Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost October 5-6, 2024
“A Marriage Made in Heaven” Genesis 2:18-25
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Four years ago we learned quite a few lessons when COVID hit. We learned that having extra rolls of toilet paper is a necessity. We learned that in March of 2020 rush hour didn’t last even a few minutes. And we learned that people need people.
When in-person learning in our schools was suspended, education for many suffered. When people couldn’t gather, freely, for meals at restaurants, or going out to a movie or a concert, more than their bellies or their eyes or their ears were impacted. When churches couldn’t gather for Easter in 2020 there was a sadness among many believers. It took away something that was central to the benefit we receive in worship.
We were separated from one another. We had a loneliness that had an impact on us. For some that loneliness has continued. Being alone is not good. We need others.
Did you know that the Surgeon General of the United States issued this statement about loneliness? A little over a year ago this statement was made, “The U.S. is battling an epidemic of loneliness that affects both our emotional well-being and our physical health.” It was Mother Teresa who said, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.”
But we can’t be lonely. Can we? We live in a big city, with tons of people. We have people around us at the grocery store, at the soccer game, at McDonald’s, even at church (though I would like it to be more crowded than it is). But a person can be lonely in a crowd. Maybe you feel lonely.
One of the first things that God did in His first days of creation was to address the problem of loneliness. You know the account of creation in Genesis 1, right? God made something and His proclamation was made again and again, “And God saw that it was good.” He made the animals, the fish, the stars and God smiled. “And God saw it was good.” It was like “Wow!” “That came out well.” “I did a pretty good job.” At the end of Genesis 1 His word was this, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)
All the “goods” and the “very goods” are followed up by this word in our reading, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone.’” (Genesis 2:18) Now Adam wasn’t alone, was he? He had all the animals, all of the beauty of creation – but he didn’t have that oneness with another person. There was something missing.
A marriage made in heaven is what God created. This is how it reads, “But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept God took one of his ribs and closed up the place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she will be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’” (Genesis 2:20-23) What God brought to Adam and Eve was a oneness. In that same chapter we read about this union, “Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) One writer says of this, “Perhaps the fact that she was made from the rib of the side of Adam is an indication of the place of woman – not above, not below, but at the side of the man.”
Loneliness is a curse. If you have it, you know it. We find ourselves struggling alone. Hurting alone. Smiling alone. Laughing alone. God hasn’t made us to be this way. This past weekend we hosted a GriefShare program titled “Loss of a Spouse.” One of the participants wrote of their grief, “I lost my wife of 52 years, 27 months ago, and as you know losing a spouse or a child is one of the hardest challenges one faces in life. Having two of our offspring close by has helped me tremendously. I am staying quite busy and taking it one day at a time.”
The marriage that God created was one that was mutually helpful. It was a belonging to another. It was a sharing. Love, honest and deep love, was theirs. When we see such a marriage, we say that that those folks have a marriage that was made in heaven.
But understand that just being married doesn’t cure loneliness. Too many people in marriage find themselves quite lonely. That wasn’t your intention when you married. It wasn’t God’s intention when He created marriage. But it happens far too often – married people can become distant from each other in their own marriage. Sometimes people look for substitutes for that oneness in marriage which leaves them empty and further away from the oneness God designed. One of the biggest substitutes for this oneness that God designed for us is pornography. Did you know it is one of the largest industries in our country? It is a substitute for true love and drives people away from each other. It should never be a part of your life or my life or the life of any Christian. Many people live together without marriage, never making that commitment to each other of the oneness that they should have for the other. It is a trial marriage. All over the world we live with casual sex between consenting adults. No one could ever get hurt by that, right? Such things, such actions are far from the ways that God planned for us. They leave us looking for something deeper and richer.
God designed combating loneliness with a great sense of community with Him and with others. Many of you are not married. Does this passage just pass you by? Does it not apply to you? Jesus wasn’t married. St. Paul wasn’t married. Both had full lives, all within the design of God for them. They both had a lively connection with God. They had a full fellowship with others. They knew they were not alone but were held in the mercy of God and treasured the love of many others. Whether you are married, single or divorced our God has come to bring the gift of His presence to you. He has come to bring you the joy and care of others in your life. I believe He addresses our loneliness in powerful ways.
A marriage made in heaven isn’t just for married folks. It applies to all of us because the marriage made in heaven is the marriage that comes from heaven, it comes from God. It has always been the thought of God from before the first day of creation that God would make a way for mankind. We are given peace with God. God sent Jesus here to make the bridge between our sin and His love. We are connected to Him, all through the persistent seeking and finding of Jesus. We have a God who doesn’t give up on us. When He says to Adam that it wasn’t good for him to be alone, God has spoken that same word to us. He does not want our hearts to be far from Him. He doesn’t want our lives to be filled with discord and anxiety. He brings us close to Himself.
The Bible says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1) There is a unity, a oneness, that God has made with us through the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross and His victorious resurrection. The Bible speaks about our oneness with God in this way: We are the bride and Jesus is the bridegroom. That is a marriage truly made in heaven.
A marriage made in heaven and from heaven is how we get to live with others, now. If you are far away from your partner isn’t today a good time for peace and reconciliation? If, for whatever reason you sense that you are not at peace with people special to you, today is a good day to begin speaking to that. If you have become lonely, or others you know have become lonely, may God become part of this brilliant action to be connected to others once again.
God had a brilliant plan to create a marriage made in heaven. He is still working that plan today. In His relationship of grace with us and our relationship with others He continues to work among us. In Him we are never alone. Amen!!
