Weekly Sermon: 07-26-26 - Grounded in Connection: Adam and Eve

Reading from Genesis, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

In the day that the Lord made earth and heavens, when no plant of the field

was yet on the earth, no vegetation of the field had yet sprung up,

for the Lord 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 face of the ground.

Then the Lord 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 man whom he formed.

Out of the ground the Lord 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 knowledge of good and evil.

A river flows out of Eden. The water of the garden from the which it divides

and becomes four branches.

The name of the first is Pishon, It is the one that flows and becomes,

around the whole land of Havala. There is gold, and gold in the land is good.

The delium and onyx stone are there.

The name of the second river is Gihon.

It is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush.

The name of the third river is Tigris, and it flows from Assyria.

The fourth river is the Euphrates.

The Lord God took a 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 feel eat of the tree of garden, but the tree of knowledge of

good and evil you shall not eat, for within the day you eat it you shall die.

Then the Lord said, it is not good that man should be alone.

I will make a helper as his partner.

So out of the ground, the Lord 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 the living creature, that was that was its name.

The man gave names to the cattle and the birds of the air and to every animal in the field.

But for the man, there was no found no helper as his partner.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.

And he slept in and took one of the ribs and closed it up and its place was flesh.

And the rib of the Lord God had taken from the man and he made woman and brought her to the man.

Word of God, word of life.

Today we're only going to have one reading because um we do that sometimes in

the summer focus on one reading that the sermon is based on we've done that before so uh,

you're gonna jump this song of this passage only but next week we're gonna add

the gospel hallelujah just because it's fun to sing,

So our theme right now is Grounded in Connection.

And this morning, we're going to be talking about intimacy with the story of Adam and Eve.

Now, most of you know that my husband Dan and I met on a study program in Zimbabwe during seminary.

And Dan was there mending a broken heart.

And I was there with a boyfriend who was also part of the trip.

So Dan and I began as friends before we ever dated.

And after five months of studying and in Zimbabwe and traveling and so on, it was time to go home.

And I had bought souvenirs that did not fit into my suitcase,

especially for the extra travel that we were doing on our way home.

So I went into a packing frenzy.

I was packing boxes to mail, running to the post office, rearranging luggage,

trying to get everything done, of course, at the very last minute.

I made myself so busy that there was no time for any heartfelt goodbyes,

especially for the African mom that lived with us and took care of us for five

months in the house where we lived

and other friends that I had made.

Fast forward 10 months later, Dan and I were now together.

And I was preparing to move from Chicago to Detroit for my first church after

having graduated from seminary and having been ordained.

And Dan had witnessed the chaos of my departure from Zimbabwe.

So he looked at me, and this is what he said.

I will help you move from Chicago to Detroit, but we are not going to do it

the way you left Zimbabwe.

You are going to pack something every day for the two weeks before we leave,

and you are going to be ready with nothing left to the last minute.

And I wanted to say, you're not the boss of me.

But he was willing to load the U-Haul, drive the U-Haul, unpack the U-Haul.

And I didn't see anyone else volunteering for the job.

So I agree.

And as I packed a little bit every day and going through the stuff,

I had time to say goodbye.

And I had to feel all of that grease that I had avoided in Zimbabwe.

And tears from earlier moves began coming up too. All of those moves in childhood.

Those moves my parents made when I was in college. And I realized that the frenzy

had never ever really been about the packing.

It was how I kept myself from the pain of leaving and also the pain of leaving me.

Dan saw a pattern that I could not yet see.

And because he was my safe person, he could challenge me without me feeling

abandoned and without him abandoning me.

And because we were grounded in connection, his ground rules for the moving

invited me into a deeper relationship, first with my own heart and then with him.

And we reached a deeper level of intimacy in this first year of togetherness.

You see, intimacy, of course, is not simply romance. Not even in the first year,

right? If you're serious.

Intimacy is this experience of being truly known and still loved as you are.

And this is something that most of us want. But of course, it's also something that we fear.

Obviously i was in a frenzy because i was afraid of it,

we all develop these ways to

avoid hard feelings often without realizing that that's what we're doing,

we stay busy we use for all we try to control other people and circumstances

we focus on our children our work our appearance our exercise earning money.

We may eat or drink our way to comfort. We fix everyone else's problems so we

don't have to sit with our own. I've done all of these, which is why I know what the list is.

And often the thing that could actually help telling someone we love the truth,

lands at the bottom of the list, if it's even on the list, if we even know it should be on the list.

And even with those close to us, be it our partner, our brother or sister,

our parent, our best friend, we hesitate to say, I'm scared. I'm hurting.

I need help. I miss you. I have no idea what to do, or I'm feeling something

and I don't even know what it is. I'm crying and I have no idea why.

Yet, God has designed us for relationship.

In Genesis's second creation story, which is what we heard today,

God forms Ha-Adam, the human, which is actually the translation that we heard said the man.

It's actually an incorrect translation. It should be the human,

ha-adamah, from the ground.

Ha-adamah, the ground.

An earthling, ha-adam, is shaked from the soil, ha-adamah, and filled with God's breath.

Before the text speaks of man and woman at the very end, it simply speaks of the human.

There is no gender with the first being.

It is simply a human made from the soil, made from the ground, no gender.

