Gender and Table

In this morning’s sermon we considered the distinction between man and woman and noted a certain order of the home that is rooted in the Trinity and the order of creation. In considering the distinction between man and woman, I was primarily making application to the sphere of the family. Yet, in its original setting the distinction between man and woman is situated in the Garden, or the sanctuary of God’s presence. This means mankind’s fundamental nature and the fundamental distinction within mankind between man and woman must be understood in terms of worship. Man is not fundamentally homo sapiens, man the knower, but rather homo adorans, man the worshipper. And thus there is a sense in which the distinction between man and woman concerns worship, Adam’s priestly duty to serve (till) and guard (keep) the Garden sanctuary. And Adam’s first duty, and failure, with regard to his wife concerns sacramental food (the tree). It seems that sacramental worship in Garden required the presence of both man and woman. That just as the covenantal presence and blessing of God under the NC is connected to two or three being gathered in the name of Christ, even so in the Garden there were two not one, man and woman. Perhaps it’s the case that man and woman reflect the second and third persons of the Trinity with man serving as covenant Head after the pattern of Christ and woman serving as the covenantal bond of love, knitting the two together. Thus God is worshipped in Spirit and Truth by man and woman together. What we can know for sure is that you all are fulfilling your most basic functions here this morning. You have been made to worship the Triune God as man and woman, as husbands and wives, as sons and daughters. Furthermore, God made you for sacramental worship. And this morning he bids you to come and eat from the tree life that you might live!