Virtues of Justice – 10/19/08

Across the bottom of the screen flash words like: innovative, in-depth, bold, fast-paced, thorough, useful, latest. They are adjectives describing America’s News Magazine. They are the virtues, the values of, get this, Inside Edition. If you don’t turn your TV off right away after the 6:30 news you’re likely to catch a show like this. Entertainment Tonight, Extra, and Inside Edition are the celebrity news, gossip, sensational news shows that transition families from national news to prime time TV. Of course, none of them would want to be described with words like gossip or sensational. They think of themselves more highly than that. The one that gets me the most is useful. I suppose that’s true if you want to know what made Marcia Brady cry or what went on behind the scenes on Project Runway or if you want to know who the real Joe the Plumber is.

Some of us would not consider that very useful information. Apparently the producers of Inside Edition would disagree. They would have us believe that their journalism is driven by certain values, certain virtues like innovative or in-depth or thorough. These values are supposedly the ones that drive the product. These are the virtues that they consider as they contemplate which stories to highlight and how to tell them to the American public. Now, one might disagree about the chosen values and virtues, but one cannot deny that all groups or all people even operate under a certain set of values that determine how they live their lives and what they hope to accomplish.

Take the Boy Scouts, for example. Every Boy Scout has to memorize a long list of values or virtues that govern the way that run their meetings, that determine how they will act at their camps, and hopefully that will become a part of their life as they grow into adulthood. The Scout Law says that “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Through these virtues the Scouts are called to serve God and country, to help others, to keep themselves healthy, moral, and smart. I think we can all agree that the Scouts do a much better job of living out their virtues and values than does Inside Edition.

Again, the idea is that behind certain behaviors or behind certain cultures or products is a set of virtues. Another example of this would be the Army. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage are the seven values of the Army. They are learned by each recruit who enters basic training and are meant to serve them in life whether they are in battle or not. Once they learn them, they live them everyday in everything they do. How they handle their enemies on the battlefield, how they live with their fellow soldiers on the base, how they act with civilians in society, all their behavior is based on these seven values. What is true for Inside Edition, what’s true for the Boy Scouts and the Army is also true for Christians.

By now most of you are aware that we’re spending these next months focusing on the idea of doing justice. It’s one of the three aspects of Micah 6:8 along with loving kindness and walking humbly. These three behaviors are what God requires of us as we seek to worship him in this life. As we focus on doing justice this year, we’re asking ourselves, how are we transforming society into a more just place? Some of the passages so far have been helpful in understanding exactly what we’re saying when we talk about doing justice. For example, two weeks ago we celebrated Worldwide Communion Sunday. I can’ t think of a better way to describe the fruit of doing justice. That is, a world in which people from different neighborhoods and different nations can share a meal as family.

If Worldwide Communion is the fruit of doing justice, then reconciliation is the seed of justice. Last week, we took a step back from transforming the institutions and structures of society to talk about relationships between people. God has given to the church the ministry of reconciliation. Only repaired relationships will lead to a world that is more fair and just. This morning we are taking another step back from those grand political and economic questions to ask the question, “What virtues and values are in the seed of reconciliation?” In other words, what virtues are central to the Christian life? What values will lead us down the road of justice? Well, whatever those virtues and values are, we know that God is behind them.

From the beginning, God has been setting apart a people for himself; a people who will live a virtuous and valuable life; a people through whom God will call the world to himself. That’s what Moses meant when he spoke the words we heard this morning. “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” When God called the Israelites out of Egypt, he called them to be different as he was different. They would walk through, encounter, do battle with, and exist in the midst of all the other nations of the earth, but they were to always remember that they were set apart of a higher calling.

It wasn’t because they were more numerous than all the other people. In fact, they were the people fewest in number at the time. The reason they were set apart, the reason they were chosen was because the Lord loved them and was faithful to the promises that had been sworn to their ancestors. It was this love and this faith that saved them from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh and led them out Egypt and was guiding them toward the promised land. As they made their way through the wilderness, God was promising that same love and faith to their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and all the way to thousands of generations. The people whom God had chosen could rest assured that their future was secure as long as they rested in the Lord. Of course, what this meant was that they would obey his commandments.