God places the human in a garden full of beauty, full of creatures,

full of purpose, and yes, full of God's peasants.

And yet God says it is not good that the human should be alone.

And in all of the creation stories, this is the only thing that God identifies

as being not good, that the human is alone.

And the word that is translated rib and is almost always translated rib can

also mean side, meaning the whole side, not just one little bone.

Although I do like to say this explains why men are sometimes short of a whole cage, short of a rib.

But anyway, I digress. It's just a joke.

But what's translated rib can be the whole side.

God forms another human from the first one's side, someone who can stand face-to-face with them.

And the first human responds, bone of my bones, plural, not one,

bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

Here is another one who shares the same earth.

The same breath, the same vulnerability, the same life from God.

The story is not teaching that everyone must marry. That's not what this is about.

It is telling us that no one person contains the fullness of humanity alone.

We need others to see what we cannot see, to bring gifts that we do not have,

and to reveal something of God that we would otherwise miss.

Pastor Jenny Sung says, Each of us holds a key to who God is.

And when we come together, we are able to unlock more and more of God's wholeness and goodness.

Each of us bears the image of God made from the soil.

Each of us carries the face of Christ.

This also challenges us as to how we hear helper, which is often translated

and understood in male-female relationships as subordinate.

There's no hierarchy here. Side means equal.

You know, God is often identified in the Hebrew scriptures as the helper of Israel.

And so it's about someone bringing strength, someone bringing wisdom,

someone bringing gifts that we don't have.

The Apostle Paul offers us in his writings and his letters, both in Romans and

Corinthians, a body with many members.

No one is the whole body. No one has every gift.

And so we belong to one another. And Christ works through us to help one another

toward wholeness, toward healing by sharing our gifts with one another.

And Jesus, who died on the cross and rose again, that we might be free for deep

love and connected relationships.

His risen spirit dwells within each one of us, the soil of which we are made.

And the risen Christ then frees us to identify, to heal those hurting places.

He helps us to name them enabling us to see and to listen to each other into

wholeness and to healing

as we bear the image of God and

the face of Christ and the gifts of the spirit for and with one another,

and you see this is what Dan did for me very early in our relationship he saw

this a pattern of avoidance and he offered steadiness and he stood beside me,

right he stood beside me out of my side his side for me,

until i could become more honest

with myself and through his love christ's grace was at work in my life.

And so the kind of intimacy and love that we're talking about in this way that

God created us for relationship is to say, I see you.

I will help you carry what is yours. I will allow you to help carry what is mine.

And together we reflect more of God than either of us can carry alone.

And so today, your invitation starts with a question.

Where and with whom do you long for a deeper connection?

It may simply be saying, I would like us to get closer.

It may mean sharing one honest feeling instead of hiding it.

It may mean listening without fixing.

It may be saying i can help you but i can't join the chaos let's find another way,

perhaps someone you love has been trying to tell you something difficult and

now you're ready to listen.

Or perhaps your step is to tell someone else how you experience Christ in them.

You bring me peace. You help me feel safe. Your faith gives me courage.

Your presence reminds me that I am not alone. I see in you the face of Christ.

Such words may reveal a gift they cannot see in themselves and really make their

day as a gift of grace in Christ.

Wouldn't that be awesome to make somebody's day with something simple as saying,

I see the face of Christ in you.

You have helped me in this way. Wouldn't that be great to make somebody's day with those words?

Churches are called, and certainly St. Luke's. We are called to be a chosen

family where this kind of connection is lived and deepened.

This week, we grieve so deeply the death of Tom Mayer, a pillar of this congregation.

And through Tom's faithfulness, his positive spirit, his loving presence,

we saw the face of Christ.

And Tom and Carol, his wife of three months,

have shown us that life is worth the risk,

to know and to be known, to love and to be loved, to choose intimacy,

to choose joy, to trust God, and to follow Christ.

Tom's life and faith are now woven into ours.

The love he shared and the love that he and Carol shared remains a part of this

community and a part now of how we love each other,

a part of how we follow Christ, a part of how we understand intimacy and faithfulness

and lifting one another up with positivity and joy and trust.

From the very first human one, an Adam, Adama, the earthling from the soil,

all the way through creation, to Tom Mayer's.

But truth is clear.

Our life was never meant to be walked alone.

And aren't we so grateful how Tom showed us this in his life and with his faithful witness.

We will close today with a blessing. I invite you to place one hand on your heart and one hand open.

Take a deep breath. You can close your eyes if you want to.

Where are you longing to be known?

May you be grounded in the gift of one another.

May God give you safe people who help you see yourself clearly.

May God give you courage to speak the truth of your heart.

May friends gather around you like sheltering trees,

May voices call your name with kindness,

And may hands reach out when the road feels heavy,

When you feel scattered, may love draw you back May your life be woven with

others in laughter and sorrow in shared bread and shared hope.

And when you forget your belonging, may this community remind you who you are.

Earthlings formed by God, siblings in Christ, gifted in grace,

and members of one another.

For all this and more, thanks be to God. Amen. Amen.

We are created for connection. Look to Christ in every person.

Choose kindness over fear, hope over despair, grace over judgment.

Let your life help others know they belong to.

As you go in peace. to love, serve, and welcome all.

Thanks be to God, and we will. If you were inspired by this week's.