In exploring the biblical themes of social responsibility, I had next thought to look at the Wisdom literature and prophets, but I want to take a brief pause to consider something that I think is rather significant in the Creation narrative that plays off of the idea of justice. This might be somewhat brief, but I think it's worth the detour because, if I'm right in how I'm reading this, it grounds the idea of injustice in the narrative of the Fall. This isn't news; obviously mistreatment of any kind is a fruit of sin and not of righteousness. But I think there's a subtle hint in the actual narrative itself of what is to come.

If we read through the account in Genesis 2 of Adam naming the animals and, following, the creation of the woman, we get a sense that there is an equality, a sharing, a completion that happens when the woman comes on the scene. We hear the amazement in Adam's voice as he speaks of her as "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh," the wonder of who God has created to share his life. We hear echoes of chapter 1 when we are told that God created humans in God's image as both male and female, and we get a sense that together they are in the image of God moreso than either on his or her own. To that end, when Adam calls her "woman", there is a sense of honor and beauty and wonder at this one who is like and yet unlike, and amazing for being so.

Names are powerful things. Names mean things - anyone who fails to understand why things like inclusive language are significant probably fails to understand the significance of names. Names are signs of authority; if I can name you, I in some sense have a power over you, a power to grant life or choke it. Anyone who has been on the receiving end of either a powerful blessing of a great name or a terrible burden of a shameful one knows what I mean. I try always to speak to my boys in words that give life, because I never want them to grow up under the pain and shame of an identity crafted out of harsh words. Most times I succeed, and for the times that I fail I pray for God's grace.

Adam, I think, fails miserably in chapter 3. After all of the wretched happenings of the narrative, we get this one small comment that carries tremendous significance - "Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living." Here, I think, is the first fruit of broken relationship of the Fall. Although Adam has called her "woman" before, now he names her personally, in essence claiming the position of domination that she has been cursed to live under. By naming her, he says in no uncertain terms that he has authority over her. And notice that the name he chooses in this particular context reflects closely what she has been cursed to bear - her name will remind her always of the pain that she must face as a result of their sin.

So what does this have to do with justice? I think that in some sense we see here that the immediate fruit of sin in the context of the narrative is the domination of one person over another. It is a fruit that we carry, each of us, to this day. When we act in ways that proclaim domination, we perpetuate the fruit of the curse. When we act in ways that proclaim submission and service, we proclaim the Kingdom, something that we won't truly begin to see in the biblical narrative until the coming of the second Adam, who breaks the curse and calls us back to full humanity.