Kendall's Notebook Page 48
Incarnation: A Doctrine or Way of Life
February 5, 2006
Mark 1: 29-39
Genesis 1: 26
By Kendall Brown
The understanding that humans are created in the image of God is such a fundamental Christian doctrine, that many non-Christians have heard of it and connect it with being a part of the Judeo-Christian religion. What does it mean that we are created in the image of God? Where do we turn to find an answer to that question?
For children, that we are created in God’s image means very simply that we physically look like God. For grown-ups, moving beyond that Sunday School understanding requires a conscious effort. That effort requires energy and work that not everyone is willing to give to the question. Consequently, many adults settle for the Sunday School interpretation that our being in God’s image means we look like God, and vice versa, God looks like us.
If we are to expand our understanding of being in God’s image, where do we turn for some guidance in this effort. This morning, I am suggesting that there can be no better place than the story of creation in Genesis, which is the Bible’s home neighborhood for the doctrine.
There are two creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2. Let us turn to the chapter one story about creation events on the 6th day – the day humans are finally introduced to God’s world. In verse 26 we read: “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.” (Gen.: 1:26)
Reflecting on that verse, I share with you a teaching that I have received from Dr. Clint McCann, Old Testament Professor at Eden Seminary. Dr. McCann points out that God’s giving dominion to humans is an act of radical grace and love to be found in the very moment of our creation. In the very moment that God sets us in place on the universal stage, God graciously and lovingly empowers us by giving humans dominion over a vast portion of creation.
So what does it mean that we are created in the image of God? It means more than looking like God. It means that we are like God. We are like God in who we are and what we do. Being in the image of God means we are loving, gracious beings just as God our Creator is. We live in community just as God does. That life is relational and communal is a part of God’s nature or very being is expressed in Genesis 1: 26. Did you notice the plural in the references to God as you read it? Listen again. “Then God said: Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”
Christian interpreters explain that plural in terms of the trinity. The Creator, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all present from the very beginning. In any event, God is a communal God a God of relationships in God’s very essence before the creation. Being created in God’s image we too are by nature communal and relational.
Being in the image of god also means as creatures we like god have it in our very nature to empower and set free others even as God empowered (gave dominion) and set free adam. (in my notes I have “adam” written with a small “a” reflecting that in Hebrew “adam” simply means humankind.)
Often the image of god grows dim in us and in our actions. The flame of our very being can be extinguished by our choosing not to empower others, not to set others free. We become something other than what God has created us to be when we lord it over others and loose the grace and love that we find in God in the very beginning. We become something other than what God has created us to be when our whole life is an attempt to have more power over others instead of a life being given to empowering others. This is central to Jesus’ teaching as in his saying, “greater love has no one than those who would give up their lives for others.”
As my mind’s radar searches for a story to illustrate here, a remembrance of my mother makes a large blip on the horizon. One day when Cheryl and I were engaged, Cheryl and my mother took a walk. I can imagine them strolling on the beach at Sandy Point, receiving breath from a gentle shore breeze and from the Spirit of God. In tears of pain welling out of the streams of her own life, my mother told Cheryl how all she wanted was to be the best mother-in-law in the world for her. She told Cheryl and later told me, how she would always try to support us in our decisions even if she didn’t always approve.
My mother was the best mother-in-law in the world. She always did support us even if she didn’t approve or agree. That happened on more than one occasion, especially after we became parents ourselves. She never interfered. She never once took a side with one or the other of us, which causes so many disasters in inter generational family relationships. She was always ready to support us in our lives as we determined them, not as she would have determined them.
What my mother offered us in our marriage is what God offers all of us in the creation. The offering is a gracious love that sets free and does not lay its own claim on the other. As my mother relinquished parental dominion in our lives to us and thereby empowered us and set us free, God in the long ago creative moment gave dominion to humankind, empowering us and setting us free.
We are made in the image of God. As god is love, we are creatures of love. As it is God’s nature to love and be gracious, it is in our nature to love and be gracious.
As it is God’s nature to crave relationships and to create community to satisfy that craving, it is our nature to live in relationship and be in community. Humans were not made to be hermits. We are creatures of community.
As you have been listening to these thoughts about being created in the image of God, something may have occurred to you here. If it hasn’t I will call it to your attention. Bringing the teaching that we are created in the image of God to center stage stirs up another thought – maybe a new thought for us. That we are created in the image of God means that the creation itself was an event of incarnation. With the implication being that each and every one of us are events of incarnation.
Among Christians, it is fairly common knowledge that the life of Jesus was an event of incarnation. The Word became flesh. That is the incarnation - simple as that. The Gospel writer who gives the most attention to the incarnation is John, writer of the Fourth Gospel. From John, we get that simple, succinct definition, “The Word became flesh.” Interestingly John - and he alone among the Gospel writers, Matthew Mark Luke and John - closely links creation and incarnation. It is he who begins his Gospel with a direct throwback to the creation with the words, “In the beginning was the word and the word was God.” John 1:1. Shortly thereafter he links the creation with the incarnation with the words “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” John 1: 14.
Jesus of Nazareth is the one human who is the most transparent as the image of god. We often say that if you want to know about God, look at Jesus. In Jesus the image of God is most whole and complete. This morning’s lesson is one of a string of stories about Jesus healing that Mark chooses to put together at the very beginning of his Gospel. Mark tells us that as soon as Jesus returned from his 40 days in the wilderness, he immediately engaged in a busy routine of healing. What are those healing stories about? Mark tells us through them that Jesus is the one who is most completely the image of God, the one who has dominion or authority over all creation, including the demons who make us sick. The demons are the first among creatures to recognize him and call him “Lord.” The Gospels continue telling us about Jesus authority. He calms the stormy seas – dominion. He gives new teachings – a dominion over tradition and law. He dies and lives – dominion over the last enemy, death itself.
The stories about healing raise many questions for us.
We read them and start thinking about our own diseases and the diseases of others around us. Diabetes is a nasty demon that is in me and in many others. Although I don’t really expect Jesus to heal me of my diabetes, I still need to pray for healing as does everyone. For the real healing that I need in my life, as does everyone, is larger than my diabetes. The real healing that I and all others need is that the brokenness in me be made whole - that the broken pieces of God’s image in me come back together - that I might know for myself and that others might know in me the image of God that God has given me. The healing that we all need is the healing that keeps the incarnate word in each of us from being the only word that others see and hear in us.
Francis of Assisi instructed his brothers with the admonition, “Preach the Gospel, Brothers, and when necessary, use words.” Let the image of God shine through as the very core of your being that you offer to others.
There is a story about a missionary working for the Board of Missions of the Church of England. The story took place during the reign of Queen Victoria over a hundred years ago. The missionary was sent to India with instructions to very carefully keep the books. A few years later, he was recalled from his post in India. Returning to England, he stood before the Board that chastised and decommissioned him for not keeping the financial accounts as he had been instructed. The missionary disappeared. Decades later another missionary went to the distant reaches of India’s interior. She settled in a small poor village where she began to teach about Jesus, his healing, his teaching, his work as we read about it today. The villagers responded by saying, we already know about this man. He has been with us for years. They took her to the man who turned out to be the old missionary long forgotten by the Mission Board. He may not have kept the books to the Board’s pleasing but he exemplified one who lives as a person who is created in the image of God. If we live as we are created then others can say of us and of our presence, “Jesus has already been here, we have seen him in you.”