Adam's Creme Brulee Moment: A Wedding Homily

Adam’s Wow

Wedding of Teresa Ericksen and Calvin Smith

Old Testament: Genesis 2:4-9, 15-24 (ESV)

4 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.

5 When 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, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 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. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And 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.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone;I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the LordGod had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens 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 livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam  there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept 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;

she shall be called Woman,

   because she was taken out of Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

For me creme brulee is like art. I am not a connoisseur of either, but I know what I like. The best I ever experienced was in Pittsburgh. Since then I have sampled creme brulee in many places. Sometimes I’m very disappointed. But once in awhile, I say, “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.” There was a moment like that for Adam.

God created Adam from the ground to be an earthly creature like all other creatures. But God also made Adam unique, for God gave life to him in a special way. God himself breathed life into Adam.

God gave Adam a wonderful place to live, the Garden of Eden, a name we still use to describe places that are pleasant, harmonious, and happy. God also gave Adam fulfilling work without frustration, cultivating and keep the Garden. In Eden work was a blessing.

It sounds like a perfect life, but it wasn’t as perfect as it seemed. God knew something about Adam that Adam did not know about himself.

So God gave Adam the task of naming the animals. This wasn’t a childlike Adam looking at cute little animals and saying, “I think I’ll call this one a kitty. I think I’ll call that one a doggy.” No, this was intelligent Adam looking at the animals, and determining what they were like, and saying, “That’s a dog, and there are other animals like it, that are also dogs. Those are cats, cows, and elephants. But when Adam finished his work of classifying the animals Adam said, “There’s nothing like me. There is no creature in whom I see myself, no animal to communicate with, no animal to share my life with. Those apes are like me in very ways, but they don’t answer this longing that I have inside me for a creature like me.

God knew what Adam needed. God had said, even before Adam named the animals, “It is not good that the man should be be alone; I will make a helper fit for him.” So God put Adam asleep and took a rib from Adam and made from Adam, and for Adam, a woman. As God made Adam from the ground so God made the woman from Adam to be like Adam but different. In the Hebrew language Adam is an “ish” or man and Eve is an "ish-ah” or female man.

When Adam woke up and God brought this new creature to Adam, Adam said, “This is at last, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman for she was taken out of man.” Did you catch that “at last” in Adam’s response? This is Adam’s creme brulee moment. Adam exclaims “Wow! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. At last I have found the creature I was looking for. She will be called ‘Wo-man’ because she was taken out of man.”

God responds, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. And they shall become one flesh.” The relationship between the man and the woman takes precedence over all other relationships - even the strongest and closest one. These other relationships do not go away. Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends remain what they were. They are loved and valued, but this new relationship takes precedence. It is the number one relationship and comes before family, friends, work, hobbies and every relationship but God whom together you put first.

The husband and wife hold fast to one another and become one flesh. They cling to another another physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. They become one flesh most literally though sexual union. They also become one flesh in that they share each other’s joys and sorrows. They hold on to each other to find strength when the hurricane winds of hard providences below. They cling but are not clingy. They are one but not in a way that obliterates their individuality. Clinging and oneness are not mystical experiences but the real world relationship of two persons whom God has made as intertwined body and soul made in his image.

Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed. Yesterday my grandson Parker and I were joking about coming to church today in our underwear. I see neither of us took the dare. Why? Because it would be embarrassing to be exposed and vulnerable. Marriage is the relationship where people are exposed - bodily and psychologically. Before Adam and Eve sinned, it was entirely natural to be naked and unashamed. As soon as they sinned they became to cover themselves and hide from from one another and God.

Sin has messed up marriage and everything else. But there is a way to mitigate the shame. Our Lord Jesus hung naked on a cross, bearing our sins and experiencing our shame so that we could be forgiven our sins and stand before God forgiven, accepted, no longer ashamed. When we put our faith in Christ and know that in Christ and know we need have no shame before God, we can learn to let go of our shame. We can live naked and unashamed not just momentarily driven by passion but as a way of life. Those who are confident and unashamed before God can live confident and unashamed with each other.