They had just received 10 from God and these laws were meant to govern their life together. They were good laws and they were a fair request from the God who set them free and chose them as his people. These laws did not demand anything more than that they honor him and care for one another in the new land that God was giving them. Unfortunately, the people had a difficult time maintaining even these 10 commandments. Maybe they were too vague to be understood, but 10 commands grew into 100 and 100 commandments grew into 1000. The law of God kept growing and growing until every behavior had a law to determine it. Eventually, the law became something that God never intended it to be.

That’s why Paul writes to the Galatians, “Before faith came we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed.” The law is an illustration of what we had been talking about in Adult Education. The law is good, but along the way it lost its place as God’s servant. Rather than serving humanity and their life together it made them slaves. They were imprisoned and guarded by the law. God had set them free from slavery in Egypt only to find themselves in another kind of dehumanizing slavery under their own law. Paul compares the law to a disciplinarian. It would be a common picture in Paul’s day.

Wealthy parents would hire someone to walk with their children as they went to school, came home from school, went to the market, and did what kids do. This disciplinarian was there to keep the child in line and make sure that they represented their family well as they moved about in society. The disciplinarian was a virtual shadow and you can imagine how annoying that got. There would be no freedom for the child to try new things or go new places. The disciplinarian was there keep them on the straight and narrow. Of course, the reason that parents did this was to keep their children safe. Children could not always be trusted to make the right decisions and society could not always be trusted to treat children rightly. The disciplinarian was there to assure both until the child could do them for himself.

So, the law that God had given was to ensure that his chosen people, his treasured possession, represented him properly before the nations. The law was there to keep them in line. Of course, God did this, ultimately, to keep his children safe; so that they could make the right decisions and treat one another rightly. The law was there to ensure that both of those things would happen until they grew up enough to do it for themselves. You see the law governed behavior, but it could not govern the virtues and value behind the behavior. As the Bible makes clear, there were people who could obey the whole law, but they did it without love. Jesus came to change all of that. Jesus came so that we would be justified by faith.

Now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Rather than living by the law, those who were in Christ would live by faith. Rather than obeying a set of rules and regulations written down on paper, those who shared in Christ’s baptism would be governed by virtue and values written on their hearts. The law had only served to divide God chosen people from the rest of the nations of the world. This, as you know, is the exact opposite of what God’s goal was for his people. It wasn’t because the law was bad. It was because the law could not change people’s hearts.

God sent Jesus so that we would no long trust in the law and our own ability to keep it. In Christ Jesus we have come to trust in God. Faith is no more and no less that that: trusting in the Lord. Paul’s message is that trust is what makes us God’s children. Faith is the first virtue, the first value, that sets us on the path to doing justice in our world. Justice is not something that can be governed by fear because fear tends to be a paralyzing emotion. Fear stops us in our tracks and often sends us running in the other direction. That’s not a bad thing when facing a bear or burning building, but it doesn’t get us very far as we journey through the Christian life and pursue justice. Faith trusts in God to care for us and guide us.

In the end, faith opens the door for love. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” If the law divided one from the other, if he law prescribed who was welcome and who was not, then faith brings us together and takes down the dividing walls so that we can love one another. Love is the second virtue, the second value, that sets us on the path to doing justice in our world. Justice is not done as long as people are separated by race or social class or gender. In Christ Jesus, God was creating one people all of whom share equal value as God’s children. Prejudice and inequality generally lead us to isolate ourselves from one another. Love brings us together as one family in Christ.

And, Paul writes, if we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. To Abraham, God promised his Spirit and eternal life. Through Jesus Christ the door was opened for those promises to be made available to everyone. It is a Spirit that reminds us of our worth and value. It is a life that is joyful and full of peace. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we have become heirs of this promise as well. Now, an heir is one who will receive something in the future. An heir has something to look forward to. An heir has something coming. An heir has hope. Hope is the third virtue, the third value that sets us on the path to doing justice in our world. Without hope, there is no reason to keep moving forward. We mind as well hoard our resources and save them for a rainy day. But God has poured his Holy Spirit into our hearts as a kind of down payment. The Holy Spirit gives us a taste of the life to come so that we continue to pursue it. Justice is often hard work and it rarely seems like we’re making any progress. We’re often left to wonder if we’ll ever achieve anything at all. Hope says that we will.

