Not Good (Lent 7, 2023)

In all of Scripture’s narrative of Creation,
there’s only one time God says something is “not good.”

Genesis 2:18 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. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

Focus for Lent: Adam alone, not good. Adam-and-Eve-together was good enough by God’s standards to conclude Creation, call it very good, and take a sabbath rest.

Questions for further thought:

What about Adam’s being alone meant could he not accomplish something that he could with his suitable helper?

One of the things that started me on this topic for Lent was the question of whether a human clone would have the Image of God.
In one sense, the answer is “Yes” because Eve was, it seems, cloned. She was built from Adam’s rib, not formed from the dust as a whole new creation or born from anyone. How might Eve being from Adam facilitate redemption, Jesus’ dying for humanity rather than a confused and complicated humanities?

Cloning humans creates many ethical problems. What about a cloning effort like Dolly the Sheep extended to humanity’s decision to clone other humans? Or Artificial Intelligence using human brain cells? Would that human have the Image of God in addition to life?

At what point does a person receive the Image of God as part of their humanity? Is God obligated to bestow His Image upon a human-origin clone as if it were created through the male/female one flesh origin He designed?

Prayer: Father God Almighty, may we never abuse our intellect, reason, and abilities to play the role of God. Medical and scientific advancements have a way of breaching that moral and ethics safety gap in ways other types of work and expression do not. Preserve us from ourselves, Lord. Forgive us, Father, for attempting things in the name of science or medicine that offend You. Help us to see red lines You have drawn and not to transgress them. Adam and Eve learned the hard way that You care about boundaries and commands. Please help us to see and obey. With gratitude for Your mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Last year’s devotionals, Revelation in 40 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.