2nd Sunday before Lent - Ordinary 6C - Feb 11th 2007
Readings: Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-25 Psalm 65 Revelation 4 Luke 8:22-25
The stoy from Genesis describes human being as central to God's creation. God does everything to please the peson he has made.
He gives power to the human being which is shown in allowing Adam to name everything in the world.
But God feels Adam's loneliness and while Adam sleeps, he takes one of his ribs and makes "woman" from the rib.
So God makes relationship - the delight of both of them is evident.
The story has traditionally added fuel to the sexual politics debate - but it's not a question of man first, woman second. The sequence is - one person was created - then another for the sake of each other. There are so many imags in th passage from Revelation. They include:
There is a collection of images on Revelation at http://catholic-resources.org/Art/Revelation-Art.htm We sing "casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea." This is based on Revelation 4 - and there is a picture of this by Pat Marvenko Smith.
| There aren't many pictures of Eve before the Fall. Gustav Klimt's painting shows Eve in her innocence - naked with no shame. The following picture and meditation is by Fr Jim Haase.  Creation of Eve Fullness of being Michaelangelo?s muscular Creator Male and female they created us Toiling to remake Eve in God?s image | Possible Preaching Path A word of God's making and a world f our own making. There was a time in human memory of intimacy with God - when God made man and woman. Th story goes that this was short-lived. Adam and Eve had to be expelled from Paradise because there is no room for sin there. The resulting distance btween heaven and earth is brought out in the passages from Revelation 4 and Luke 8. In the first, a vision of heaven, there is glassy sea and the ordered, constant worship of heaven led by the four evangelists (living creatures). In Luke the sea is anything but glassy. The sea was so stormy that the disciples were sure they were going to drown. Jesus (the voice from heaven?) rebuked the sea and all became calm - (like the sea in Revelation)
The storm on the Lake has become a metaphor fo our human struggles. We have expressions like "lost at sea", "going under", "stormy relationships". Very often we think we are not going to make it - particulalry fearful at night - unable to sleep. Jesus asked "Where is your faith?" - suggesting that the life of God - the angels, the powers of heaven - are concerned for our well-being.
pictures by Eric de Saussure 1968 http://www.biblical-art.com/artist_artwork.asp?id_artist=2266&alt=2&pagenum=1 De Saussure was a member of the Taize Community.
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