There is no law that governs doing justice. There aren’t steps that we can follow or a set of instructions that will help us complete the project. But there are virtues and values that we hold to so that we can stay on the path. They are faith, hope and love. I realize that this isn’t rocket science. I have not unveiled any great mystery here. At the same time, faith, hope, and love cannot be forgotten. These virtues make us who we are. If we are governed or ruled by anything else then we are living as children of some of other god. Faith, hope, and love form the DNA of the seed of reconciliation that grows into justice that blooms into worldwide communion.

The world will know if we, like Inside Edition, are just throwing out words that sound good. You can’t call useless news useful for very long and get away with it. Somebody is bound to catch on. Likewise, the church can’t preach faith, hope and love, but live in fear, prejudice, and despair. People are looking to be set free from these prisons. We want to be able to offer them something different. Like the Boy Scouts, our virtues of faith, hope, and love keep us strong, keep us awake, and keep us on the straight path. Like the Army, our virtues, once we learn them, are meant to be lived everyday in everything we do. Faith, hope, and love, these are the virtues of justice. Amen.

Trustworthy Ambassadors – 10/12/08

You may have heard that the world is facing a bit of a financial strain. In fact, the only way you might not have heard about it is if you don’t watch TV, listen to the radio, read the newspaper, or talk to anyone. All we hear about is the financial struggles of Wall St. and Main. St.; the mortgage crisis and the credit crisis; the closing of banks and the foreclosures on homes. We listened to all the politicians talk about what a mess we’re in and they all blamed other people for it. They promised us that they would make everything better. They promised that they would work together on this one. First, they did. Then, they didn’t. Then, they did again, but complained about how the other side made it difficult. Then, they stood before us and said that they had finally done it and they were so proud about the work that they were able to do. Things were going to get better.

Well, if the last week is “getting better” we have to wonder how well they really did their work. For some reason, the stock market continues to go down and banks have yet to lend out money to people who might need it. I was wondering this week why that is still the case. I thought at first that people had just run out of money. Maybe there is just nothing to give. But there is plenty of money out there. It’s just not finding its way to the hands that need it. Then, I wondered if people were just being greedy. I thought that banks and companies might just be sitting back and waiting for the government to hand them some more money. But that’s not really the case either. That might be the reason we got in this mess, but it’s not the reason we’re staying in it.

Maybe it’s stupidity. Maybe the reason things are starting to turn around is because no one really knows what to do. Despite appearances at times, I don’t think that’s really the reason either. Again, maybe some foolish decisions got us into this mess, but it doesn’t seem that’s what is keeping us in it. If you’ve been listening to what’s been going on then you’ve probably heard that what we’re facing today is a crisis of confidence. One of the problems is that too many people lied about the loans they were able to receive. Too many mortgage brokers fudged on loans. Too many banks and financial institutions kept quiet how many of these loans they had invested in and how much insurance they had bought or sold. In other words, no one knows if anyone else can be trusted anymore.

It turns out that at the root of this financial meltdown is a very personal, very emotional dilemma. There is a lack of trust. A lot of people and a lot of institutions have gathered their money in a big pile, closed the door, turned off the light, and are sitting on it until they think it’s safe to come out. When everyone is a suspect, no one can be trusted, and the problem keeps getting pushed on into the future. Believe it or not, this lack of trust, this failure to reconcile, is what we find in the story of Jacob and Esau. These two brothers and their descendants illustrate how far reaching struggles and strains and trials can be when there is a lack of trust or a failure to reconcile. We heard a portion of this story just a couple of weeks ago.

We know that Esau and Jacob were born as twins. It is said that Jacob came out grasping his brother’s foot. That would be a sign of things to come. As they grew up it would be Esau, the first born, who was to receive his father’s blessing and birthright. It would be Esau that would inherit all of the good stuff. It just didn’t turn out that way. Jacob would always be looking for a way to take what belonged to his brother. Jacob would always be grabbing for what his brother had. He convinced Esau to take a bowl of soup in exchange for his birthright. He lied and cheated his way to stealing his brother’s blessing as well. Then, he ran away before his brother could exact revenge.

