Preached at the Stutterheim United Congregation (DRC & Presby) 10 September 2023
God is a farmer and so are we humans! (Gen 2:8, 16) Funny way to start a sermon about Genesis 2? Not at all! Like Revelations, Genesis 1 and 2 has probably been mistreated more than most other parts of the Bible.
Let us remind ourselves what this chapter is about – Genesis 2:4b-25 narrates part of a larger narrative that expands to the end of Genesis 3. These two chapters preserve a creation story and a story about the life of the first two humans in the garden of Eden. Here we have a story that is the same, but different, from Genesis 1. In Genesis 2 God is not remote, creating with a word, but immanent, getting His hands dirty, active. This we see especially in verse 7; “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
This creating God of Genesis 2 has a relationship with what He creates, and he produces relationships in this world. Thus man is called upon to name all the animals, he has to work the earth, as the Common English Bible captures this connection well (:5); “and there was still no human being to farm the fertile land.” The Hebrew text is artistically making a profound statement about the relationship between humans (’adam) and the ground (’adamah). Indeed, this same wordplay appears later in verse 7, when God creates the first human. From the dust of the earth (’adamah) God forms a human being (’adam). Humans are made from the earth and the earth depends on their work to produce.
This relationship also carries over into the Adam and Eve’s relationship with each other (:24): “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
In short, Genesis 2 speaks about a world where we all need each other, land and animals and birds and man and woman. And that is true today as it was way back whenever creation happened!
One of the ways to explain what happens here in Genesis 1 and 2, is to look at creation not just from the view of the “nuts and bolts” side, from the rocks and dust and animals side. The two accounts both tell of how God creates sacred space to function on behalf of humans. God has ordered a place for people to call home, even though it is ultimately his place. Therefore we see God interacting with people in this sacred space. We learn that, even though God has provided for us, it is not about us. The cosmos is not ours to do with as we please but God’s place in which we serve as his co-regents. Our subduing and ruling are carried out in full recognition that we are caretakers. Whatever humanity does, it should be directed toward bringing order out of non-order. Our use of the environment should not impose disorder. This is not just a house that we inhabit; it is our divinely gifted home, and we are accountable for our use of it and work in it.
In normal English – we were given a gift of a space where we can live in relationship with God, but also with our neighbour and this earth we inhabit. Living here, loving God and our neighbours as ourselves, while we care for this gift we are all sharing.
Easy to say, easy to explain. But, looking at world news of wars and rumours of wars and murders and attacks and robberies, extremely difficult to live by our own power! Only by the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit can we start to show something small of what God intended. Can we show something of the Kingdom Jesus came to announce.
Bibliography:
Marzouk, Safwat (2023): https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/garden-of-eden-2/commentary-on-genesis-24b-25-3
Walton, John H. (2015). The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate. InterVarsity Press.
Hier is ‘n poging om iets van die leefwêreld wat die oorsprong was van die skeppingsverhale in Genesis 1 en 2 weer te gee.
Diakonos 