In His Image…By the Revd. David Burgess
One of the best things about getting away from the city as we did nearly 12 years ago is seeing the sky without light pollution. The interviews for the post of minister in these parishes coincided with the peak period for the 1997 comet Hale Bopp. It looked spectacular enough in West London, but out here it was stunning.
When you see things like that, it’s tempting to ask the question “Why do we count?” We’re small creatures on a small planet in a remote part of one of billions of galaxies. Statistically, we’re smaller than a rounding error. It’s hard to make much of a case for our importance given these numbers.
But I’d like to take us back to the beginning to look at the Bible’s account of how we came to be. In the very first chapter of Genesis, God’s been creating all kinds of things and animals. On day six, God creates us. Here’s how it reads:
Then God said, “Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life – the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the livestock, wild animals, and small animals”. And it concludes “…and so it was. Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good. This all happened on the sixth day” (Genesis 1:26-31).
We are special, and special in several ways. God speaks about our purpose before he even creates us; we are to be made in God’s image; and we are given a job to do. All that means that we are given a role as God’s representatives here on earth, to master and to use the creation.
Consider this for a moment and see if it changes the way that you think. On the one hand, we under-value people by saying that they’re statistical or biological accidents. On the other, we can over-value people by thinking that we’re the centre of creation. Genesis gives us a different view.
It teaches us about the incredible value of human life. C.S. Lewis put it this way: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours…”.
Even though the image has been tarnished as a result of sin, it’s still there, and it still makes human life valuable. Because of God’s image, we should never put down any human being. Every person, regardless of disability, age, race, gender or sin is an image-bearer of God and – thinking particularly about harvest – a fellow steward with you of creation.
This also tells us about what God is up to today. People often talk about what God does in the after-life, but God is busy right now. He’s restoring his image in us. Following Jesus means that God begins the process of image restoration within us. What God made very good in the beginning, and was then tarnished by sin, God is making perfect again.
You probably know the New Testament story where some teachers of the law tried to trap Jesus by asking him whether it was right to pay taxes. Jesus’s reply was on these lines: “Coins are made in the image of Caesar, and therefore they belong to Caesar”. But he went even further. He also told us that we are responsible to give to God what belongs to God. That means that because we are made in the image of God, we belong to God. We are his. Giving him all that we are, all that we have, is the least that we can do. We belong to him.
So that’s us – we’re made in God’s image, we’re bearers of his essence, and we’re stewards of his creation. God is restoring that image in us, and we belong to him. That’s something to give thanks for and celebrate.