From there, Jacob would go and stay with Laban, his uncle. Laban would prove to be just as crafty and deceitful as Jacob was. When Jacob asked to marry Rachel, Laban gave him Leah, so that Jacob would have to work seven more years in order to marry Rachel. When Jacob was ready to leave, he asked for all the speckled and spotted sheep to take with him, but Laban removed all of them from his flock so that there was nothing for Jacob to take. Still, Jacob would get the upper hand and through some craftiness of his own would come to own some of the strongest sheep and best servants of Laban’s property. He would have to flee again because all of Laban’s sons were so angry that Jacob had taken all that belonged to them. Jacob’s only choice was to return home.

The problem is that Esau is still there. Jacob has no idea how his brother will react when he returns. He sends messengers ahead. They return to say that big brother Esau is on his way to see them and, by the way, he’s bringing four hundred men with him. That doesn’t sound good. Jacob decides to take goats and sheep and camels and cows from his flocks and send them on ahead as offerings; hoping to appease Esau’s anger. Maybe all those animals would make up for the birthright that he had stolen. But they did nothing to ease the fear that Jacob was feeling. As he watched Esau approach with his army of men, Jacob divided his family. He put his most treasured family members at the back, hoping to spare them from Esau’s wrath.

Jacob moved forward, bowing to the ground, so certain that his brother was about to break out in violence and get revenge. But, much to his surprise, Esau runs to meet him. They embrace. They kiss. Like the story of the Prodigal Son, there is a joyful reunion and this wonderful moment of reconciliation. Esau is delighted to see how Jacob’s family has grown. Esau’s family and flocks have grown themselves. All the animals that Jacob sent, he wants to give back. But Jacob insists that he keep it. It’s a gift. For a moment there seems to be a genuine gratitude that Jacob feels toward Esau. “If I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God – since you have received me with such favor.” Had the story ended here, we might think that the two brothers had indeed reconciled. But it goes on.

Esau wants his families to travel back home together, but Jacob says that his families are too tired and they’ll go too slow. Esau mind as well just go ahead and wait for them. Then, Esau suggests that some of his men stay behind to help Jacob’s family as they move. This is where it gets a little tense. Jacob says that Esau has already been too kind. He should just go on ahead and he will meet him at his home in a few days. This tension only builds because Jacob never goes to see Esau. He takes his families and his flocks and goes to another land and settles there. It seems that Jacob could never really trust that Esau had forgiven him. Maybe he hadn’t, but they never gave one another the chance to find out. They would live separate lives. They will come together again only to bury their father. So, what at first seems like a genuine reconciliation between two brothers ends with a strained distance between their two families.

This lack of trust, this failure to reconcile, would result in years of strain and struggle and trial between the people of Jacob and the people of Esau. When God set the people free from Egypt and as they traveled to Israel, God’s people would come upon Esau’s land. It was called Edom. The king of Edom would not let them pass. As both of the nation’s grew, there would be wars and rumors of wars. There would be continued plotting and stealing and looting of lands. Saul would raid Edom, King David would subdue them, King Solomon would be rebelled against. Israel would be raided by a coalition of nations that included their distant relatives. This back and forth wouldn’t be settled until the lands of both brothers were defeated by a stronger army still. We’re left to wonder how the land and these peoples would have been different if only Jacob would have trusted his brother more and the two would have reconciled with one another. Could Babylon have been kept back if they were able to work together?

The story of Jacob and Esau is an illustration for us that a lack of trust, a failure to reconcile has repercussions. As long as there is this a distance between various people and groups there will always be a tension that builds or is lurking just beneath the surface. It can make the world a very stressful place to live. It’s for this reason that God sent Jesus into the world. He made him to be sin who knew know sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. In other words, God sent his son to show us the result of sin so that we might walk down another path. In Jesus Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself so that there might be some who would claim the ministry of reconciliation. The evils of this world will be kept back if only a group of people comes together. The world would be saved from its tension and strain and stress if only we can trust one another enough to be reconciled.

