Genesis 1:26 Then 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.’

So God created humankind in his image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:4

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but 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.’

Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So 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 each living creature, that was its name. The 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. So 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. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then 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.’

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. NRSV

From two weeks ago you may recall that the reading from Genesis 1 was highly codified, with a refrain throughout: it was evening, it was morning, the first day. And it was good. This continued throughout to the sixth day with the pronouncement it was very good culminating in the creation of the Sabbath.

But during the sixth day, a dramatic pause occurs after the series of “Let there be, and there was.” It now gives way to a different statement entirely. Is God willing to take the risk of creating humans in God’s own image, after God’s likeness? When God says “Let us make humanity in our image” this is not an ancient reference to Trinity, but rather to the ‘plural of majesty’ as when the queen may use the expression ‘we’ when referring to herself only. In Hebrew, a different verb form is used for ‘make.’

Our reading today reflects the earliest version of the creation account. This primeval story was passed on from generation to generation and represents a very ancient tradition, whereas the codified and systematised rendering of Genesis 1:1-2:4 may come from a period as late as the 6th Century B.C.E.

Misinterpretations abound with reference to this passage in Genesis. First of all, we need to understand that the theory of evolution does not contradict anything the Bible says. Clearly God develops the human existence in common with other earth creatures from the dust of the ground which as we know from science has taken billions of years. As Helmut Thielicke observes: “ ...I can ask where man comes from biologically, and receive the answer that he comes from animal forms. Or I can ask why he is here, what is his destiny, what is the ‘role assigned to him? If I put the question this way I get the answer from the Bible that he is to be a child of God, he was intended for fellowship with God in Jesus Christ.”

How the World Began p. 79.

Among other misinterpretations:

i) male as superior or the head.

ii)   God as a divine killjoy.

iii) In exercising dominion, humanity can exploit creation.

iv) the notion of woman as temptress.

One thing is certain. Humanity was made for community. After reading chapter one, ‘it was good, it was good, we suddenly hear a new startling statement: ‘it is not good.’ In fact, human as male only is not yet human. As Phyllis Trible points out, the entity that exists in the garden is an "earth creature" Only when the great division occurs so that they are male and female do we have the reality of the human created in the divine image. ‘Adam’ simply means ‘dust.’ Adamah is the feminine ending in Hebrew rendering the translation ‘woman.’ So we have man ‘adam’ and woman ‘adamah.’ An event by the way which man [adam] celebrates.

‘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.’

This speaks to our common origin. It is important to remember on this World Pride Week, we are not speaking about gender preference or identity. In fact the biblical record acknowledges that we have both female and male characteristics within each one of us. It goes on to state: Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

Quite an amazing statement for a patriarchal culture to have the man leave, and yet in some marriage ceremonies we say “who gives this woman to be married to this man?” What is emphasized is a celebration of sexuality, no matter what gender, or preference. In our maleness and femaleness we are created in the image of God.

But let us return to the story. After the divine pronouncement “It is not good” we now have a brilliant interlude - the parade of the animals. Giraffes, penguins, hippopotamuses, crows, robins, sea bass, etc., etc. with the conclusion that: there was not found a helper as his partner. When woman was created: NOTE: the man has nothing to do with it: the adam is in a deep sleep; we now have the partner that can assist the adam: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.In other words, humanity is to care for creation in precisely the way that God exercises dominion - with compassion and a sense of justice for all.

Because the animals and gardens were created by God [albeit over millennia of time through an evolutionary process] it needs to be of great concern when we consider our environment, the quality of our water supply and earth; of endangered species. These are not matters to be lightly passed over.

Jesus once observed that a common lily of the field contained as much glory as Solomon in all his splendour, so he shared a deep appreciation of nature.

However, The risk that God has taken in creating human kind becomes apparent with the challenge to obey. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but 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.’

Why would God do that? It is only humanity that can aspire to enter into relationship with God. This is the opportunity for humankind to realize that his/her destiny is wrapped up in the ability to remember that though created in God’s image [therefore the opportunity to become like God], the reality is that my living to the full depends upon my relationship with the one who made me in the first place.

They are called together as joint heirs to be in community and to care for the garden. However, in their disobedience, they fall together not just as the helpless male succumbing to the wiles of the female. More about this next week.

Where the adam and adamah failed, Jesus Christ came to show us that the way to fulfillment in life is to live in obedience to God. Paul refers to Jesus as the second Adam, the human we were intended to be. Our hope comes from knowing even if we have been cast out of the Garden, we are invited to the messianic banquet in the new heaven and new earth.

The risk for God was that humanity would disobey and fail. At that point it would require a painful intervention of Jesus, the true Adam, dying, that we might live.

If I live under God’s word, that is, allow my life to be directed by God, She will not let me down. I will learn to appreciate the abundance of the garden, but will not aspire to divinity. Rather I will till the garden and maintain it even as he said. Then I can fully enter into community and realize that it, too, is a great gift from God’s hand.