The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
Today's readings give us several possibilities for reflection on God's plans and ways. And, because God made us in his own image, they also give us several clues to our own make-up and nature.
The reading from Genesis tells us about how God made the first woman. He had already made the first man, whom the Bible called Adam. Adam is the Hebrew word for man. We understand it as the name of the first man, but actually it is really a description: this isn't just another animal, this is a human! Animal, yes, in body; but much more than that. More than just a body with passions, physical needs and desires. Made in God's own image; sharing in God's ability to think, plan, create, invent, understand, reason, know....not just to operate on instinct and the lusts of the flesh, but going beyond that to share in the creativity of God himself. We need to understand that sharing in God's nature, being made in the image of God, does NOT make us equal to God. It does make us able to understand something of what God is doing in the universe, something of his ability to invent and create, something of his feeling of responsibility for nature and other beings.
But it is even more than that. God is Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three faces or roles of the One God. And that means that God is, in and of himself, a relationship, an intimate knitting together of minds, understanding, hope, sharing of self, and love. Since we are made in his image, we also share to a lesser extent in those same characteristics or qualities.
And so: God made Adam, human. And God, from his perspective of living in the intimate, loving relationship of the Trinity, and knowing that he had made Adam in his own image, mused: It is not good for the Adam, the human, to be alone. And so, out of his love and mercy, God began to try to make a suitable partner or helpmeet for the Adam. He made a number of different animals, but none of them were specifically made in God's image, none of them shared exactly the same nature as the Adam had. They were simply not capable of a close, sharing, loving relationship, where the individuals become so interwoven that they eventually become one in being and thinking, while remaining separate individuals in other aspects....the kind of relationship that we know as the Trinity.
And so, God decided that the only thing to do was to make a creature that shared much of Adam's own nature. He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, took tissue from him, and used that tissue as a basis for creating Eve. Thus they would share in the same nature, and they would also both share in the fact that they were made in the image of God, since that was Adam's nature. The word Eve means mother of all living. We're all descended from her.
And so, Eve became the second human. She was like Adam, but not 100% alike. They were the same, but different: just as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the same, but different. And, like the Trinity, they were designed (since they were made in God's image) to complement one another, fulfill one another, and together to form one flesh, one joint understanding and sharing of minds and hearts and love, one inseparable being. And God said that it was good.
Ever since, we have been living with the results of this act of God.
Men and women need one another. But even more than that, people need one another. None of us is complete in our own self. We need someone to love. We need someone to share thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams with. We need someone to help us create, to work with us in various ways. We need someone to give us emotional, mental and physical support, and we need to be able to give that same kind of support to another person. It is not always husband and wife. Sometimes you see that kind of fusing or joining of spirits between two people who come together because their minds complete each other's mind, and together they can come up with great creations or great ideas. You see it on a lower scale where a mother gives herself without limit to the care and nurture of her children, and draws from them the kind of pure love and dependency that fulfills her. You see it between dear friends who do not have to talk much, because they share so much of the same understanding and thinking, but who need each other simply for support and to have a partner who "truly understands what I mean." Many of the saints had such partners: we know about St. Francis and St. Clare, and we know about St. Benedict and his twin sister St. Scholasticia. They understood each other through and through, even though they very seldom saw one another.
We all know that if we are careless with God's gifts, we can lose them. It is true that this gift for intimacy and a close relationship can be lost, and what should be Trinity-like love can become just physical lust, or can become a relationship of a completely negative sort, such as some of the Nazis were said to have...a relationship that feeds on a love of evil and causing pain, rather than on love and nurturing one another. This is one of the facts of life in this world: any of God's gifts can be misused and can then lead to Hell instead of Heaven. So we need to guard against that.
But we also know that, used rightly, we humans can find in this gift of complementary relationships a great blessing. It can bring us, here on this earth, into something similar (but not equal) to the loving relationship that is the Trinity. A married couple, or occasionally a pair of close friends, or siblings, or people with a shared purpose, can almost become one in so many ways. That's why marriage is a serious business, and that's why both the government and the church have so many regulations about marriage: to prevent people hurting themselves and others. That is why marriage is understood as a sacrament, a way of showing us what the Trinity is all about, and a way of showing us how much Jesus and his church love and support one another. That is also why divorce is such a tragedy. Divorce, or the death of a mate or a close friend, is almost like an amputation, a tearing away of part of ourselves. It always hurts, and hurts terribly. That is why both marriage and divorce need to be, as the prayer book says, entered into only after long, careful and prayerful thinking. It's a major thing to grow into another person, or to tear apart such a joining. And, of course, there are always others who will be torn, too: children of a marriage, employees of a partnership, co-workers, friends.
And so, we come back to the basic idea of today's readings: it is not good for us to be alone, but it is also very important that we are careful whom we grow into and whom we allow to grow into us, and what kind of relationship we form. These relationships, whether marriages of soul, body, mind, business talents, friendship or purpose, can lead us very close to Heaven, or very close to Hell. We need to be careful, and we need to make sure God is not only the model but a part of such relationships, so that we can grow into the fullness of the image of God which he intended us to have, when he made us in this way, back in the time of the Adam: the human. Amen.