We’re spending these next few months talking about doing justice in the world. It’s important to note how reconciliation plays a role. We often think of justice in big, systemic terms. Justice has to do with politics and economics, with governments and nations. But we will never had justice without reconciliation. We will never live in a world that is more fair and right if the people in that world can’t trust one another and reconcile with one another. So, justice in big, systemic terms won’t happen until some people have first reconciled themselves to one another. Politics and economics will change when new relationships are formed and trust is built up where it had been knocked down. Paul is saying that it’s the church’s job to show the rest of the world what that reconciliation looks like. Paul refers to the church as ambassadors for Christ. He writes that God has entrusted us with a message and that message is one of reconciliation.

In Christ, God was not holding trespasses against us, but was reconciling the us to himself. As ambassadors of that message we are called to do the same. We no longer view people from a human point of view. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. All the old that was untrustworthy has passed away and in Christ everything has become new. We have a fresh start and no reason not to reconcile with one another. Through us, the church, God is making his appeal to the whole world that there is a new world being born and it is one in which trust and reconciliation are the rule rather than the exception. Through the church God is calling the world to come alongside him and one another to begin anew. God is sending us as ambassadors to issue that call. Ambassadors are the first to go from one country to another to represent the view and interests of their native land. Christians are the same. Christians are the first to go into their world to represent the views and interests of their Lord; views of righteousness, interests of reconciliation.

For 66 years, Hope Reformed Church has been doing that very thing. In different ways throughout the years, Hope Reformed church has been the first to go, to lead the way in ministering for reconciliation in this neighborhood. It still strikes me that just a few months after the church was born here, there were more children in the Sunday School than there were members of the church. Over 100 hundred children found their way into this church to be reconciled with God and with one another through the good news of Jesus Christ. Obviously, there was a hole that needed to be filled in the hearts of children and families and Hope Reformed Church was the first to meet that need.

Over time, Hope Reformed Church developed a reputation. Some might say it was a black sheep, but we might also say that it served as an ambassador for the kind of new world that Paul wrote about. Everything from softball teams to ordination became new as members of Hope Reformed Church advocated for the rights of women; to play softball in the church league, to be elders, to be deacons, and to be ministers of word and sacrament. At Hope, women were given the opportunity to reconcile a calling they felt from God and the institution in which they felt called to serve. In much the same way, people who were divorced and ostracized from their church found a home again in this place. They were given the space to reconcile their personal struggles with God. By not holding their pain and struggle against them, Hope allowed those people to find a God who would not hold it against them either.

Most recently, Hope Reformed Church decided to stay here on this corner to do ministry. When so many other churches were moving to places that were more demographically suitable, the members of this church decided to stay put. When other churches left the city to pursue church growth, Hope stayed here to pursue racial reconciliation and urban justice. Now, there will be those who say it was not the smartest or most faithful move to make. Quite frankly, they’re right. They’re right if we don’t continue to seek opportunities to lead the way in reconciliation, to be ambassadors of justice. If we won’t find a way to let God make his appeal through us to the people around this church, then it’s up to us to get out of the way and let someone else do it. What are you doing to transform society into a more just place? That’s a question I hope all of you can answer by the end of this year. If history is any guide, this church and its members will continue to find ways to be faithful to the call of justice and reconciliation for another 66 years into the future.

At the moment, that future looks awfully uncertain. There is a lack of trust in the financial world as various banks hold onto their money. There is a lack of trust between the middle-eastern and western world as terrorists and armies battle for control. Into a world that lacks trust, God has sent trustworthy ambassadors of reconciliation. The only way the evils of this world and city will be kept at bay is if there’s a group of people who reconciles against them. That’s us. It is up to the church to replace that lack of trust with faith and hope and love. The church should start lending to one another. Christians in the western world and the middle-east should be embracing one another. Where streets of the city aren’t trustworthy enough for youth to walk on, churches should open their doors to offer a refuge. All of this would be to show the city, to show the world that a new way of justice and reconciliation has been born and all the old strains and stresses and tensions have passed away. The world needs to hear that “all this is from God, who reconciled the world to himself through Christ…As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, ‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’ See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation.” Amen.

