This Is Who We Are: Created In God’s Image (MPLS)

Genesis 1:24-31

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

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. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

(Today’s reading features a Creation Poem from Meta Herrick Carlson.)

It all started in 2007. The late Sr. Pastor Chris Nelson and I were dreaming about new ministries Bethlehem might be called to. I told him I thought Bethlehem would be a great teaching congregation and wondered aloud: would he be open to having interns from the seminary? Yes, he said, as long as you supervise them. The idea was well-received by the church council, so I completed the paperwork and the interview process.

When I received news that Ben Cieslik had been placed here, my husband, Tom, and I thought it would be nice to take Ben and his wife, Beth, out to dinner. You know, be social, get to know them, develop a connection before the work began.

We had a nice dinner and discovered that we had all attended the same college. Tom was curious what years they’d been on campus. Beth graduated in 2004. Tom, with great enthusiasm, responded: “I graduated in 1984. We’re only 10 years apart!” (You do the math.)

There was an awkward silence as three of us thought about what he said… and then one of us, can’t even remember who, broke the news to Tom — no, not quite. You’re 20 years apart!

We remind each other of that story all the time. It finds its way into our conversations frequently — all we have to say is “only 10 years apart!” and we remember… it takes us back to our beginning. We keep telling the story because it connects us to our history. It gives meaning to our present and informs our future. This is the power of a good story.

Genesis 1 has the power to be one of those stories for the church. It starts with “in the beginning,” and if we lean in a little closer, we can hear a story of holy imagination that grounds us in faith and in the truth of who God is and who we are in relation to God. After all, it’s why this story came into being in the first place.

Biblical scholars have determined that this story was written for God’s people while exiled in Babylonia — around 500 BCE. They were anything but grounded. They had been uprooted from their homeland, the people of Israel were refugees living in captivity in a foreign land. They were oppressed by political, national and economic systems, and the gods of their oppressors seemed to be in control. Nothing was familiar. Chaos ruled. 

This creation liturgy served as a brave affirmation of faith in a desperate time. It was a song of hope; a song of a powerful and creative God who was always creating, bringing order out of chaos, making space for life to flourish and naming it good. It was for them a story that described an alternative reality than the one they perceived around them. One in which God was active. One in which the world was good and that humanity, all humanity is beloved. 

I could go for some of that right now, couldn’t you? I so want to believe that God is on the move. I want to believe that the world is good. I want to be able to trust and lean into humanity’s belovedness. 

But it’s hard. There’s a lot of evidence right now to suggest the contrary — that the world is breaking and that God is done making, done creating, just done.

But there’s a second dimension to the story that can be easy to miss. In our yearning for proof and evidence that God is alive and active, we might miss what was likely surprising to this story’s first hearers, and is probably surprising to us. This isn’t only God’s show.

God doesn’t act alone in this creative process. God interacts with creation, inviting creation to join in this life-giving work together with God: “Let the earth put forth vegetation” God said. And, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures.” God spoke again: “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind…” 

God enlists the things that God made in the ongoing work of creating more life. And God shares this creative power with humankind too, giving us “dominion [or care] 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.” God then puts an exclamation point on it, this time pronouncing all creation VERY good.

If we fasten our attention on this second dimension of the story, we begin to realize that creation didn’t happen once upon a time, long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. It’s still happening. God’s still doing it, we’re still doing it together. 

Think about Bethlehem and how we’ve been changed in just the last year. We’ve figured out new ways to gather for worship and in small groups. We’ve continued learning through bible study and classes to increase intercultural competence. Our choir directors and choirs have discovered new ways to make music together, when we can’t be together. You continued to be generous and show up for others in need of care, housing and food. We’ve welcomed 63 new members, celebrated 53 baptisms and 22 funerals for beloved people of our community. These are not just numbers or stats. These are stories, relationships that change us and change who we are becoming together, these stories point to God’s creative work in and through each one of us.

There’s a risk in the way that God creates. When you share in the creative enterprise, you don’t have complete and total control over what will happen. You don’t know what the finished product will look like. But with that risk comes beauty and possibility. As we’re moving into a new season of life as the church, as we’re becoming together, we don’t know what we will become. That’s not because of lack of vision or imagination but because we are open to the creative process, open to who God will bring to us and how they might change us. We are open to continually being recreated, becoming more Christ-like, willing to give ourselves away for the sake of the world God created in love.

Intellectually we’ve long known that the church is not our buildings. And yet this last year and change has really helped to embody that truth. So as much as there is an overwhelming sense of delight to be able to gather in person on days like today, (I mean how marvelous will it be to hear the choir again) we know that the life and work of this congregation can’t and won’t center around our physical locations. We will continue to find ways to leverage digital tools to foster learning and experiences that help folks grow and deepen their relationships with one another and with God.

In this last year we’ve seen small groups that have cared for and sustained one another through a pandemic, they connected with each other and found ways to be the church in fellowship with one another through outside and backyard events, but also motivated people into action and service of their neighbor.

Listen, the story that you are a part of might have begun once upon a time, but it’s still unfolding. Moment by moment, year by year, generation by generation God has enfolded more people in this creative love story of redemption and renewal. In Jesus, God flung the doors wide open and said to the whole world, come into my story, you have a role to play here. You belong to me, and this story needs you.