We All Gotta Have It!
Genesis 2:18-24
Rev. Kenneth M. Locke, Interim Pastor
Orchard Park Presbyterian Church; Carmel, IN
October 6, 2024; 20th Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 2:18-24
18) Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the Earth Creature (Ha Adam) should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him.”
19) So the Lord God formed out of the ground (Ha Adam) every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the Earth Creature (Ha Adam) to see what he would call them and whatever the Earth Creature (Ha Adam) called a living creature, that was its name.
20) The Earth Creature (Ha Adam) gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field but for the Earth Creature (Ha Adam) there was not found a helper fit for him.
21) So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the Earth Creature (Ha Adam) and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
22) The Lord God made the rib he had taken from the Earth Creature (Ha Adam) into a woman (Ishah) and brought her to the Earth Creature (Ha Adam).
23) Then the Earth Creature (Ha Adam) said, “This at last bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman (Ishah) because out of man (Ish) she was taken.”
24) Therefore, a man (Ish) leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his woman (Ishah) and they become one flesh. (KL)
When is a human being really human? What’s the sign we’re fully human? When is a Christian really a Christian? How do we know we’ve become fully Christian? When is a church really a church? How do we know a church is actually a church?
What’s the sign we’ve arrived? How do we know we’ve made it? When can we say we are fulfilling our true, God-given potential?
Am I a human being when I’m born? Am I living my full potential as soon as I draw breath? Is it when I learn to use reason, when I develop critical-thinking skills? Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. Does thinking make me human? Or is it when my parents die and I’m the oldest generation, no one older and wiser to turn to? Is that reaching my full humanness?
When am I a Christian? Is it when I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior? Do I become a true Christian when I’m baptized? Is it when I pledge or teach a Sunday School class? When am I really a Christian?
And when is a church a church? Is it when the church can support a fulltime pastor? Or when they have their own building? Does a church have to have a certain budget or average worship attendance to really be a church?
These are things I’ve been wondering lately. What do we need to be able to say, ‘Yes, I am complete. I am fulfilling my potential.’
I think today’s text points us in a good direction.
God has created the earth and all that is in it. And it is good. God has created an earth creature. This creature is made of dirt, the earth. But unlike all the other creatures, the breath of God flows through the body of this creature.
God is concerned for the earth creature. The creature is all alone. God determines to find the creature a suitable helper. God brings all the animals to the earth creatures and then God steps back. The earth creature names all the other creatures.
And yet, none of them are suitable.
And so, God causes a deep sleep to fall upon the earth creature and God goes to work, making a fit helper for the creature. God brings the helper to the earth creature and we hear those famous lines, ‘bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.’ This new being is a fit helper for the earth creature. It’s at this point, then, that the creature is no longer a creature. He is no longer Ha Adam. Now, he is Ish. Now, he is a man, a human. He is not just a creature among creatures, one of many. Now he is something categorically different. He is now a human being. He is fully human.
I believe today’s text is telling us we are really human, we are truly human beings, when we are in helping relationships with others. We have truly come of age, we are our full and best selves, when we are in meaningful, helping relationships with others. We are fulfilling our purpose, our potential, when we are in helping relationships with others.
When is a Christian really a Christian? When they are part of a helping community. Christians are not meant to be free-range. We are meant to be in a community helping others.
Imagine someone says they play basketball or football. What team are you on? ‘Oh, I don’t play on a team.’ You play pickup games? ‘No. I just never play with others. I never play on a team. I am a one-man basketball team. I’m a one-man football team.’
No. That’s not the way it works.
Understand, too, being a Christian is more than just joining a church. It’s being in a helping relationship with the church. Joining a committee, singing in the choir, attending a Sunday school class, being part of a mission effort.
One of the reasons pledging is so important is pledging is an important way of helping. Pledging is a way of helping our church do ministry. Pledging is a way of being in a meaningful, helping relationship.
When is a church a church? Is a church a church if it never does any mission work? If it has no interest in sharing the good news with anyone? No, it’s not. A church is really a church, a church is fulfilling its purpose, when it’s doing ministry, especially when it’s doing ministry with others.
Today is world communion Sunday. Today we are celebrating communion in part as a sign of our church’s commitment to being in helping relationships with other churches. It’s a sign of our commitment to being in helping, mission-oriented relationships with other churches.
We are all made for relationships. All of us are meant to be in meaningful, helping relationships with others.
Humans, Christians, Churches – we all gotta have it. We’ve all got to be in loving, meaningful relationships with others. Without it, we are less than our true selves.
Today, then, we honor God by showing our commitment to being in loving, helping relationships. By receiving new members, by dedicating our pledges, by sharing communion with each other and with churches around the world – we are showing our commitment to being more than simply earth creatures, more than merely Ha Adam. We are fully human, fully Christian, fully members of Christ’s body on earth.
Beloved, together let us honor God, with our helping, loving
relationships. Amen.
