One for the road...

We don't fix faith...

...faith fixes us.  Discuss?

Goodies and badies...

One of the games that my 4 yr old has recently started playing with me is 'goodies' and 'badies.'  The rules of the game are quite simple: the goodies always win and the badies always loose (and I am nearly always the badie!)...

It is not something that we've ever really taught him so I find it fascinating how he has picked up this theme in the stories he has heard - picking up a basic plotline of our culture. 

As we get older we find the world is not quite that simple - often the badies seem to win and the goodies seem to lose - apart from in the world of books and films where the convention still usually ends with a triumph for TEAM good. 

Even the christian narrative can be boiled down to 'in the end' the goodies win and that can lead to a certain amount of arrogance in the 'rightness' of being on the winning side, indeed i have found it engenders a mentality where my winning involves others losing.

Of course the other part of the childhood narrative that continues is that when it comes to my life I remain the goodie - I don't look at myself and think i'm the badie, in my narrative I am the hero, the star, the centre - and the qualities of a good life are doing what it takes to make me happy as long as i don't really hurt anyone else.  Badies them become those who are stopping me from being me, or even those who are not like me.  One of the reasons I loved the image above is that it reminds me how easy it is to project onto another without ever having to stand in their shoes.

More complicated is my capacity inside me to be both a goodie and a badie - I can do things that are good for others and almost straigth away do things that only are only good for me at the expense of others - my individual human story replicated between groups, gangs, nations - our capacity to do great good and our amazing ability to them shoot ourselves in the foot by doing something stupedously bad/selfish.

It is one of the the things that attracts me to the Christian story and the life of following Jesus - the attraction of the great paradox - by giving up my life for a life in Jesus I get life and to intentiionally be part of the best of life, the generous, giving, helping others experience the good (not just be a goodie-two-shoes)...

  This inner confrontation, challenge and change that I have found in my life of  facing the insecurities, weaknesses and fears that drive me to be a badie at the expense of the people and planet around me.  And in the reality of my weaknesses the encouragement to help others rather than just myself - surrounding myself with people who are in the same boat aware of our collective and individual capacity to get it so wrong (the church has  had more than it's fair share of being the badie and will continue to do so)  and to be honest and humble in the light of that realisation.  But more being with a people intentional in encouraging each other in cooperating and working with God to do good, to bless and help others. 

The excitement of not having to feel like a baddie, to be able to be forgiven and to ask for forgiveness, to be liberated from guilt and condemnation and a world of me first is a beautiful thing.  But more it seems that in the practicing of doing good, in helping others, in following Jesus in the way of service and sacrafice is where we actually meet Jesus, where I am changed the most and reorientated towards goodness.  When I withdraw from community, from spiritual practices, from giving and sharing I find myself also withdrawing into a world where once again I dominate and my orinetation and my being a goodie comes more often with strings of expectation of it being returned, about my self image that i'm not a badie and still  the occasional moment where my capacitiy for unselfish goodness shines through...

What do you think 'being a goodie' means for christians? How do you practice being intentionally good?  What do you find helps you and hinders you in this?

The God who forgets...

I read this lil story below and was reminded of recent of my posts on  the sins of leaders/followers, and just how generous God is and in his image how generous he is making us...

"At Providence House Sister Elaine liked to tell
a story about a bishop
who made fun of an old woman
because she claimed that when she prayed to God,
God spoke back.

Now the bishop had devoted his whole life
to the study of God,
and he was sure that if God spoke to anyone,
it would not be to such as she.
But she insisted. “It’s true. God speaks to me.”

“Prove it!” said the bishop.
Arrogant. Almost angry.
“Ask God what are my greatest private sins.
If you return knowing these, then I will believe
that God speaks to you.”

The woman agreed to do so and they parted.
The following day she returned
and the bishop greeted her with a smirk.
“Well, did you ask God what are my most secret sins?”
“Yes,” she replied. And the look on her face
was so intense, so knowing,
that the bishop hesitated but asked it anyway,
“And what did God say?”
“God said…,” the old woman spoke softly but with assurance.
“God said … He couldn’t remember them.”

HT to inward/outward

Restoring my humanity: personal experiences of Jesus as the way/truth/life...

Yesterday I reflected on some of my thinking why Jesus is the way not only for me to find God but also to become fully human.  Today I'd like to explore that by looking at some of my life and  how for me Jesus has helped me become not just more human but a better human in terms of my work, marriage, my sexuality etc...

