Women of the OT, Part 1: Eve

 WE GATHER 

PRELUDE 

BRINGING IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST 

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS 

*HYMN This Is a Day of New Beginnings UMH# 383 v 1, 2, 4 

*CALL TO WORSHIP 

L: The heavens shout of God’s glory! 

P: There is so much beauty in this earth and in the heavens! 

L: Day by day we are reminded of God’s creative love. 

P: Day by day we are blessed with large and small visions of God’s glory. 

L: Come, let us praise the God of creation. 

P: Let us sing and shout our praises of thanksgiving and joy to God. AMEN. 

*OPENING PRAYER (IN UNISON) 

Lord, we have come this day to hear your words of healing love and hope. Enter our hearts and our spirits and teach us to follow you. Give us courage and strength to be your faithful disciples. AMEN. 

*HYMN Leaning on the Everlasting Arms UMH# 133 

WE PROCLAIM GOD'S WORD 

CHILDREN’S CHAT 

OLD TESTAMENT READING 

Genesis 3: 1-11 

The First Sin and Its Punishment

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,[a] knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

MUSICAL INTERLUDE AND OFFERING 

NEW TESTAMENT READING 

Mark 8: 27-33 

Peter’s Declaration about Jesus

27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”[a] 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Reader: The Living Word of God for the people of God. 

People: Thanks be to God. 

MESSAGE "Women of the Old Testament, Part 1: Eve" 

Friends, today I’m toying around with a new six part sermon series, where we’ll be looking at stories about women in the Old Testament, juxtaposed with what Jesus is trying to tell us in the lectionary-appointed Gospel text. My goal in lifting up these stories of women in the OT isn’t to stir up sentiments of girl power, but if that happens, you know, I’m cool with that. Rather, I’m lifting up the six stories you’ll be hearing because, as you will come to learn about me, I enjoy taking stories from the Bible a lot of us have heard many times before and then finding a completely different way to look at them. It’s illuminating for all of us.

So, if we’re going to look at women in the OT, then let’s start from the very beginning (a very good place to start). We’ll start with the very first woman on the planet: Eve. Biblical names can be a lot of fun if you know Hebrew, and I suffered through a year of it in seminary so you don’t have to. “Ha-adam” means “the person”. Interestingly, not even necessarily a man, just a gender non specific person. The root of “Eve” means “life”. As some of you may know, we have two different stories in our Bibles about the creation of Adam and Eve, and they’re right next to each other in Genesis. The folks who wrote the Bible didn’t always agree on the details. And you know what? That’s ok. Let that be a lesson to us all.

The first story holds that God created humans after the planet and all the animals. 

In the Divine image, God created the person (singular in the original Hebrew). Male and female, God created them (now two people). When I was in college I heard a Hasidic Rabbi give us his beautiful interpretation that Adam and Eve were essentially two halves of one soul, and both of them completely held the image of God within, and their marriage brought those two halves of the soul together. Romantic, right? 

The second creation story tells us that initially God only felt the need to make one person, Adam. But Adam was lonely. So God took a rib out of him to make a second person, Eve. From this we learn that none of us are meant to be alone. We need at least one friend.

And then we get to the infamous part of this story, and the plot point for which Eve has earned a reputation as a temptress: the snake, the fruit, and the tree. God puts Adam and Eve in the garden and says “have fun, and do whatever you want, but when you get hungry, eat anything but that fruit, right there, on that tree.”

I learned a different take on this story in seminary, and I like to share it with congregations because it really paints the whole thing in a new light. What if Adam and Eve wasn’t a story about the first sin and how humans ruined everything but disobeying God? What if, instead, this was a story about growing up?

When God is still creating, the Divine puts Adam naked in the garden and tells him to run around and come up with names for everything. Who do you know that’s just a little too comfortable running around outside naked, talking to animals and plants, and making up lots of new gibberish words? Not a grown man–at least not in this neighborhood–but a little kid. In this period of innocence and youth, Adam and Eve have no clothes and thus never have to do any laundry, they don’t work or have money, the food just magically shows up in the refrigerator, and they play all day.

That might feel great, but it can’t possibly last forever. It’s not sustainable. At some point in your life you learn some responsibility, and some work ethic. You also lose that innocence, and once you lose that, it’s gone. But in its place you get wisdom.

