In the Imagine of a Triune God
Genesis 1:1-5; John 1:1-5;
Genesis 1:26-31
You
are created in the image of God!
Isn’t that
amazing…humbling…inspirational and scary
at the same time…you are
created in God’s image!
Today’s text affirms that Biblical truth
“God created humankind in his image”
Wow
You
know what is even more amazing?
Look to the person to your right…
That person is created in
God’s image!
Look to the person to your left…
That person is created in
God’s image!
“In the image of
God he created them
male and female he created them.
What
does it mean to be created in the image of God?
We are the only creature in creation
of which that is said.
Sometimes we take that
Biblical truth and try to
Understand God by
looking at ourselves.
A strange reverse engineering.
We have a certain understanding of
good and fairness
so God must work
within our understandings
of what constitutes good and
fairness.
Or we have certain physical traits and
abilities
So we imagine that God must
be like we are
Or like out clan or ethnic
group is.
We have a certain understanding of
strength
And we think God exercises
strength and power
In that way and we
are sorely wrong.
For
some reason, perhaps it is sin
We are tempted to exploit that fact
that
we are created in the image
of God
We
try to understand God by trying to understand ourselves
And that gets us in trouble because
then we end up
Imagining God in our
image and our imagination
As created
in God’s image
and God’s imagination.
In
Philippians Paul says:
“Christ
Jesus, though he was in the form of God
did not count equality with
God as something to be exploited
but emptied himself, taking
the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.”
Through
the Christological lens of Jesus Christ.
We
can only understand God as God revealed himself
In
Jesus Christ and once we start to understand
This
Triune God revealed in Christ then
We
can understand ourselves better
That’s why we read the first two scripture
lessons together.
We
are the product of God’s imagination and God’s Word
God
is not the product of our imagination or our words.
We
are created in the whole image of God
The
Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our brief Statement of Faith helps us
understand what that means
in shorthand so that we can
understand them better.
“In sovereign love God created the world good”
Why
did God create the world?
Was
God lonely and wanted humans as companions?
No,
God was and is already complete in God’s self
Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
God created the world as an act of love in perfect
freedom.
So
when we say God created the world in sovereign love
But
also that God exercises that power in love.
God
is not motivated by revenge or anger but by love.
We are created in the image of God.
We
were given incredible power over all of creation
But
it is not unbridled power but rather
It
is power motivated by love of God and each other.
Being
created in the image of God is to be the best stewards
That
we can be as we care for all of God’s creation,
Not
motivated by greed or power but by selfless love.
That’s the first part of being created in the image
of God.
The second part of being created in the image of the
Triune God
Is to
be created as one unity in our diversity.
We
are not all the same any more than the Triune God
Who
is at once Father, Son and Holy Spirit
And
yet there is a unity in us when we
Are
obedient to God
“Not my will but Thy will
be done”
replaces Adam’s words in the
Garden of Eden
It wasn’t my fault wit was the women you gave me
Or Eve’s words: “It was
the serpent who tricked me.”
Being
created in the image of God is not about being the same
And
blaming the other who is different that we are.
Rather it is about acknowledging our differences
And celebrating ur unity as God’s people.
The Brief Statement summarizes this by saying:
“God
make everyone equally in God’s image,
male
and female, of every race and people”
Paul
said it well in his letter to the Galatians: “For in Christ Jesus you are
all children of God through Faith… there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor
free, male or female, all are one in Christ.” (Galatians 3:
Paul was just underlining what our Genesis passage says:
“In the image of God he
created them,
Male
and female he created them.”
Lastly, being created in the image of the Triune God means
That we were not created to be all alone in isolation,
We were created to be in community with each other
Even as God is in communion with God’s self
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God even
said “It is not God that man should be alone.”
We sometimes think we need to be rugged individuals,
We sometimes think we are each an island unto himself
We are INDEPENDENT!
But the Brief Statement of Faith says we are created
“to
live as one community.”
That’s not to say we live dependent or codependent lives
But rather that we are interdependent.
We rely on each other as the communion of
The Holy Spirit.
I have experienced that communion personally this week.
I am usually out there taking cre of people in the midst of pain
But this week, I am one of the people who is in pain
As I mourn the passing of my father.
The community has been caring for me.
That doesn’t eman that I am week but it means
That I am lucky to be in the midst of a
Community in Christ
where on one member suffers we all suffer
and care for each other in the power
of the Holy Spirit.
So that’s what it means to be created in the image of the Triune God
We are good stewards in charge of creation just as
God the Father acted in sovereign love to create us.
We are diverse and yet we find our unity in Christ
Who is the head of a Body that includes a diverse assortment
Of Body parts- eyes, ears, noses all working together.
And we are a community of the Holy Spirit.
Are mutually depend on each other and held together by
God’s Spirit.
Lets share the Brief Statement of Faith as out affirmation
Of being created in the image of the Triune God.
Amen