Relationship and Garden Crisis

Genesis 2:18 – And the Lord God said, “It is not good that the human being should be alone. I will make for him a helper as his partner.”

Sunday evening as the day was winding down Lori (my wife) and I were talking about the sermon I preached on Sunday (October 4, 2009 - the text of the sermon can be found @ http://www.fcc-stw.org/Owen/Owenhome.htm). In her wisdom she asked me, “Okay, so what about single people?” How single people might hear and respond to what I said was something that had not occurred to me as I was writing or preaching my sermon. Though, honestly, even if it had occurred to me I am not sure I would have said anything different; one cannot say everything in a single sermon.

For those of you who were not in worship on Sunday let me catch you up a little. When Jesus is questioned about the permissibility of divorce he turns the question on its head to engage a conversation about what marriage is (Mark 10:2-9). In his response he turns back to the end of Genesis 2 identifying marriage as the gift that responds to the crisis in the garden identified in Genesis 2:18 (the first time in the Bible God refers to something as “not good”). Human beings are designed to be in relationship – to God, to creation, and to other human beings; it is a part of our wiring deep within our DNA.

While marriage was given as a gift in response to the garden crisis, please do not hear that marriage is the only form of human companionship that responds to human loneliness. Indeed, human life is full of different kinds of relationships and a life of varying relationship is important. Friendships, companionships, partnerships are all relationships that help us resist that which God calls “not good”. They along with the special relationship of marriage help us become the people God has created us to be, namely not alone.

Despite claims made popular by The DaVinci Code, there is no direct evidence that Jesus might have been married. However, he fed and was fed by many different relationships with people around him. He did not fall short of resisting the garden crisis. Instead, he challenged relationships that kept people from being the persons God created them to be. Where the world offered death-dealing relationship, Jesus offered life-giving relationship.

I did not give you all homework this week in the sermon, though I would like you to continue the work you have been doing weekly. Instead, I offer you a challenge today: If you are married, do something this week to share with your spouse a moment of companionship. If you are single, find a friend (maybe one you haven’t spoken to in a while) and share a moment of companionship. It is not good for the human being to be alone.

Shalom Y'all!