One more introduction to try and set the stage for what I am working to communicate. So far I have posted three pieces that are seeking to engage myself and anyone who might stumble across this blog to “ponder” some thoughts about our human identity and sexuality.

I doubt I will change anyone’s mind. Those who agree might find some useful information. Those who don’t agree…well I am simply trying to offer a cogent exploration of the situation…and possibly, just maybe, you won’t think that friend of yours who is a traditionalist…maybe you won’t think of her or him as a bigot…it is why I had the three earlier pieces about dissent, about starting in the wrong place, and about whether or not I am a bigot.

For me this is not hypothetical. I am the voice of dissent in my church and I wonder…“Don’t we need dissent—in fact shouldn’t we intentionally seek it?” Then after the SCOTUS decision and me testifying at hearings and speaking from the floor of our church’s national convention, I sure was led to believe I was a bigot.

Like I said, I doubt I will change your mind, but I am going to look at Genesis chapter one through three in the next few blogs…and I want to start in the right place…I am not going to start with sex or sexuality…I am going to start with the Person…the Individual…and see what the Bible has to say.

Let me tell you how I approach Scripture. I think it is the Word of God. I don’t worship the Bible, I worship the God of the Bible. That means that I tend to expect the Bible to have meaning for me…and for us. One of the things that happens when you begin to believe in Jesus…in the Word that became Flesh…is that your mind stops marshalling all the facts of the universe against the Bible, and instead you mind sees all these facts of the universe as testifying to the God of the Bible.

I am going to look at Genesis chapter one…creation and yes “male and female” and there may be a tendency right now to jump to your conclusions about sexuality…but hold off. Because while I am going to look at Genesis chapter one…it is not where I am starting…

AND NOW

And now, after all the preamble, I want to start in Genesis, chapter two, verse four.

These are the generations

of the heavens and the earth when they were created

in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

I really like the juxtaposition of the word “generations” as compared to “in the day”…here we get a sense of the prose…that there is a sense of chronological time that elapses and yet it is all in a singular purpose…the singular “day” of the Lord.

While I just wanted to point that bit out, it is not what I really want to get to. Check out verses five through seven. Notice in verse five there is no “man to work the land.” Before humanity is created there is this idea of work…I will return to that later, but the idea of work is before “Adam and Eve eat the fruit.” In verse seven we get to what I am really wanting to hone in on:

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

He formed us “out of the ground.” Now I am not trying to be a literalist. I just want you to sense the intimacy of God as He made us…it is like God is down on his hands and knees forming us…and then He breathes his very breath of life into our lifeless mud-pie bodies…and we become living creatures. The word for breath in Hebrew (I imagine you know) is the same word for Spirit (or wind). God breathes his very Spirit into us.

So here is the question, “Who are you at your core?” Furthermore, “What value do you intrinsically have as an individual person?” Ephesians 2:10 says we are “God’s handiwork” which seems to fit this story…but then Ephesians goes on to say the we are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has prepared for us in advance.” Created in Christ Jesus…with a purpose. In fact it says earlier in Ephesians, 1:4 that “God thought of us, before he thought of the world” (paraphrase from The Message Bible)…and that also kind of fits what we have just read in Genesis.

So what is the big deal? The BIG DEAL is You! You are a big deal. You are of infinite worth. You have the Spirit of God in you! Unfortunately you and I live in a world where people keep looking outside themselves for meaning and purpose and love (and I could go on and on about that…think of all the things we do to fit in, or be noticed, or have people “like us”, or…).

The point is that Genesis tells us that if we want to understand who we are and our purpose, and if we want to talk about who and how we are to have relationships…the point is we need to get ourselves grounded in who we are as created by God.

Today in the world…compliments of the sexual revolution…people describe themselves as sexual beings…to which I say hogwash.

We…as individual persons…are souls that are created by God and who contain his very Spirit…it is God’s Spirit that first animated us and brought us to life…it is therefore seeking a relationship with God that will satisfy the primal longing of our souls…we are souls who happen to have bodies. We are not bodies that have souls…and so our bodies and our sexuality is not our starting point…our starting point is being filled with the Spirit of God.

We will get to sexuality in a few blog posts…but let’s not rush past this point…savor it…go to church, sit in a pew or chair, and ask God to fill you again with His life giving breath.

Oh...and the picture...so how many hands did God use when he was forming you?