The Most Dangerous Game

       Much of what I know both about the laws of nature and the laws of financial security I learned from Marlin Perkins on the old show “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.”  If you ever watched the show, you know the kind of thing I mean – “Just as the mother hippopotamus protects her young from crocodiles, so Mutual of Omaha protects you from money worries.”  You younger people probably have never even heard of Wild Kingdom .  I don’t think it even makes the 3 in the morning slot on the Discovery channel.

       One of the things I’d thought I’d learned from Marlin Perkins was that the African Cape Buffalo is considered by hunters to be the most dangerous of all game.  But much later I was told, in a television movie called “The Most Dangerous Game” that the most dangerous game is not the Cape buffalo but man – or at least Cornell Wilde who was the star.  In Kenya I was told that the hippo is the most dangerous.  

       But there is something even more dangerous.

      During this Lenten season, in the sermons and in our small groups, we are looking at how our maturity in Jesus Christ is revealed in our sacred relationships with other people.   Janet began our series on “Sacred Relationships,” last Sunday in Colossians 3:17.  We saw how we are to express our relationship with Jesus Christ:  “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”  

       That was just the beginning.  Next Sunday we will look at what it means for us to serve one another in the Body of Christ.  We will then spend two weeks on Christian marriage.  We will  conclude the series on Palm Sunday with how we express our relationship to the Lord in our daily work. 

       This morning we are going to look at what the Bible says about the relationship between men in women in the church and in the world.    We’re not talking about marriage.  We’re talking in a global sense.

       As we start, let me say that I have news for the producers of “The Most Dangerous Game” and for Mr. Perkins as well.  The most dangerous game is not the Cape buffalo or man, but to make remarks about women’s role in society from a Biblical point of view. 

       But despite a possibly unwelcome outcome, let us get a safari together and trek into the realm of the most dangerous game.  But please reserve judgment.  Don’t close your mind until we finish the journey.

       Let’s start at the beginning.

      The story behind the curse upon Eve in Genesis is fairly familiar to all of us.  God created a man and a woman in His own image.  As Genesis 1:27 puts it:  “And God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  The original name for Eve was Adam – which is simply the Hebrew word for man. 

       This man and this woman – who were created in the image of God – who had the ability and freedom both to reason and to choose to obey or not obey – sinned against God in the Garden.  Eve ate the fruit God had commanded them not to taste.  And Adam also ate the fruit.  They ate because they were not willing to be themselves and let God be Himself.   They aspired to equality with God and so rebelled against His will.

       The result of this rebellion is the three-part curse – the curse upon Satan in Genesis 3:14 and 15, the curse upon the woman in Genesis 3:16, and the curse upon the man which is found in Genesis 3:17-19.  After the curse is given, the man and the woman are driven from the Garden to reap the bitter fruits of rebellion.

       Now at this point in our safari, it is extremely important to remember that the curse of God upon the man and the woman are a result of their disobedience and rebellion.  The curses in Genesis 3 are a result of sin.  They are not a part of God’s original and primary intention for His creation.

       Let me repeat that because it’s so important.  The curses in Genesis 3 are a result of sin.  They are not a part of God’s original and primary intention for His creation.

       The curse upon the woman in Genesis 3:16 can be divided into two major parts.  The first part deals with childbirth and the second part deals with the relationship between the woman and the man.

       This second part of the curse is especially interesting for its effect.  God insures that despite the sorrow of conception and the pain of childbirth, the woman and the man will continue to be together – “Despite the sorrow you feel and the pain you suffer, your desire shall be for your husband.”  It is in some ways ironic that a part of the curse in Genesis 3:16 is that the family will stay together, but that is also the hope for the future.  Despite the sorrow and despite the pain, you will still seek to be with your husband.

       But what most startles me about Genesis 3:16 is something I first noticed in 1973.  This is the amazing similarity between the dictates of the curse and the claims of the modern feminist movement – at least as outlined by some of its most radical spokespersons back in the 60’s and 70’s.  Nowadays many of the most radical are into sacred femininity and the goddess Sophia.   But back in the 60s and 70s they talked about real issues.

       Genesis 3:16 declares: “In sorrow you will conceive.”

       The feminists said, “We are treated as sex objects to be used and exploited without regard to our unique personhood.”

       In the midst of sexual relations – in the midst of what should be the most completely human and sharing experience of all – there is a pervasive fear of dehumanization.

       Yes, there is sorrow in conception.

       Genesis 3:16 declares: “In pain you will bring forth children.”

       The feminists said: “We are prisoners of biology.  Our lives are circumscribed and controlled by pregnancy and childbirth and child rearing.  We are kept back in society and in business because of the facts of biology.”

       Witness also the fact that some scientists believe that humans are the only animals that suffer significant physical pain in giving birth.

        Witness also the immense number of abortions performed in our country each year.

       Witness also the increasing incidence of the abuse of young children by their parents.

       Yes, there is pain in bringing forth children – physical, emotional, social, and spiritual.

       Genesis 3:16 declares: “Yet your desire shall be for your husband and He will rule over you.”

       The feminists say: “We are kept down and treated as second class citizens.  We are forced into role models which are uncomfortable, unnatural and stifling.”

      The feminist’s movement made all of these claims – of being dehumanized as sex objects, of being prisoners of biology, of being treated as second-class citizens.  And the Bible agrees.  “It’s been this way all along – ever since Genesis 3.  Are you just starting to figure it out now?”

       And so, we live under the curse and our own recent history confirms it.  But life under the curse is not life as God originally intended it.   That’s key. 