Part 6 – An Earthly Plea for Justice

Walter Brueggemann writes in his book THE PROPHETIC IMAGINATION, “Israel can only be understood in terms of the new call of God and his assertion of an alternative social reality.” The key word in that sentence is alternative. In Biblical terms we are talking about being holy, set apart, or different. The whole story revolves around that idea. If we forget that Israel was meant to be an alternative social reality we are also in danger of forgetting that God is alternative divine reality. It goes, almost without saying, that the way the people viewed their God affected they way they lived with one another. Another way to say this is that idolatry often led to injustice. The prophets were sent by God to address both. Their common theme placed worship and sacrifice as a secondary notion to justice.

Has the Lord as great delight in brunt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of the rams. – I Samuel 15:22

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?…I have had enough of burnt offerings or rams and the fat of fed beasts…even though you make many prayers I will not listen for your hands are full of blood…learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. – Isaiah 1:10-17

Why do we fast, but you do not see?…Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? – Isaiah 58

Add you burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. – Jeremiah 7:21-22

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. – Hosea 6:6

I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies…Take away from me the noise of your songs…But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. – Amos 5:21-24

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? He has told you, O mortal, what is good: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:6-8

These are not all the verses in which you will find the prophets reminding Israel of their alternative-ness, but they are enough to make the point. That is, when the prophets looked at the surrounding cultures and countries, they saw a worship that led to society that was oppressive and exploitative. The king prospered while the rest of the citizens slaved away. Because the view of the gods rooted this social reality in created order there was little recourse to rebel or critique. Worship was only a means of appeasing the gods and maintaining the established order. Chaos, even a revolt by the overworked masses, would have been seen as punishment by the gods. Israel’s prophets would not tolerate such an order.

When Israel laid out many sacrifices or weighed themselves down in fasting or ashes, but did not maintain justice they imagine their God to be like the others. It is a seductive notion, after all. Why should God be concerned with my social dealings as long as I continue to offer what is due him; the fat of the calf, the blood offering, a chorus of music, or fervent prayer? Shouldn’t God be happy to look the other way as long as I flood his nose with the sweet fragrance of sacrifice? “No!” say the prophets, “You have turned the Lord into an idol.” The Israelites may not have been bowing down before the other gods (though often they were), but they had been assuming their God offered no alternative to the other gods. Their idolatry led to injustice.

The prophets make clear that God set Israel apart not so that there would be a people to call his own, but so that there would be a people who could show the world an alternative social reality, a holy way of life. Central to that way of life is not pious worship, but justice. In contrast to exploitation and oppression, Israel would be a land off order and beauty as all people, male and female, joined with God in creating. The prophets did not tolerate idolatry because they knew all too well that false worship led to injustice. They knew that their God was the God of justice and worshipping that God in heaven led to an alternative, social reality on earth. While the prophets articulated this message, it was the law that made it plain.

Part 5 – A Heavenly Plea for Justice

What I’ve been trying to do in the first few posts is form a Biblical notion of justice that is rooted in the image of God. Justice, so far, is rooted in what it means for us to be human and how we honor that humanity. First and foremost, justice acknowledges that everyone, male and female, is made in the image of God. Second, the image of God is a vocation; it is a calling to join with God in creating order and beauty in the world. Justice makes room for everyone to express their creative talents and desires freely in the world because God has invited us into that freedom. To be clear, injustice is anything that denies someone is made in God’s image. That denial often takes on various forms of slavery (chains, debt, addiction, etc.) or fails to draw out of people the creative abilities that God has given them (poor education, lack of basic needs, etc.). If this tree of justice is rooted in humanity, we also find that it reaches to the heavens.

Psalm 82 begins like this: God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

This is a powerful picture and a clarion call for justice. Like the surrounding cultures, this Psalm pictures the gods of the various nations convening for one reason or another. Like the surrounding cultures, the Hebrew Bible imagines its God to be the leader of the rest. Unlike the surrounding cultures, the concern is not with the failure of humanity to serve the gods. Rather, God bemoans the failure of the gods to serve humanity; to honor the image in which they have been made. In particular, the weak, the orphan, the lowly, the destitute, and the needy have been slighted by the gods. The gods have failed to judge justly, to give justice, to maintain rights, to rescue, and to deliver those who have been dishonored. As a result, God has been dishonored.