Also, if Adam and Eve were like little kids, then God knew perfectly well that it didn’t matter what she told them, Adam and Eve would put EVERYTHING in their mouths. The forbidden fruit made as well have been made of Legos. And if you have a story from early childhood, like my dear husband does, where your parents told you to never, ever put Legos in your mouth, and you decided to give it a try anyway because they looked fun to chew on, and then you nearly choked…well, you sure gained some knowledge on the difference between good and evil that day.

So Eve believed the snake, that kid at preschool who goads you into putting Legos in your mouth, and eating paste, and cutting your own bangs with safety scissors, and she learns something about good and evil. And then she decides this is fun, and she gets her bestie Adam in on it. 

Now Adam and Eve are stuffed with forbidden fruit, and there’s leaves and peels all around them on the ground. But that trouble making snake has gotten a little too in their heads, like that one playground bully who tells you to try eating sand, and you do it, and he realizes he could probably talk you into anything, and he starts getting you in a lot of trouble because of your naivete. Now Adam and Eve feel ashamed for the first time, because another voice got into their vulnerable minds.

Adam hides, like a toddler who had a potty accident and doesn’t want you to know. God goes looking for him, but can’t find Adam anywhere, and then Adam finally yells out, in his still small, shaky voice, “I’m not coming out!” God asks, well why not? Adam answers “because I’m naked!” And God says wait–who told you you were naked?

It’s a similar about-face that Jesus has with Peter in this morning’s Gospel story, when Jesus breaks the innocence of his disciples and explains that, it’ll be really hard to watch, but he’s going to suffer and die, so they need to start preparing themselves now. Peter tries to tell Jesus, no no no, that can’t be true, bad things don’t happen to good people, do they? And Jesus says the First Century equivalent of “Bro, who have you been talking to?”

What I think we need to take from both of these stories is this–you don’t get to keep your innocence, your blissful ignorance, or your naivete. And this isn’t just news for kids, because no matter how old you are there are still hard truths out there you will face that will forever change the way you see things. Those moments don’t always feel so good, but if you never had them, you wouldn’t be alive. But when we have those innocence shedding moments, we become extra vulnerable afterward. 

So on your vulnerable days, your Adam hiding in the garden days, or your Peter taking Jesus aside to convince him he won’t really die days, be really, really careful who you let talk to you. Because out will come the playground bullies, the antagonistic voices, the ones that thrive when they make someone else feel bad, and they’ll tell you “You’re naked. You can’t trust your friend. You’re broken. You’re not good enough.” And that voice is lying. Wherever you find yourself today, whether you’re happily skipping in the garden because you haven’t had your heart broken lately, whether you’re fighting with Jesus, or whether you’re hiding because you don’t want anyone to see you like this, you’re beautiful, whole, and a worthy human just the way you are. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Amen.

*HYMN Happy the Home when God is There UMH# 445 v 1, 2, 4 

WE RESPOND 

JOYS & CONCERNS 

PASTORAL PRAYER 

Almighty God known as wisdom before the dawn of creation,

Lord Jesus Christ – perfect love made flesh,

Holy Spirit of God – ever present,

O Hidden Source of Life wrapped up in perfect Trinity,

we meditate upon the great and gracious plan

which you have brought to pass,

that women and men like us should look beyond creation

to worship you the Creator of all things.

In the beginning,

You the uncreated

moved across the face of deep

and brought out space and time

and then material substance:

The atom and the molecule and the crystalline form:

Then the first germ of life

and the long upward striving of all things: that swim and creep and fly:

And then the miracle of intelligence and consciousness ;

The beginning of mystery and the building of the first altar;

And then the saying of the first prayer;

O hidden love of God,

forgive us for those times when we have taken this mystery for granted

and forgive us all the more

for the times when we thought that we had unravelled the mystery

and thought that we knew it all –

the how, the where and the why.

Almighty God, let us not harbour anything in our hearts

that might spoil our fellowship with you

or with one another;

work with us and within us:

         Do what you will with us;

         Make of us what you want of us;

         Change us as we need changed

         Use us as your will requires –

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

~ Adapted from John Bailie “A Diary of Private Prayer” Thirteenth Day: Morning by the Very Rev. John Chalmers. It was posted on the Church of Scotland’s Starters for Sunday website. http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/

THE LORD’S PRAYER 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. 

*HYMN I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry FWS# 2051 SENDING FORTH WITH BLESSING 

POSTLUDE