Queering Genesis 2

This week is the 20^th Sunday after Pentecost, and the 1^st Sunday of LGBTQ+ History Month. People attending worship will hear the second creation story from Genesis (2:18-24), when God puts Adam into a deep sleep and creates a woman from his rib. The grand finale of the text reminds us that men leave their parents to cling to their wives, and they live happily ever after, amen. Then we move on to Mark 10, when Jesus talks about divorce—so much for the happily ever after. Welcome to worship—all are welcome, of course. :-/ 

I think part of being human is trying to understand God. Some might not be searching for a particular god, but an awareness that there is more to life than “me” drives our curiosity, our research, and our conversations. As a Christian I have a particular understanding of God in Jesus, but I sure don’t think I have God figured out. Asking questions and wrestling with texts, dismissing some parts of scripture and embracing others is part of living faithfully. So we come to the Bible from a particular place, with our experience, our understanding, our expectations. Since scripture has been used in harmful ways to degrade, oppress, and shame groups of people and individuals, sometimes those expectations are rooted in fear and lead to harm. I do not believe the word of God harms people; the word of God is the source of life that collects our pieces and puts us back together, in the very image of God.

So, on to Genesis 2:  18 Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner." 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken." 24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. (NRSV)

Some things that are helpful for this story are hidden in English translations. God has made an earth creature, which in Hebrew is /adam/. You know, God played in the mud and dust and formed a person. God breathed God’s own breath into the person, and it lived. (Gen 2:7). God sees that the person is alone, so God makes a bunch of other creatures, also from the dust of the earth, but none of them is the right partner. In English this word is translated “helper”, which has the connotation of subservience, someone who is limited in their capabilities but can at least “help”. The Hebrew word is more about a partner who does equal work, without whom the task cannot be completed. The power of the partner is required for success. God wants that for the /adam/, but cannot create it from the dust!

So God takes part of the /adam/ to make the partner. We read “rib”, which is a smallish, singular bone. But in Hebrew it says God takes the SIDE, like half, of the /adam/. God takes the earth creature and makes another one out of the earth creature, dividing it in half to make the second, and together they are whole. The two creatures together form a wholeness.

Now the words change: /adam/, the genderless, androgynous earth creature, proclaims that this one shall be called /ishah/ because it was taken from /ish/. The language is derivative, showing how they go together. Prior to this, there wasn’t a sense of difference, or of gender. /Adam/ was the only creature, no comparison.

While this story has been used to uphold cis/hetero standards, I just don’t think that’s what it’s about. This is a story of God creating a creature that could interact with God (the “in the image of God” part is in the first story, Genesis 1:27) for the purpose of caring for the creation (2:15). And when the creature was alone, God split it in two to make another, so that other would be like the first. Wholeness comes through relationship, when the halves are brought together. In this story the creatures are called male and female, probably so they can populate the earth, but I don’t think gender is the point, either. What makes us whole is being in relationship, deep, committed, meaningful, long-lasting relationships, which happen with parents, children, friends, and lovers. We do not have to be married to be whole. We do not have to be heterosexual to be whole. We do not have to be male to be powerful. But there does seem to be some truth about being deeply and intimately (not necessarily sexually) connected to another person who is our other half, who is so like us in essential ways that they complete us. Many times this is romantic, but it doesn’t have to be. Queering this text by digging into the Hebrew words makes room for trans- and non-binary humans to find a place here, in relationship with the God who created them. It makes room for unmarried people to know wholeness through a variety of relationships. It makes room for married people of any gender to be freed from patriarchal understandings of what partnership looks like. And it makes room for God to be present in all of our relationships.

My bias when approaching sacred texts is that God is always working for life, including removing that which brings death. Finding a new, life-giving understanding of scripture is God’s holy work, getting rid of something that speaks death, in God’s name, to God’s beloved creation.

Please, please, read this next: Elle Dowd articulates an interpretation of this week’s texts very eloquently and elegantly, and has inspired my own writing here. https://www.disruptworshipproject.com/rcl/20th-sunday-after-pentecost