Again, thank you to the elders last week for sharing in the service, as well as the daily faith challenges.

We’re picking our series back up of Genesis- creation, failure, redemption, repeat and our mini-series of Genesis chapter 2 which is our last part of a four-part series, creation’s Divine intention, formation, and invitation. We saw that the creation story told by the ancients wasn’t simply about the how of creation, but the who of creation, God, Yahweh.

And that the Divine’s intention for creation was to bring life, bring life through water and breath. Divine’s formation had a purpose, us to be a purpose, for others. And that Divine’s invitation was wisdom, seeking His council between tov and ra, good and evil, wholeness versus broken, functional versus dysfunctional.

This week I want us to look at the last invitation we see in Genesis 2, that is the formula for community. I believe we can look at Genesis 2 and see a formula for community.

Community is not one but two, one needs two, and two out of one to be one.
Got it? If not, hopefully by the end of the week, that will be clearer.

Read Genesis 2:18-20- 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

Lots going on in this passage, but I want to focus on the first part of verse 18- “It is not good for the man (the human) to be alone.” I’ve shared this in the past, but this is absolutely amazing to me. Because at this point in the story, there is no sin in the world, God and humanity are in perfect union. Yet, this is the first instance where we see God say, “it’s not good for many to be alone.” It’s not tov, humanity alone is not the way God intended life to function.

Which means, if you ever thought this life or the faith life was just about you and God and that’s all you need. God is getting our attention and says, “it’s not good, it’s not the way we created us to function.”

Today, I want you to pause and reflect- how much of your faith journey, life is done alone? If so, what does that look like? What does it mean not to do life “alone”?

For others, this may be hard and we will talk more about it tomorrow, but short version, if you are feeling lonely please reach out, period. To anyone you may trust or reach out to church.

You can also use this song to connect with God’s presence in this midst of this journey. The Blessing