Paradise is empty but the world is full of God

Sermon on Genesis 3:8-15 and Mark 3:20-35

Dear family of God and in Christ!

The entire humanity heard God walking in the Garden. It was a cool evening breeze, bringing much-needed refreshment after a heated day. How wonderful to stroll around freely and happily, unapologetically naked.

Yet, all of humankind suddenly felt uneasy, unprepared, undressed, unsure. They had tasted the fruit of self-awareness and body conscience and individualism. Was walking around like this proper behavior? Were they pretty enough? Perfect enough? Good enough? Who could tell them? Who would know? Whom could they trust? Two earthlings they are. With a skin as brown as the earth they are taken from.

In our bibles, they are mostly referred to as man and wife. In Hebrew, there is no indication whatsoever that Adam and Eve are husband and wife. Eve is Adam’s mighty helper, they are man and woman. But Eve is not taken from a man’s side. Eve is taken from all of humanity’s side. Creating men and women and everything in between.

Man and woman exist, bearing in them all of humankind. Man and woman. “And” being inclusive, not exclusive. Not man and woman as in: there is a gender binary made by God, look at the bible. But an “and” as in “man and woman and everything in between”. It’s a Hebrew figure of speech we just too happily omitted from scripture in this particular case. Of course, we didn’t worry about it when it came to “And God created Night and Day”. Here we automatically read the “and” inclusively. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain who created sunset and sunrise, those most beautiful moments. But when it comes to the creation of humans, we have been reading the little word “and” exclusively for a long time. Because we like it the easy, binary way. Black and white, good and evil, man and woman.

What has been used to exclude trans- and non-binary people is actually the most inclusive language. Yet, it often exceeds our imagination and so we limit the world accordingly. Missing out on its beauty made by God.

God made man and woman to be husband and wife, we claim. Reading our own culture into a text and a culture that didn’t celebrate monogamous relationships. Of course, we can do that. We can read the bible from our culture, nothing wrong with that. The mistake occurs when we believe that our interpretation is the one and only will of God. And when that will of God excludes people for whom God made them to be. God excluding God’s earthlings not for what they did but for who they are, that’s where the trouble begins in our interpretations.

Adam and Eve heard God walking around. And so, they did the most obvious and hid. To buy time. To think. To forget. To deny. To pretend they didn’t know. The two earthlings made by God, Adam, earthling, made from Adamah, earth.

And God asks: Where are you? Asking all of humanity: Where are you? What are you up to? Yet, just one voice answers. The duet has been broken apart. Just one voice saying: I… I… I… I… Four times. I was afraid, I was naked, I hid myself, I ate. From total unity to absolute singularity moves Adam within moments. The human self and selfishness are born.

Adam realized that he is not one with God anymore, not one with Eve, not even one with himself because he can hardly stand looking at himself naked. Adam has become self-conscious like a teenager who loses the lightness of the first years. When sticking out one’s belly is a funny game and bodies are there to climb and run but never to take a bath. And suddenly, that same person wakes up and sucks up one’s guts and spends hours in the bathroom. The adults call it posing. But that’s just the hard shell over a tender heart that’s so close to bursting. That’s an armor to hide the insecurities from the world. The worry to be too small or too big or too skinny or too tall or too anything. The knowledge deep down that none of that matters to the ones who love you, but then, who knows. Maybe they are just pretending? Maybe they will change their minds once they see what you think you see?

What we learned to call “the fall of humankind” is a beautiful, vulnerable “coming of age” story of humanity. A story umpteen times repeated. A story all of us calling ourselves adults had to live through. For some, it was a matter of survival. Especially for the ones who didn’t have parents like this God walking through the garden, looking for the hiding kids and the hidden kids. The ones trying to figure out who they are. Especially when they are naked. And when they are close to another human. How they want to dress to show the world what they want the world to see. How they can hide what no one should ever know in this world full of dangers and unknowns. With no place to hide before God.