My way or Jesus way?

The way of Jesus for instance was the way of self sacrifice and death, through torture.  Watch Mel Gibson’s The Passion and it all comes home in glory/gory filled technicolour.  To see someone die with such dignity and compassion in the face of such suffering and injustice is a calling to aspire high above my immediate life goals/desire for a way of gadgets, gizmos and carefully collected knowledge. 

It is a way that I have often wandered off as well.  The low point of this journey came just over 6 years ago. 

I had gone through a patch of being wildly successful at work, given increased responsibilities for key clients and a higher wage packet I plunged myself into work, dreaming of the day when I would become a partner in the firm of auditors for which I worked.  Long hours and such dreams of more success and money kept me feeling happy and content and my need for following the way of God faded.  I was doing this myself and reaping all the benefits of such.  Forget the wild ways, the hidden valley, the exposed windy hillside – I was down in big green lush fields where I would live my days in gratifying and enjoying the desires of my heart. 

Over night it all began to go sour. 

I got a new boss who didn’t like me.  I got dumped on with more and more responsibility; previously it had felt liberating, now I was hopelessly out of my depth and drowning.  My staff failed to get their work done.  My clients complained and circulated emails and memos out of context.  I was warned, failure would not be tolerated.  So I of course redoubled and trebled my efforts, worked longer hours, made bigger promises, tried to bluff that I was thriving under this pressure instead of being crushed.
For awhile it looked even sweeter.  Off my own back I organised a transfer to the Boston office subject to the approval of my bosses, I dreamed of new experiences and of course returning higher up the ladder and work seemed to be going good again. 

Then it all fell apart. 

Staff shortages had led to a poorer piece of work but the new boss wasn’t interested in excuses my manager and then my boss both phoned me up at a client to tear a strip off me.  After my manager’s call I was shaken, retreating to the toilet I started to cry, I had tried so hard and it was so unfair, pulling myself together I returned back to my desk to put a brave face on it.  I still had some dregs of self confidence left, I had demonstrated bounce back ability before, and I would do so again.  Then the phone rang again, it was the boss.  Nothing I could say could satisfy him, he had written me off, it was clear by his tone, his comments.  My thin wisp of self belief snapped along with something inside me, the stress, the pressure, the end of all my hopes, the dreams becoming a nightmare and I started sobbing into the phone.  All I kept saying between wracking sobs was “I tried, I tried so hard…”  The boss told me to call me back after I pulled myself together and hung up.  Leaving me to sob it out and to leave work that night a broken man.  No move to Boston, future in the firm, it was all clear to me that I would have to move on…

The way I had chosen had looked like leading to success but instead had shown me failure.  Humbly with no where else to turn or anything else to cling to I began to return to the way of God, haltingly, honestly, scared of rejection I began to read little snippets of the bible, to pray and to wonder what the future might now hold for me.  I didn’t feel at all comfortable out on the lonely path but at least I had something of a map and compass…

Looking back the humbling of me was also the making of me.  Going back was going forward.  I was vulnerable and in a place where God could find me, guide me, change me, take me on… And of course then there was truth…

Before my sense of pride, my goals, my ambitions, my fears and my insecurities had kept me blind from the truth of who I was, what I was like, why I was like it.  Now vulnerable I could begin to face some of the truth about my character, my nature but it would also take something more.  It would take someone modelling the power of honesty and in turn giving me the courage to be honest as well and it would take a dramatic intervention by God to show me the truth.

There's truth and then there is The Truth...

I have already blogged a little about my encounters with truth and deeper truth and the strugle to be honest about my sexuality here.

It was on a mission trip to Zambia when the radical encounter with truth which has lasted for the last 4.5 yrs began.  I think I had signed up for the trip in my heady days of success but by the time I departed I was wondering exactly what the point of me being there was... 

Is the consideration that I might be wrong the new right? or why christians like me shouldn't find [on-going] humility such a surprising revelation...

Christians should find it easy to consider/acknowledge or even go as far as admit that they might be wrong - was the thought that I had this morning.  Swiftly followed by the question: 'ok so why do I find it so hard then?'

I was wrong once [upon a time]...