The picture is vivid for us now. When humans fall into desperate or lowly situations, justice demands that they not be allowed to stay there. As today, the world can be cruel especially to those who have fallen on hard times. Whether because of poor decisions or bad luck, there are always those who will have labels piled on top of them to add to their burdens. The gods see no reason to ease their needs because there seems to be little value with them and little that they can offer in return. “Not so!” says God, “Buried underneath all those labels and all those burdens is an image, my image. Do not withhold justice. Do not deny them their freedom to create with me.”

Once again, God is not like the other gods. The gods have no use for those who have fallen into poverty, who come to the table without great intellect or affluence. They have no honor in the gods’ eyes. In fact, the gods would rather honor the wicked because at least they are able to offer great sacrifices and wealth. God shows great concern at this state of affairs. His concern is for justice. That concern stems from the fact that some people are being denied their vocation to create freely in God’s world. God has gathered the gods to condemn their cold-heartedness and stir up their compassion. This would not be the last time that God calls for justice.

Echoing this heavenly scene of the Psalms, are the earthly voices of the prophets crying out before the kings and priests of the day. We will listen to their common refrain in the next post. It is my hope that you will see justice, not as a secondary notion, but as the primary desire of God’s suffering heart. God will not tolerate injustice and no ritual of worship is going to appease him. This is a crucial point to grasp and the prophets make it abundantly clear.

Part 4 – The Image of God and the Spirit of God

As a way to conclude the previous post and to begin this one, I’d like to clarify the role of the earth in all of this. Again, when compared to surrounding creation stories the creation receives a much more prominent role. It is not an afterthought. In fact, with such detail through every day of creation it’s almost as if a celebration is going on. Of course, God’s creative work culminates in the creation of humanity after which God looks at the whole thing and considers it “very good.” God loves the world we might say at this point. So, while the sun and stars, fields and mountains, fish and cattle are all creatures, they are very good creatures whom God cherishes all of which God has given to humanity. The question is, for what?

“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” That’s a phrase we understand well. But we find other references to the earth as the foundations of a building and as a footstool for God’s throne. In Isaiah 24:18 we read, “For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.” In this passage, the earth serves as the foundation for God’s creation and built on top of that foundation is heaven. In a sense, the Hebrew Bible views creation as a building with heaven and earth serving as a house for God. In Isaiah 66:1 we find the Lord saying, “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.” From there God goes on to describe the kind of worship that is to take place in his “house.” We often think of God’s house as a building, but the Hebrew Bible looks at the whole of the heavens and the earth as God’s sanctuary. What does that mean for how we worship the Lord?

When God placed humanity on the earth he told them to “be fruitful and multiply” and to “fill the earth and subdue it” and to “have dominion.” In other words, it might mean that we worship the Lord by filling and decorating his house. These days most people think of worship as a set of rituals that take place within a special building. I’m suggesting that we consider worship to be more earthy, that building the building is worship, that paving roads, doing art, making music, is worship. I’m suggesting that anything we do in the sanctuary of the earth is meant to be worship. God has invited us into his house and asked us to make it our home, to honor him by creating things for ourselves. What’s most striking about this is that God is the ultimate in hospitality. At this point in the story God has not yet prescribed anything for humans (aside from the fruit) except to create. We find examples of this in the next chapters.

In chapter 4, Able keeps sheep and Cain tills the ground. Later in that same chapter Cain builds a city. Later still, Jabal and his ancestors live in tents and keep livestock, Jubal makes music with the lyre and pipe (apparently creating the instruments as well), and Tubal-Cain makes all kinds of bronze and iron tools. Later in Genesis 9, we find that Noah was a man of the soil and was the first to plant a vineyard. Then, in Genesis 10, vv. 8-11, highlight Nimrod who was a mighty warrior and hunter who founded kingdoms in Babel and founded the great city of Ninevah in Assyria. All of this work done by these various humans is good and creative work, faithful to the reason that God put us here. It is not something done in addition to worship. These trades are the very acts of worship in the world. There is a problem, however.

