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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Sermon text mostly from the Old Testament lesson, but also pulling from the other two readings. Please be seated.
Adam was walking around in the Garden of Eden, feeling very lonely. So God asked him, “Adam, what’s wrong?” And Adam said, “I’m lonely.” So God said, “I’ll make you a companion, and it will be a woman.” Amen. And God said, “She will gather food for you, she’ll cook for you, and when you eventually discover clothing, she’ll wash it for you. She’ll agree with every decision that you make, she’ll have your kids and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night to take care of them, she won’t nag you, she’ll never disagree with you, she’ll never have a headache, and will freely give you love and passion whenever you need it.”
Adam asked God, “Well, what will a woman like this cost?” And God replied, “An arm and a leg.” Then Adam asked, “What can I get for a rib?” And the rest is history. Well, not total history, okay, at least not according to the Old Testament reading today, where God gives Adam the responsibility of caring for animals in giving them names.
Now, musician Bob Dylan wrote a wonderful, if not a bit humorous song about this event of Adam naming the animals. I won’t be singing it for you, but it goes like this a little bit, some of the words. “Man gave name to all the animals in the beginning, a long time ago. He saw an animal that liked to growl, big furry paws and he liked to howl, great big