Sin as Subplot - Belonging in the Biblical Story

As far as I can tell, most articulations of the Christian Story orient around an assumption that human beings are fundamentally flawed. The articulations jump right from a creation story to humanity's "fall from grace," as though the big problem that the Bible is concerned about is human willfulness, human disobedience, or human collusion with evil. 

It seems to me this reading fundamentally reads past the first real tension in the biblical narrative, the problem of human disconnection. "It is not good that the man (human) should be alone." (Genesis 2:18). 

In Genesis 2:18, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” The weight of this statement is even stronger when we remember the poetry of Genesis 1, which contains the refrain “God saw that it was good” seven times.

The repetition of the phrase alone is striking, but there are two additional amplifiers that we may not be aware of. First is the number of repetitions. In Hebrew the number seven is significant. Seven is the sum of three (a biblical number suggesting glory, weightiness, or perfection) and four (a biblical number suggesting creation).  In Isaiah 6, the cherubim sing “holy, holy, holy” to signify God’s perfection in holiness, while the four corners of the earth and the four rivers flowing out of Eden signify the created order. The sum of three and four is thus meant to summon our attention. God saw that it was good seven times. The repetition and connotation emphasize and underline creation’s goodness in the eyes of God. It’s almost impossible to get a more emphatic statement, but we do.

Just in case we didn’t catch the poem’s refrain as it sang “it was good” seven times, we have a second amplifier, what in English is translated “very good.” The English term very is a weak translation of the Hebrew term meʼōd. Meʼōd is defined first as “force, might” and second “to express the idea of exceedingly, greatly, very . . . Gn 1:31 . . . good exceedingly.” Creation is not just good. It is exceedingly, abundantly, greatly, forcefully good. This phrase gathers up all the earlier refrains from each “day” creation that has come before. The Creator God beholds creation and describes it as exceedingly good.

Now consider again “It is not good that the man should be alone” in Genesis 2:18. The contrast is like a verbal slap. The action breaks. The first point of tension in the whole narrative of Scripture is that even an exceedingly, abundantly, greatly, forcefully good creation, human creatures can be alone...can be lonely… and that loneliness is not good.  

What if the story the Bible wants to tell is not primarily about human willfulness, sinfulness, and disobedience, but a story about connection and relationship? The climactic vision in John's apocalypse has the image of a wedding feast and human community as its goal, not just victory over evil. 

I'm not suggesting that the story of creation, fall, redemption isn't important. I am wondering, whether that that story might be a dominant subplot in a larger story about connection and belonging. 

What does this mean? For starters, it suggests that the starting place for Christian faith isn't, "there's something wrong with you," but with the longing for belonging stamped into our most basic human desire. 

How do you experience belonging?  

What difference would it make if we read the story of existence through the lens of belonging?