Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." God said, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food."  And it was so.  ( Genesis 1:26-30 NRSV )

Once again, our Monday morning Bible study group came through. Though we were discussing another topic, it was interesting to me that the subject of the imago Dei, or "image of God" came up. Before I dig into what I found interesting, let me say that the subject of the image of God is an enormous one, and at best all I can do in this reflection is scratch the surface.

I want to begin with questions for you, the reader: What does it mean to you that you are created in the image of God? That your spouse, your kids, or your neighbor are created in that image? Is that image your capacity to love? We can see examples of animals in the natural world that have the capacity for empathy, so I don't think we've landed on a definition here.

Is it your ability to reason? Most tend to land here. We are special because only we have the capacity for higher level intelligence. So, the reasoning goes, being made in the image of God must have something to do with intelligence, rationality, and creativity. But if this is true, then what about human beings that were born without higher order intelligence? What about an anencephalic child, or a child born without normal brain structures as a result of a neural tube defect during their development? Since they cannot reason, use language, etc., are they barred from participation in this image of God?

You see where I am going, don't you? The minute we try to neatly define the contours and limits of this gift, we immediately get into questions of who is in and who is out. History should serve as a warning against this path. Once we get into the business of defining what it means to be human, it is very easy to ignore the humanity of others. The sin of slavery, for example, was built upon such a foundation of lies.

Instead, I think it is better for us to pay attention to what the Bible actually says. The writer of Genesis 1 shares that our being made in this image isn't about a particular status or set of abilities found in individuals; instead, it is a collective status. Both male and female, together, bear that image. Together they are fully human, in cooperation and community with one another. Not only that, it is in being fruitful and multiplying, or, in other words, in fostering and sharing community with offspring and others, that they have God's image and exercise God's authority in the world. Bearing God's image can only be done in community!

Moreover, if you think about this passage within its context, this idea of bearing God's image means that we exercise sovereignty as God does (in a limited fashion, of course; we are not God but only bear God's image). In the ancient world, there was only one human being in a society given such an honor, and that was the king. In Egypt, for example, King Akhenaten (formerly Amenhotep IV, father of King Tutankhamun, or King Tut) was born into a royal house that named him after a god because as pharaoh, he would someday be the embodiment of that god (Amun-Ra). When he turned to the worship of Aten, the name stuck, and his new name reflected his belief that he embodied Aten in the world and exercised Aten's power.

Yet the scriptural account turns this kind of thinking on its head. The gift of being bearers of the image of God, the gift of reigning and of caring for and cultivating the garden of the world is a task shared by all human beings, not just a ruler at the top of the social pyramid. As William Brown puts it in his wonderful book, The Seven Pillars of Creation, the concept of the image of God in Genesis 1 involves the humanization of all persons as royal persons who are made to share and reflect God's responsible rule with one another and care for the goodness of creation as much as God cared enough to form it.

In the end, this means that we are truly human when we exercise the responsibility to care for and love one another as God cares for and loves us. Is this not exactly the point Jesus preached to us so long ago? "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (John 13:34).

In Christ,

Pastor Sam