Probably most of us grew up with this story as the story that explains sin in this world, pain, and gender inequality. The all-loving creator gets mad at the naughty kiddos, punishes them out of love (the old story to uphold domestic abuse), and kicks them out of paradise to prevent the worst. Also, while God was at it, God introduced patriarchy because the woman couldn’t be trusted anymore. That’s the story we learned to believe and it has hurt generations upon generations. Our relationship among each other and with God. God was a God to be feared, full of wrath – basically until Jesus died. What a sad story about a small God who cannot deal with teenagers. Thank God, it’s not the only version of this story.

So many of our queer and transgender siblings have been told this story in the most hurtful ways. Not even with the intention of assuring them that God at least cares about them and therefore threw them out of paradise. No, in this story, God didn’t even make them. God didn’t want them. They were a mistake. They are not part of the good creation whatsoever. In this version of the story, God didn’t make all of humankind in God’s image. Just the straight ones. And the binary ones. What a sad story about a small God who cannot deal with more diversity than a man and a woman. Thank God, it’s not the only version of this story.

Let me be clear and upfront about it. There is no “fall” in this story whatsoever. There are people who disobeyed God’s command, yes. There are people who want to be like God. And that’s what we call the original sin, yes. Even though the word sin is nowhere to be found in this passage. There is the game of shame and blame, which can be rightfully called the oldest game on earth according to the account of Genesis. And the one being blamed for it all, is God. Adam blames “the woman whom you gave to be with me”. Eva blames the serpent that God made. It’s God fault. And so, God acts.

Blaming God is easy. And it’s true when you think about it. Blaming God indicates a deep faith – in God. That God is the one who created everything and therefore is related to everything happening in this world. Of course, here, Adam also doesn’t want to take any responsibility for his decision. And neither does Eve. And that’s just too human. Nevertheless, to see God as the root of all of our problems is not atheism or disbelief. It’s the profound knowledge, that there is nothing in this world without God. That everything is connected to God.

And God reacts. Not with cursing or punishment. But with reconfiguration, reimagining what it looks like to be safe as humanity. God makes sure that the serpent never again talks to a human. God helps the earthlings to get dressed and to work together for their survival. They wanted to become fully divine, and ended up being fully human. With the help of God they learn to embrace their vulnerability and their bodies anew. Making clothes for themselves, conceiving and raising kids, making a living with their bare hands. All the while God walking with them, now outside of the garden, in the wide world. Because when Adam and Eve left paradise, God left with them. God didn’t stay in paradise to enjoy the quietness. God isn’t an empty-nester. God walks with humanity. God is not ashamed of Adam and Eve, God doesn’t abandon them. God walks with them. God must have gone out of God’s mind. But nobody was there to mind that.

“He has gone out of his mind!” said the people about Jesus when he went back to his village and cast out demons. And this time, there were people to mind that. Jesus’ own family. And they tried to restrain him from walking out of the comfort zone and into the unknown terrain of radical truth and grace we usually just call God’s love. Again, it’s a coming of age story. This time it’s Jesus’ story with his family. And their reaction is not as compassionate as God was in the Garden of Eden. They try to stop him, try to calm him, try to make him fit in. To them, their little village is all they have. Their neighbors are all the people they know and rely on. So they don’t want any trouble. A son acting with the authority of a high-priest is rather disturbing, especially since he lacks the training and official call. They try to protect Jesus from himself, but mostly they try to protect themselves from the embarrassment of a weird, still unmarried son walking across the country with a group of other single men.

When after a while, his mother and brothers and sisters came again, calling him, Jesus replies: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” A family that is ashamed of you, is not worthy to be called your family anymore. So many of our queer and transgender siblings have learned this to be true the hard way. So many of them were and are being hated. Because their families don’t read the “and” in the creation story inclusively. Because often, their families believe that they have to oppose their kids and their identities due to their Christian faith. Not seeing that it’s God’s creation they oppose by opposing their children. Not following God’s model of walking with their kids wherever they lead. Guarding a paradise that’s long empty, because God is already out in the world, walking with God’s entire humanity. Amen and Happy Pride Month!