we all fall down...
Gender. We continue to think and reason together.
Last week we started at the beginning in Genesis thinking through creation and its implications for gender. Well really, we started off with a challenge from Dr. ML King to be ‘tough minded and tender hearted’.
Tough minded- being able to think clearly, critically, and deeply about scripture as well as the issues of our time. And tender hearted- able to love sacrificially like Jesus shows us. People were drawn to Jesus who, it seems, should have run away from Him.
Prostitutes.
Drunks.
Thieves.
Liars.
They flocked to Him. Yet these same people are often not drawn into our church services, or to us, for that matter. Hmmm.
Today we are going to continue in Genesis and move into the Fall.
Isaiah in chapter 1 speaks on behalf of the Lord, who says “come let us reason together”..and then lays out the consequences of a life following Him as well as a life of disobedience.
If we are to follow well ourselves, AND lead others to follow well, we must reason together, we must think critically, we must be ready to answer questions that arise. And then we get the chance to walk alongside people and love well.
As we continue in Genesis, let’s pray that our eyes will be open to see new details and to think deeply about what is shared in the scriptures. The following few sentences is a quote from last week, but we are going to revisit this foundation often, so it bears repeating!
Critical thinking- it’s like a set of glasses that we put on to view our life, world events, painful trauma, and routine circumstances through. And we have to be mindful of the lens we look at these through.
I can look through the lens of my own reasoning, thinking, and feeling.
I can look through the lens of CNN’s top 5 things each day, or a similar list on FOX news.
I can look through the lens of public opinion as expressed on a variety of social platforms.
Very often we look through the lens of our friends or our experience.
Or I can start with what God says in the scriptures and put everything through that lense.
Please don’t hear what I’m not saying (a favorite phrase my pastor uses that I’ve adopted). There are specific things like nuclear biology, or repairing a carburetor, or steaming broccoli- that scripture does not have the answers for.
But it lays out principles for living that I want to be careful to filter all that I am doing, thinking, reasoning, and even feeling through.
Last week we saw similarities in the ways that Adam and Eve were created:
Both created as image-bearers.
Both created to rule the rest of creation.
Both blessed of God.
Both tasked with multiplying and filling.
Both deemed “very good”.
We also saw differences:
The man created from dust / The women created from a bone taken from the man.
Obvious anatomical differences perhaps causing the man’s excited “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh”.
The woman was a companion, helpmate for the man in the way that no other creation could be (they all paraded in front of him to be named and a suitable helper was not found). The actual word for ‘suitable’ in the Hebrew implies similar as well as different.
Their very names: man and woman- similar yet different.
Because of these differences and similarities we get verse 2:24 where they are joined together.
With that backdrop...Let’s reason together in chapter 3.
In chapter 3:1, we see the serpent target the woman for his deceptive lies.
Scripture says that the man is with her (v6), but remains silent.
The woman eats and disobeys. She hands some fruit to the man who also eats and disobeys (v6).
Something happens inside of them that causes ‘their eyes to be open’ in a way that they were not previously, they realize their naked differences and seek to hide (v7). They hide their physical differences as well as eventually hide from God who comes to seek them (v8).
They blame each other and the serpent (v12-13), and they ran further from God in their attitudes instead of towards His grace and forgiveness.
They received individual curses and consequences (v16-18) and were banished from the beautiful garden God had placed them in to take care of (v23).
Now, we could spend all day- not joking- working through the theological implications of all that happens. These two chapters are filled with spiritual truths and implications for all of us and I love them both.
But I want us to think through the lens of gender in this chapter.
There are curious things to me:
The serpent speaks to the woman first whereas God calls out to the man.
The woman’s curses are relational in nature: pain in bearing children and a desire to control her husband, while also being thwarted in that whereas the man’s curses revolve around his vocation- his working the ground.
The couple goes from excitement/joining at the end of chapter 2 to separation/hiding/shame in chapter 3.
As related to gender I have some thoughts and conclusions. And please, think through what I am saying and if you disagree, I’d love to sit and talk. Reach out!
Shame is used by satan in devastating way:
Sin brings shame to both the man and the woman and drives an immediate wedge. Where there had been union, and walking often with God and each other, there became disunity, division, and hiding from God.
The immediate response to the shame is to hide their physical differences. We aren’t told why they hide, but today I see constant competition as we (women) work to prove our equality to men. We rarely rejoice in our differences, seeing their benefits.
The shame results in blaming each other and seeing the other as the problem. Enough said there.
The shame results in their turning away from each other and away from God.
The consequences or curses resulting from their choice to walk on their own path instead of trusting God’s path are unique to their created sex.
God’s consequences differ for the man and the woman and I have to believe that stems from their inherent differences as created beings. He had created them differently but with common goals and tasks to achieve together. Their differences were required and good.
Shame, the tool of satan, continues it’s work today dividing us and turning us away from God.
Today, often the gender divide is ginormous and revolves around stereotypes rather than actual created differences. The world and the church has set up a ‘straw man’ and a ‘straw woman’ as ideals for us. I’m sure this isn’t a stretch for you to think about. Picture in your mind commercials, TV shows, memes, etc...What do these teach you about maleness and femaleness?
Why is someone referred to as ‘effeminate’? Is it based on characteristics drawn from a thoughtful reflection on the scriptures, or are they just more interested in art than basketball? Are they more culturally feminine?
If you are familiar with church culture, picture the last activities at a women’s retreat versus a men’s retreat. What are the stereotypes reinforced in our churches and Christian culture- and are they helpful or hindering our discovering what the Bible has to say about maleness and femaleness? In fact, can you remember a teaching on maleness and femaleness? We don’t do a great job with this in our churches.
Our selected stereotypes draw us to shame those that are different from us.
Congratulations! You made it past the headline into some thinking and reasoning. This is not all I could say about the topic, but I have a couple questions for you to tease out, so take a couple minutes right now if you have time.
❔From your reading in Genesis, why do you think that God made two distinct sexes? Or two sexually different beings?
❔Based on the tasks given to the man and the woman, as well as their areas of cursing, think through how you would begin to define some characteristics of biblical maleness and femaleness.
❔How do church and cultural stereotypes do damage to both sexes? How is shame involved in this?
Truly- I’d love to connect with you either virtually or over a soda (and I’m happy to observe social distancing!).
And also truly I’d love for you to subscribe and share these posts to get more people engaging in the conversation.