What do I mean - well I was thinking that the most natural entry point in entering the kingdom of God is the one where we repent, or re-think how we are doing life and come to a crisis of realisation that maybe we are not doing so well - heading the wrong way down the right road as Jason described it in his talk yesterday.

Now however that has been framed in the decision making process is not really the point - the point is at some point I made a decision to follow Jesus - or to put it crudely i said ok my kingdom is pretty crap, small, crowded squalid place where i reign and i've heard/read/felt/experienced something different Jesus which seems to be your Kingdom and therefore I abdicate my throne and my kingdom and instead want to join/be part of/live in your kingdom.

I admitted i was wrong/limited/shallow/oppressed/selfish/arrogant/greedy/cruel/unkind and consumeristic and more than that i participated in a confederation of kingdoms called 'society/culture' where we shared all these things in common - we had a simple constitution which said...

We each have the right to do whatever we want that makes us happy as long as it doesn't mess too much with our individual happiness [and even then it will limited by our historical understanding of protecting my rights to health/wealth/possession].  With that caveat I won't tell you how to live your life and you don't tell me how to live yours...

Your kingdom come - but i'll take the franchise option of my will still being done!

But here is the nub, I wonder after making that initial confession that I was wrong and deciding that I needed God whether I just changed the name on the outside but fell straight back into my old practices - instead of one form of cultural acknowledgement i now had another, instead of moving into God's kingdom I set up shop on the border and took the best of God - he will look after me, sort things out for me, keep me safe, healthy, wealthy, problem free whilst continuing to have the best of my life before - it's about me and my happiness.

Yes of course this living still required pay offs, compromises and becoming fluent in two forms of language/lifestyle and if anyone asked of course i was fully in - look i bashed the minorities who christians were supposed to bash, i had made my confession, i tried to twist a few arms of people to join me but in reality it was still my kingdom, loosely affiliated to God's, mainly in name only.

In my kingdom i drifted away from that original thought that maybe i was wrong, maybe i needed to continue the process of rethinking, repenting, reconsidering and instead I became about being right in my new affiliation - I found a nice comfortable place of doing what i wanted and any challenge to that was met by the reaction:  'who the hell are you to tell me how to live my life, what I should believe and how i should live that belief!'

Over recent years experience has shown me that I have been wrong about many things - that I my own actions are so often rooted in my own insecurity and addictions, my selfish need and more than that i participate in a faith whose systems inherently reinforce that...

I have come back to the point where I started from which is that I am often as wrong about being a christian as I was as about being a secular member of society - i have made both experiences about me and my needs, about doing things that make me happy with a veneer of respectability of doing so in the name of God...

So I wonder....

... if instead of insisting on my own rightness i became open to consider that maybe i was at best only partly right?  I wonder if i continued to rethink/repent in my life whether i would be open to letting it be about how i acted in my marriage, at work, who i voted for, what i wore, how i played, who i hang out with, how i care for the communities i am part of including this planet? 

...whether that ongoing consideration that I have a tendency to get things wrong would help me be less insistent that MY way was the right way - whether that was my way of doing church or anything else?

...if being more humble would make me more open to advice about how to live my life, would make me more open to sharing who I am rather than who I think I should be, make me transparent as to the pain/selfishness/addiction/stress/tension/hang ups that I have and need help with but also make me more loving in reaching out to people with their own issues/stresses - to care for them as people made in God's image rather than as projects to shape into that of my own and assimilate into my kingdom [so i feel better/smugger/more righteous about being me]?

...that being wrong is an opportunity to be a work in progress rather than have to feel i am a finished article?  That life is about learning, seeking, searching for God and he is about finding me in growing depth and transformation?

...that i might have not have all the answers, or even all the questions makes me wonder if rather than seeking to enforce a particular practise/way i should be more open, supportive, encouraging of people who are different to me?  To what end am I right is less important to the Q is this helping someone find/connect/express their faith in Jesus in practise rather than per my own preferences/experience/choices?  Is polarity - i'm right/you're wrong a concept that should be on the way out and instead maybe something that says where are you right, where can i learn from you?

...what the impact of reflecting on whether we are still  being wrong would mean to our gatherings/structures/systems as a faith, how could we change them and how could they help us to be more humble, open, God seeking?