       The nature of a curse is that it puts into effect conditions that were not in effect already.  If the woman was already suffering sorrow in conception, pain in childbirth, and the rule of her husband before she sinned, there would have been no need to include those aspects in Genesis 3:16.

       In Genesis 2:18, God declares: “It is not good for man to be alone.  I will make him a helper suitable for him.”  The words “helper suitable for him” as they are taken from Hebrew, could be better translated “partner equal to him.”  There is no violation of the meaning of the language and it would be perhaps more appropriate in a day when people – and especially some men – seek a biblical basis for inequality.

       The woman was created as a partner equal with the man and both were created in the image of God.  Now some suggest that man has dominance because he was created first.  If this were true, animals would be more important that people for they were created first.  But in practice, God seems generally unconcerned with precedence according to time.  Look at the stories of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Essau, Joseph and his brothers, David and his brothers and Jesus and John the Baptist.  Paul was the last apostle to be chosen but he refused to consider himself as being in any way inferior.

       The sorrow in conception, the pain in childbirth and the rule of the husband over his wife are a result of the curse and are not a part of God’s original plan for women and the rest of His creation.  So where does that leave us in the church today?

       It leaves us still under the curse of Genesis 3:16.

       It is not until Revelation 22:3, a time still to come, that the curse is pronounced to be at an end.  Listen to the word of God through His Apostle John in the 21^st and 22^nd chapters of His Revelation:

       “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.  And I saw the Holy City , New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is among people, and He shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain: the first things have passed away.’

       “And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in the city and His bond servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.”

       “There shall no longer be any curse.”  This is a beautiful moment.  But, unless the second coming of Jesus happened this morning and we don’t know about it, it is a moment still to come.  Until Revelation 22:3 comes to past, we live under the curse of Genesis 3:16.

       The curse upon the man in Genesis 3:17-19 includes the provision that the ground will grow thorns and thistles for him.   This is still in effect.  Christian men still have weeds in their gardens as I can testify from personal experience.  Christian women still have pain in childbirth.  I don’t know that from personal experience but many of you do.  We cannot throw away the curse as outmoded or legislate it away.  It continues.

       But – and this is a vitally important “but” – while we live in a world that continues under the curse, we Christians are to an extent capable of living beyond the curse.  The resurrection work of Christ is our greater reality.

       Let me repeat that because it is so important to our understanding of the meaning of Genesis 3 for us as men and women of God.  While we live in a world that continues under the curse, we Christians are to a great extent capable of living beyond the curse.

       In the very familiar Lord’s Prayer which we say as a congregation each Sunday, there is a petition which says: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.”  Apparently, in the mind of Jesus, there is something going on in heaven which is not happening on earth but which should happen on earth.

       Part of the role of the church is to demonstrate that what is happening in heaven can happen here – to model the nature of the community of God in the midst of a sinful world – ideally to the point that if someone desires to see what the plan of God for human life is all about, that person could look at the church and say “This kind of community is what God is up to in human life.”  This means upholding the unity of the body of Christ – forgiving and forbearing each other in love. 

       The colonial period of world history gives us an image of this. The English administrators of their wide spread colonial empire imported the lifestyle of England to Asia, Africa and the Caribbean islands.  The colonists dressed in the English fashion, played polo and cricket as they had in England and insisted on English manners and customs.  The English refused to give way to local conditions.  That would be to “go native.”

       Therefore, if an Asian or an African wanted to know how people lived in England – how they worked and played – they didn’t need to read a book or visit England itself.  All they had to do was look at the colonists and say, “This is England !  This is that!”

       In the same way, the church is an outpost of heaven.  A person who desires to know God’s plan for human We are not called to be a society for the enforcement of the curse.  Not at all.   A person who desires to know God’s plan for human community should be able to look at us and say: “This is the goal!” Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples; if you have love for each other.”

       Our Christian life is in many ways a paradox.  We live in the presence of sin and all too often under the effects of sin in our own lives.  On the other hand, God has declared us free and without blame.  We live in what one theologian refers to as “The already but the not yet.”  The kingdom of God is among us and we have an experience of its peace and power in our day-to-day lives on Earth.  But we have not yet experienced the fullness of the kingdom of God with all its blessings.  That fullness is reserved for the age still to come.

       But we can begin to experience heaven in our present lives through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.  We can begin to experience life as God meant it to be lived.

       To the extent that we reflect the kingdom of God on Earth; to that extent are the effects of the curse of Genesis 3 lessened for ourselves and for those about us.  The extent that we establish a spiritual community that models the community of God, to that extent we can live beyond the curse.  Yes, we will still have weeds in our gardens, but we can help each other pull them out.

       Genesis 3:16 is not the goal of relationships within the church because it is not the original intention of God for human life and human fellowship.  The goal of Christian fellowship is set out for us in verses like Ephesians 5:21 which we will look at next week which instructs us to be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  That applies to both men and women and men subject to women as much as women to men.

       The church is the last place in the world where we should practice sexism, because sexism is a perversion of the curse and we are a community called to model a life beyond the curse.

      Second, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only means by which a man or a woman can find true freedom – not freedom through legislation but freedom through receiving a new heart – a new spirit.  The reconciling ministry of the church, is neither women’s liberation or men’s liberation but human liberation – for the one who the Son sets free is free, indeed!

       There is an ancient Hebrew prayer in which men thanked God that they were not born as gentiles, slaves, or women. But in Galatians 3:28, Paul echoes this prayer and declares now that there is neither Jew nor gentile, slave nor freeman, male nor female – for all are one in Christ Jesus.  Christ has come to us.  Christ is risen.  He has brought us a new order of creation.  That is how we are to live in the sacred relationship between women and men.