: a deep personal relationship with God. But that’s not all. You’re not just made for relationship with God. You’re also made for deep relationships with other human beings.
Look once again at chapter 2, verse 18, where God says, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” Think about that. Think about the radical implications of this idea that in Paradise Adam was lonely. Let me remind you what he’s already got in the Garden of Eden. He’s got great food, great beauty, creative power, perfect climate, perfect health, a perfect prayer life (no sin – he walks and talks with God). And still he’s unhappy. He’s still lonely. He still needs human friendship.
Do you see what that means? This is staggering. It means God made us so that we have such a deep need for human relationships that not even Paradise could satisfy it. Not even a perfect prayer life could satisfy it. God made us need other people so much that even he cannot satisfy us all by himself. He made us in such a way that many of the things he wants to show us and give us can only come through other human beings. Paradise was not Paradise without love, without friendship. God made us like that.
What are the implications? Huge. Here’s one. The success-driven consumerist culture around us says, “You want a Garden of Eden life – a life of power and material plenty? A life of and beauty and pleasure? A great career, popularity? Do you want two or three homes? Do you want success, this Garden life? Fine. Put relationships on the back burner for the next six or seven years.” The culture tells you if you want to be successful you have to move all around so you don’t have any stable relationships, and you have to put in so many hours you’re not going to see much of your family. You want this Garden life you have to make personal relationships your fourth or fifth priority.
But look. Genesis is telling us not even the Garden of Eden was enough. Paradise wasn’t Paradise without friends. Adam had all the power, all the pleasure, all the beauty – and he was still lonely. The implication? Simple. Don’t try to build a life that doesn’t put personal relationships as a high priority. It didn’t work in Genesis, and it won’t work today.
That’s the first implication. And here’s the second. You can’t know this God – you can’t grow into his image, into his likeness – without community. Don’t you want to be more like him? Have more of his wisdom, his courage, his love, his power, his joy? Don’t you want to be all he wants you to be? Of course you do, and so do I. But listen: you can’t grow into the image of Someone who is not just a me but an us as an individual, all by yourself. You can only do that as part of a community. You’ve got to find some friends, some people who are near enough to see you on a regular basis and who know who you really are. Friends who live here (not across the country), who encounter you face to face (not just on the internet where you can control what they see).
You need some people who’ll love you and encourage you, who’ll teach you and challenge you, who’ll bear your burdens and confront your weaknesses. You’ve got to find a group of friends like that or create a group. If you’re not in some kind of small group, you’re not really in the church.
I will never know all of Jesus all by myself. I need other Christians who know him, who see another side of him, who understand the things I’ve missed. I will never see the real Jesus without being in community – people I meet with regularly, people I pray with, people I’m honest with, people who can tell me the truth. I’ll never know who Jesus is outside of community. And I’ll never know who I am outside of community. You and I need deep, personal friends if we’re ever going to become what God made us to be, if we’re ever going to become real.
Across the Barriers
And one last thing. This passage is telling us we need deep relationship with people who are different than us, not just people who are like us. Most sermons on this passage focus on sex and marriage, how we function as male and female. And yes, there’s a lot here about all that, but that’s not what I want us to see. I preached a pretty good sermon on marriage back in the summer, and last winter I preached on sexuality. Look those up if you like. But today I want us to step back and see what’s going on when God made the woman and brought her to the man in the Garden.
It doesn’t mean you have to be married. It doesn’t mean you’re incomplete if you’re single. Our Lord and Savior wasn’t married. St. Paul wasn’t married. The Bible never says you can’t have your deep relational needs met unless you’re married.
Look at what happens in the story. God brings Adam not an animal (pets are fine, but they don’t replace human relationships). And he doesn’t bring another male (yes, that could lead to some interesting discussions, but we’re not going there today). Here’s the point: God brings to Adam somebody different. Not somebody just like him. He brings him somebody mysterious.
What does that tell you? It tells you that your deep relational needs will be met not just by finding people who are like you, but also by finding people who are different than you – people from the other side of the gender barrier, the other side of racial barrier, the other side of the political and economic and temperament barriers. You need to find people who are like you, yes, but also unlike you. Adam doesn’t get a cuddly pet and he doesn’t get a compatible buddy. Instead God brings him somebody who’s different, somebody who’s hard to get to know, somebody who’ll stretch him and help him see some things in new ways.
By the way, the word “helper” in verses 18 and 20 does not mean someone second rate – an assistant or a go-fer. The Hebrew word is ezer and it’s mostly used in the Bible to describe God. You only help someone who is different. I can only help my child with algebra if I know it and she doesn’t. A woman helps the man because she brings things he doesn’t have. It’s not about rank or superiority. It’s about differentiation and complementariness.
Do you see what this is saying? It’s saying you need God, and you need relationships with others. But it’s also saying you need relationships with others who are different than you are. You have to be careful not to ghettoize yourself, not surround yourself with people who see things just the way you do. You need relationships with people on the other side of the barriers – the gender barrier, the racial barrier, the political barrier, the theological barrier.
It’s why I like being a Presbyterian and why I choose to go on being a Presbyterian. Some people want to pull out of the denomination and form a church that thinks like they do and acts like they do. I’d hate to be in a church like that. I’d hate to be in a church where everybody was just like me. I can’t see all of what Jesus is about by myself. I need others to help me see him and follow him – including others who see aspects of Jesus I tend to forget or overlook.
The World Communion Table is set before us, and this is a good place to begin to move towards it. We come as those made in the image of the God who is a me and also an us, and that means we come as individuals created for community. We come because we’re called into a deep, loving relationship with our God, and deep, loving relationships with one another. We come because here at this Table we find out what it is to become Real.
|