...that being open to being wrong by myself and my tendency to self determine in favour of me is not an invitation to seek to participate in a community? to encourage confession?  to support accountability?  To seek to make my life not so much about just me but to encourage me to open up to others, to seek to love and care for people and in return to do the same for me - so that we can challenge each other and ask the Q how are we living life?  Are we living out what we believe? More are we living out the practise of life, the marks that Jesus suggests that we should? And encourage, love, support and spur another on to do so?

...any more that you can think of/would like to add for you?

Hear The Voice...re-telling and re-listening to the bible's story

 

Hear the voice is the over arching project behind 'the dust off their feet' [a retelling of the book of Acts], which I mentioned I was reading  and am really enjoying it.

I thought you might be interested in the philosphy behind the series, so here's the background:

"One way to describe this approach is to say that it is a 'soul translation,' not just a 'mind translation.' But 'translation' is not the right word. It is really the retelling of the story. The 'retelling' involves translation and paraphrase, but mostly entering into the story of the Scriptures and recreating the event for our culture and time. It celebrates the role of scholars, but it also values the role of writers, poets, songwriters, and artists. Instead of a translation born strictly of academia, teams of scholars partner with a writer to blend the mood and voice of the original author with an accurate rendering of words of the text in English.

The Voice is unique in that it represents collaboration among scholars, writers, musicians, and other artists. Its goal is to create the finest tools to help believers experience the joy and wonder of God's revelation. In this time of great transition within the church, we are seeking to give gifted individuals opportunities to craft a variety of products and experiences: a translation of the Scriptures, worship music, a worship film festival, biblical art, worship conferences, gatherings of creative thinkers, a website for individuals and churches to share biblical resources, and books derived from exploration during the Bible translation work.

The heart of each product within The Voice project is the retell-ing of the Bible story. To accomplish the objectives of the project and to facilitate the various products envisioned within the project, the Bible text is being translated. We trust that this retelling will be a helpful contribution to a fresh engagement with Scripture. The Bible is the greatest story ever told, but it often doesn't read like it. The Voice brings the biblical narratives to life and reads more like a great novel than the traditional versions of the Bible that are seldom opened in contemporary culture."

If you're interested in exploring this further you can:

• read the intro and the first chapter of Acts [pdf] from 'the dust off their feet'
• read the first chapter from 'The Last Eye Witness' [pdf]- exploring the last week of Jesus life
• check out the website 'Hear The Voice'

SO what do you think of the project?

The dust off their feet [oh and some more thoughts this time inspired by chapter 7 of a new kind of christian]...

One of my quieter new yrs resolutions is try and start to re-engage with the bible.  Just to read it, enjoy it, be shaped by it and yeah let it read me...  It was one the great things about when I read the whole of the new testament in The Message paraphrase, it was alive, vibrant and it actually changed me - certain parts of the sermon on the mount, ephesians [love is about giving not getting] and Galations [power of grace] just blew me away and left me changed as a result...

But of late I feel I have only engaged with the bible when I want something, when it is something to support what I am saying/thinking - like calling up an old friend cos i'm after a favour and not cos i want to reconnect and renew our friendship/relationship.

Of course part of my problem is that old one of familarity breeds... well in this case arrogance, which is why the Message with its paraphrase was so shockingly good - it actually meant i read, listened, reflected, bathed in the words and wondered at possibility of what they suggested - somewhere a hunger woke up...

The bible is not the sole foundation of christian life/experience and it is more than just an answer book - infact when i go looking for answers i usually find i have already determined the answer when i let the bible read me i tend to find it throws up a whole lot of Qs about me and my life/experience.   It's an interesting dynamic that I am inspired/informed by christians, by theology, by experience and community and the bible - but the bible in turn inspires all these things... it awakens hunger for the things of God.

But with all hungers it dampened down, my life got different rythm, space got compacted and i went back to resting on bible laurels, don't read me i'll read you...

But now I'm back - i look at the morass on the inside of me and think yes I need God to be searching me, transforming me, shaping me - I need something to help me encounter God more, to inspire me,to challenge me, to bathe in, even to alter my brave waves the way a piece of music will - the flow of words, entwined with the Spirit.  And to help me I decided to pick something with a little structure - in my case: the dust off their feet.

The dust is a retelling of the book of Acts [ok Brian McLaren does that part] and the book has thoughts/insights/comments/reflections/view points etc to help make it an immersion rather than just a read... 

