Online Worship Service Sunday June 7, 2020 (Trinity Sunday)
Adam and Eve in the Garden - Creation, Songhea Cathedral, Tanzania
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Series: “Back to Basics”
Sermon: “Made in the Image of God”
Preacher: Rev. Ryan Slifka
Today we’re beginning a short little sermon series “Back to Basics” on a few select texts from the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible. These scripture texts bring us back to basics because they not only take us back to some of the most fundamental biblical stories. They also take us to the root of some of Christianity’s basic truths. Basic convictions.
The first comes from today’s scripture passage. Genesis chapter 1. The first book, first verse in the Bible. The creation of the universe, the creation of humanity. It comes twenty-six verses in. “Then God said,” reads the verse. “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” Today’s basic conviction is that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God.
Made in the image and likeness of God. According to the Bible, we humans possess a characteristic not shared by the rest of the natural world. Now, clearly it doesn’t mean that we look like God. After all, God is spirit (John 4:24). But instead it means that human beings have a uniqueness. A something else, a something more in our relation to our Creator.
Some interpreters believe that this something more is referring to our role in and among the natural world. Ancient near-eastern cultures understood kings as representatives of particular gods on earth. To rule on their behalf. This view is about the role of humanity among creation. We’re made in the image of God to govern creation on God’s behalf.
Other interpreters see this something more as referring to some capacity we have that other creatures don’t have. It could be the power to domesticate animals, or to shape our environment. The great 5th century theologian St. Augustine, thought the image of God referred to the human mind, to consciousness itself. He even saw the three-fold human structure of memory, understanding, and will as evidence of the Holy Trinity. In any case, in this view the image of God means there’s something about human nature that reflects our divine source.
The most important interpretation for us today, however, may be a third one. The third view is that the image of God in humanity has to do less with what we’re supposed to do, or what we are. It has to do with our value. With our worth as children of a common Creator.
As I said earlier, this scripture passage reflects its near-east origins. Kings were believed to be the representatives of particular gods on earth, given the role to govern on behalf of that god. This passage reflects that view, but it also introduces a new and radical notion into human history. Here it’s not just the king. It’s not a particular person, a particular group, tribe or nation that’s been chosen to represent the divine on earth. It’s all of humanity.
Now, most cultures and societies have believed that the family we’re born in to, the more powerful we are, the wealthier we are, the better we are, the closer to the divine we are. The more worthy and worthwhile we are. But in the biblical view, the image of the Creator is not to be found only in the well born, the royal, the wealthy, the powerful, or successful. But in humanity as a whole. The great Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann, says it like this: “there is one way God is imaged in the world and only one: [in] humanness!”[i] All humanity bears the image and likeness of God. Meaning that when we look into the face of another person, we’re not just looking into a bundle of atoms or amino acids, or a fellow mammal. We’re somehow, mysteriously looking into the face of our Creator. Which also means that when we’re good to another human being, we’re honoring God. And when we commit violence of any kind against another human being made in the image of God, we’re not just hurting another creature. We’re actually doing violence to God. We’re desecrating God’s very image.[ii]
Now, considering the news lately, I think the implications for this basic truth of Christian faith are obvious. Christians aren’t opposed to racism and for correcting systemic injustice just because we’re hopping on the latest progressive cause or political bandwagon. It’s because we believe that God is not only the Creator of all, but God has created each and every human being in God’s own image. God’s own likeness. Whether male or female. Black, white, brown, Asian, indigenous. Rich, poor. Gay, or straight, or every category, every other letter in the ever-growing acronym.
And maybe the most stunning and infuriating part is that it also goes far beyond this or that identity. God sends the rain on the just and the unjust alike. It applies to each of us regardless of our moral character, whether we do good or bad. Gorgeous celebrities and ugly-hearted gangsters. Respectable scholars and down and out junkies. Selfish billionaires and self-sacrificing sweatshop workers. Oppressed and oppressors. Sinners and saints. Every individual. Every human being. You, me, even those for whom God’s image is caked in the dirt of sin and impossible to see.
Meaning that each and every human being is infinitely precious. Meaning that each person’s worthy of the same dignity, respect, and opportunity. Meaning that each person’s worthy of the same love we owe to God himself. No exceptions. No fine print. Every single one.
Now, to be honest, I’ve had trouble these past few weeks thinking about how, as a Minister to address the issues of race that have rapidly surfaced. Many of you have expressed your sadness, your dismay at recent events, and openly expressed your helplessness wondering “what can I do?” And I’ve felt the same. I fear coming out of a place of defensiveness. I fear not doing justice to the depth of people’s hurting. And I fear giving easy answers to complex problems. As a Minister, as a pastor, as a spiritual leader, what can I say that hasn’t already been said? And likely said better?
All I can do, really, is bring us all back to basics found in the depth of our tradition, and in the Word of God. Basic truths like the one in today’s scripture. That each human being, regardless of race. Regardless of tribe, status, identity or moral character, is made in the image and likeness of God. Because what we need is more than just changes in our actions or in public policy, as important as these may be. What we need is conversion. We need a fundamental transformation of our consciousness from the ground up. We need to have how we see ourselves and how we see others completely refocused to see the image and likeness of God not only in those who we love, respect, and agree with. But to look at every human face, and see nothing less than the God we meet in Jesus Christ staring right back at us. This isn’t the end of things, of course. But for us, this is where true change always begins. It begins at here in Genesis at the beginning of all things. It begins with the image and likeness of God.
So may each of us be not conformed to this world and its ways of division, prejudice and hatred. But instead, by God’s grace, may each of us be transformed by the renewing of our minds. To see the image of God in each person. And to claim our identity as children of God. And God’s universal love as our own.
Amen.
[i] Walter Brueggemann, Genesis: Interpretation Bible Commentary
[ii] See John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.7.6: “In this way only we attain to what is not to say difficult but altogether against nature, to love those that hate us, render good for evil, and blessing for cursing, remembering that we are not to reflect on the wickedness of men, but look to the image of God in them, an image which, covering and obliterating their faults, should by its beauty and dignity allure us to love and embrace them.”