Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1669
January 19, 2025
Genesis 2.1-14 Click here for audio worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)
“Forming Man”
1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
4These 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. 5When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—7then 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. 8And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
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A Holy Day
Genesis 2 marks the beginning of the end of creation as well as a return to the sixth day. The beginning of the end is the seventh day, the last day. By day seven, all is finished. I know that when I have finished a project, there is a sense of accomplishment and relief. There is an old saying that a mother’s work is never done. That saying came from a poem written in the early 1800s. The same holds true in ministry. There is always more to come. But I think that it true for all of us no matter our profession or just in life in general. We all will always have more to do. If you own a home there are never ending projects. If we have a family, always more to do and care for. Anytime we come across something in our lives we say, “It’s always something!” And, because there is always something to do, we need to take a break, let those things lie dormant for a day, and rest. This is the practice of Sabbath.
God worked out creation in six days and on the seventh day God rested from the work He had done and He blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Today is a holy day. Today is set apart for a particular purpose – to rest. The Sabbath is primarily a time to rest and refresh and worship. I cannot stress enough how important this is, how crucial it is to keep this commandment. I say that because it might be the most broken commandment of Christianity. We would never murder or steal or covet, but keeping Sabbath seems like an optional commandment for many Christians. But that is another sermon for another day! Keep the Sabbath...
To Rest – Stop Working:
2And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. Genesis 2.2
The command to rest is also a sanctifying of time. Six days (a time period) to work and then rest for one day (making this time holy).
Keep the Sabbath...
To Worship:
“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places. Leviticus 23.2
You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. Lev 26.2
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Hebrews 10.23-25). This verse is often used in connection with worship. It was particularly used to defend worship during the Covid restrictions. Neglecting to meet together, to assemble, is to dishonor the Sabbath. Now, of course, there are times when it might be more difficult to gather. For us that is usually weather related. But there are nations where worship is forbidden and there have been times when the church was in danger of persecution or death when they participated in worship. Jesus reminds us that worship is for us, the Sabbath is for us, not us for the Sabbath, “And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath’” (Mark 2.27-28).
Keep the Sabbath…
To Do Good:
[Jesus] went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. 11He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him (Matthew 12.9-14).
One of my goals for the church has always been to protect and honor the Sabbath for all of us, that we might all honor the Sabbath in all the ways God has intended.
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A Look Back
4These 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.
This is where Genesis revisits the creation narrative...back to Genesis 1 but with a greater detail. In essence verses 4-7 set up the scene of the formation of Adam. God’s work has led to this moment and this day. This is also the first use of the name Lord God. Up to this point it has only been God. The addition of Lord (Yahweh) with the name God (Elohim) was understood by early rabbis as the God of mercy and justice and that both mercy and justice are necessary for all of creation to work properly. If all were about justice, we would all be destroyed. It all was about mercy we would not care about any wrong doing. I think we can say the same about Jesus in John 1, that He came full of grace and truth. We cannot function only by grace or only by truth, we need both. Grace at the expense of truth leads to extreme liberalism and truth without grace to extreme fundamentalism or legalism. This may also speak to the created order of pairs, light/darkness, good/evil, male/female, justice/mercy, grace/truth. God has ordered things in such a way that they only work properly when exercised or lived in the way God has created them.
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Forming Man
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground...
Genesis 3.19 reminds us that we are dust and to dust we shall return. When our breath is gone we return to the dust from which we were made. We are creatures of the earth. Creatures, not God. Formed from the dirt and eventually sentenced to work the soil of the earth. Those who garden know that there is something special about working the soil. There is a connection to the dirt, the dust. I suppose it has something to do with creation, at least I like to think so.
In one of my almost daily Scripture reflections I pondered the notion of our connection to the ground. When I was a younger lad, we all played marbles in the dirt. We paved roads by hand in the dirt for hot wheels to navigate. We rode our "dirt" bikes (bicycles) on dusty trails long before specialized bicycles existed. I know I am old school, but could there be something about playing in the dust as a child that makes us more immune to disease and infections later in life? Kids don't seem to get dirty anymore. Video games are "clean". Xbox doesn't throw mud in your eye.
Man was made from the dust of the earth. Woman was made from the man. We are people of the dust, people connected to the earth. But we are much more than dirty creations, for God has breathed life into us.
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The Breath of Life
...and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
God's breath makes us living creatures. The Hebrew word can mean breath, wind, or spirit. The use of breath of life in the creation story is appropriate from a physical life standpoint, but from a spiritual rendering it also could be seen as God breathing the spirit of life. Judaism understands this phrase as the soul of life and it is only used in connection with humans. I like to think it includes all three meanings, breath, wind, spirit, because the life we have been given is a force of more than just breathing air, more than just a spirit (or soul), and more than "blowing in the wind". God formed man to be above all other creatures that were created. Man became a living creature. Man, aware of his existence as man, given dominion, given life and freedom and command and covenant with the Creator. Man, the creature that would need redeeming because of rebellion. Man, the only creature capable of disobedience. The tiger is what it is. The gnat...well, I don't know why we have to have gnats. The birds do bird things, but man, man has the capacity to disobey God's created order and thus needs to be created anew. Thanks be to God that He sent His only Son to make us new creatures (2 Cor 5.17). Thanks be to God that we have the Word to bring us back to joyful obedience, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim 3.16-17). This is the Word that is breathed out. God's breath renewing life once again.
Jesus also breathed on the disciples in John 20,
19On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
God has breathed life into us and our physical breath is a reminder moment by moment of this gift. Every time we breath out we are awaiting the gift of breath again. We breath it in with thanksgiving. Oxygen, spirit, soul, breath, it is all related to the sanctity of life. It is why we argue for the life of those in the womb and those at the end of life. There is in creation a greater measure of life in all who are created in the image of God. Our very breath is part of the image reflecting a connection and covenant with God that is unique to humanity above all other creatures. Of course, God has a covenant relationship with all of creation, but a particular one with humans.
Give thanks today for the gift of life, of breath, of Holy Spirit, of being created in the image of God, and made a new creation in Christ Jesus, who gave His life that we might have life and have it in abundant joy with thanksgiving. Amen.