I've only just started so i'll let you know how it goes... if you've tried let me know what you think and if you have any other good recomendations of books that let the bible read you then i'd love to hear them...

Start with what I have, start with who I know, start from where I am...and give away more than I need to those who need it...

I have been reflecting on the last few days on the question I asked on my last post - about wheree to start in taking the NOW of the Kingdom of God seriously... and have been inspired having watched this clip reminding me of God's heart for the poor, the oppressed, the lost and the least, something you also may wish to do:

HT to Jamie

More than ever I think that the following words of Jesus sound the simpliest and yet seem the hardest to put into practice but maybe that has just been an excuse.  This year I said I would like to live more graciously and generously than last yr so I will try and take these words as being for NOW and not just for some other better time and ask Jesus and fellow followers like me to  help us all to live this sort of revolutionary life giving/revealing light...

"To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that's charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You'll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind."

2006 - a year of blogging dramatically...?

   

Some of the images from my yr...

I thought I'd take a few moments out to reflect on 2006 - way back at the start of the year I posted these reflections on the year to come and it has panned out that those really were the big things for me...

The how of course was an unknown quantity (well to some extent, Dan was a pretty obvious but what was unknown was what impact he would have)... but the year also involved moving house/area, joining a new chuch and new friends/thinking/ conversations/experiences...

With something like nearly 200 posts to review I have tried to pick out some key themes/experiences/thoughts and highlight posts that I think were the most helpful for me... you of course may well disagree.  If you haven't got time to read the image above tries to capture the sense of the year...

Seeker church to emerging church...

One of themes of the year was my change of church following moving from Reading to London.  From moving from a seeker-sensitive one to an emerging one.  I would not say that one is better than the other but for me I certainly feel more at home in the latter.  My ponderings on why this was one theme I explored in posts like this one on consuming/being consumed (written whilst still attending) and this more balanced one after I left on why I think the seeker model did not seem to see many unchurched people connecting with Christ and faith community...

A new Environment...

One of the key changes this year for me was the widening of my faith to start exploring how God has called humanity to tend and care for creation.  For me this is something new and has given me much to think about but one thing that I am glad of is that God is the ultimate re-cycler as well as renewer...

Conversations/constructive critique in unlikely places?

One of the people who seemed to crop up in my posts this year was ardent atheist Richard Dawkins - whether it was me appreciating his insight that his 'faith' should be focus on making the world a better place, welcoming the critique of new atheism on christianity (and indeed all critique from without) or just having a chuckle at his interview with Stephen Colbert.

This year was clearly one for learning and listening to people who believe in no God - it was back in February that I heard about Hemant 'the ebay atheist' and from their went on to enjoy meeting Helen and participating in the site she hosts for christians/atheists/others to enjoy safe conversations at the edge...

For me this theme of being open to critique and more importantly responding to critique/criticism, particularly from Christians, was a key thought, from desiring to be a church that models love/confession authenticity to why friendly fire is well seldom friendly and maybe suggesting I need to work on more constructive ways of blogging as a result...

And from some likely places/friendly faces too...

One thing I have loved this year is how so many blogging friends have spurred me on, major HT's to Tim, Cynthia, Mak & David, Molls, John, Rick, Marc and Jason Clark, top thoughts, challenges and conversations!  Mr Clark also kindly encouraged me in my writing and thinking by letting me guest post on his blog a few times (the crazy fool :) and taking me out for coffee as well (just don't ask about being his theological pimp and blogging gimp!!)...

Blogging with no [a]gender

My thoughts on the subject of gender seemed to embody the voltaire-esque thought that I might not always agree but I will defend to the death your right to express your view...

It came as something as a surprise explore the issues of why men might not go to church, my thoughts on how/why wild at heart has helped me and whether Godmen are a good or bad thing seemed so contriversial, but then maybe given my liberal mindset and past history of male oppression of women maybe I should have been more aware, lol...

but I hope I struck a balance in posts on why women in my view have an equal God call to teach/lead as men, a heart felt longing for me to actively focus on reconcilliaton/repentance/restitution and exploring some related issues like is there really a jezabel spirit [other than in spiritual name calling] and a possible exploration of the intention of God in creation and the completion his creation project for men and women...

Faith thinking/writing/living...

Health warnings in mind one of the things I enjoyed most about this year was continuing to develop my faith thinking, writing and hopefully my living as a result - I have been inspired by the Deep Church lecture series I attended to do some more study next year, although probably not until late spring as Debs is not feeling to hot at the mo so need not take on too much at the mo...   

I have learnt a lot this year and the posts that I impacted me the most included exploring : homosexuality, chrisitan ethics, suffering, discipleship/following Christ,consumerism both my own consumer conscience, the difficuly of transforming culture as much as we are subjected to it as christians and the prevailing western world religion of...

And of course being a post-modern thoughts on truth/love were explored and indeed I turned the spotlight on my own thoughts on truth/honesty with regards to my own journey with God and my sexuality - something that the encouragement of friends gave me the courage to write about... and the truth maybe that my purpose in life is to model imperfection :)

I also explored some of my journey through my evengelical faith/heritage, from a conservative position to something more generous/humble in this  leafy_tale [word doc]

and this one, my fave/most impactful for me post of 2006.... my overview on what I think is the full gospel/good news story of God - it reminded me again that although I often get bogged down in details, there is a bigger and exciting story of liberation and love that I find myself to be part of... and I look forward to the continual unfolding of the story of you with 2007...

Thank you...

A final word of thanks to everyone who is let me comment on their sites, been so patient with me, helpful and construtive in conversation and to everyone who has done so here... one thing i so value is the freedom to ask Qs, to explore, to think and to do so as part of a faith community - I am so glad of your time/input to the various conversations across this year...

I wish you all a wonderful adventure filled 2007, may you all be blessed to be a blessing...

Lord of the (wedding) rings...

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in holy matrimony bind them

with apologies to Tolkien for the spoofing of the One ring but this comment from Molly has turned my thoughts towards the issue of men and women, particularly in a marriage context (although there is a wider societal one to bare in mind as well)...

"My husband says the same thing [why did God bother creating two different sexed]. I confess to having a hard time not wincing when he says it, though I try, but after living through patriarchy, I'm just a little sensitive, I think... He says what you just did, but what I hear is, "why would God bother to make 2 sexes if one wasn't supposed to be in charge of the other one."

Is domination by one sex over the other a correct reading of the intention/wish/will of God for men and women?  Or is it a result of the contamination of sin, of men and women deciding to seperate from God and each other, to struggle against one another for dominance, a selfish contest which men have managed to win overtly hands down resorting in women fighting covertly, force vs manipulation, conquest vs resistance etc...

Mirred in our own selfishness, seperation and my love affair with all things I,  it is easy to blame each other, it is even easier to resist any change in the status quo in case it adveresly disadvantages me - but if I believe as I do that the good news story of God is partly about restoration of his creation project, a liberation from my own self preocupations and an invitaiton to take part in the inbreaking of heaven on earth then this is something I need to consider... God is the God of yesterday, today and tomorrow - so I need to be mindful of what is God today in the context of God in the past and in the future - but that to me means thinking of the will/wish of God for humanity as expressed in male and female rather than merely arguing for one human position or another...

God's will in creating men and women..?

A good place to start my thinking is to reflect on what God was expressing when he created men and women as setout in the bible narrative in Genesis 1 & 2. In Genesis 1 we read:

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

So God created human beings in his own image.
      In the image of God he created them;
      male and female he created them.

This triggers off some thoughts in me - God says he wants to make humanity like "us" - I don't know what it says to you but one this is that God is communal - 3 persons in one and makes us 2 persons in one (if you like the image of woman being created out of man) - i.e. there is something distinctive but also of incredible unity - humanity was created for community with God and each other - the echo of the dance of the trinity was to be repeated with humanity - not a seperarate dance but a linked one, like a ripple within a ripple...

There are a number of Qs that get thrown up at this point, particularly if you believe that the account is a literal history i.e. this is exactly what happened at some point in history:

1. does God have a hierachy (if so that would support humanity having one)
2. does primacy in creation count i.e. does the fact that the story speaks of woman being created out of man

The second point is less important if you believe the story is high truth/God inspired narrative which is meant to teach us some important truths about our origin and God but not literally what happened i.e. if we involved it would have required both male and female to do so, unless we were all asexual...

(a number of other Qs also are there in terms of does our understanding of the beginning make sense to the reality of the present and indeed the reality of the future...)

but let's start at the beginning and discuss together the thoughts provoked by a more literal reading first and then a more narrative one second...