Eventually Cain kills Abel. In Genesis 6, we find that violence has erupted on the earth. Noah will get drunk on his own wine. Nimrod’s Babel will build a tower to make a name for themselves, Ninevah will be threatened by Jonah, and eventually Babylon and Assyria will over take the tribes of Israel. The picture is quite clear already in the first few chapters of the Hebrew Bible. For all of the good that humans are doing, they cannot escape the fall. All of their creative work is tarnished by destruction. Humans have corrupted the earth with violence. The warning of Genesis 9 is not meant to be a justification for capital punishment, but a statement against violence in the first place. To be clear, Genesis 9:6 is a response to Genesis 6:11. God is looking for co-creators, not co-destroyers. While the gods of other cultures were violent in their creation and toward one another, to live in the image of God means to be non-violent creators as God was when he created the heavens and the earth. God helps us to that end.

This is where the Spirit of God enters the equation. That phrase, “Spirit of God,” is found only twice in the first 5 book of the Bible. The first is right before God creates the earth. The second is just before the creation of the tent of meeting in Exodus 31. This creation could not be corrupted by the fall, it could not be tarnished by violence. So God fills two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, with the Spirit of God, “with ability, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kind of craft.” Notice how “earthy” the work of God’s Spirit is here. The Spirit of God is filling these two men so that they might build and craft. The Spirit of God is equipping them to do work. This will be important when we begin discussing justice from a New Testament perspective.

For now we can say that all people, male and female, are made in the image of God. That image has a lot to do with joining the creative process that God began when he laid the foundation of the earth. In other words, God has called all of us to use our talents to bring order and beauty to the world. A just world is one in which everyone is afforded that dignity. When some people are made to be slaves, exploited for cheap labor, or denied the right to work then the image of God has been denied in them. This is the way of the pagan gods who only want to be fed, but it not the way of the Hebrew God who has given us freedom to build as we see fit. Injustice is anything that prevents someone from joining in the creative process that God began in the beginning. Injustice is something that God and the Hebrew prophets railed against. We’ll listen to them next.

Creating Communion – 10/05/08

An American man, walking in Pakistan, singing an old, German hymn, in an African language: Swahili. The American man is Greg Mortenson and he’s the central figure in the book Three Cups of Tea. The reason he’s walking in Pakistan is that he’s a mountain climber and was attempting to summit K2, the second tallest peak in the world. The reason that he’s singing is because he’s lost. Thousands of feet in the air, the very cold air, and he has lost his way on the path. He had grown up as a missionary child in Tanzania. Hence the Swahili. He is a walking world communion. But before we get to the world communion part I want to draw your attention to the walking part.

On his descent down K2, Greg is lost and then found, lost and then found again. The second time he gets lost, he finds himself stumbling into the small village of Korphe. It’s an isolated town of native, Balti people. Greg didn’t mean to be there, he didn’t want to be there, and it could be that he shouldn’t be there. A few times in the first few pages of the book, the author points out that these same mountains, which are so alluring to climbers, are also home to the armies of Pakistan and India. These two armies are carrying on a war between the two nations that has gone on for decades. It would not be something to walk into; especially when cold, tired, sick, and hungry.

The same could be true of any village up and down the mountain. He was literally on his last legs when he find himself in the middle of an apricot orchard. Women who are there scatter and cover their faces. Children who are there run to him and look for his watch. He’s greeted at the gate by the town elder with a stern look on his face. Graciously, his host offers him a cup of tea as is customary in that part of the world. Then, he is chided for the nerve he has coming upon the village. Greg can no more explain himself than he passes out at the mercy of these strangers from another country who speak another language and profess a different religion. As I said, the whole thing got me wondering about walking.

Last week, I watched as a journalist walked the streets of a city in Iraq with the new commander of the military. Needless to say, they were heavily guarded and I’m sure a lot of care was taken to plan the safest route. And it did look pretty safe. The markets were open, there were very few attacks, and most of the people seemed obliged to have them there. The journalist asked the question that was on my mind, “Could any American come here today and walk these streets like we are?” The commander hesitated and in a calculated response offered, “Any Iraqi could come here during the day and feel completely safe.” His answer was meant to show how things had improved recently, but the obvious implication was that an American could not walk there safely without heavy armor.

I’ve never felt that way before. I’ve never had to feel unsafe walking somewhere because of who I was. During some time in Mexico I was told not to walk into the city after dark, but I never tried it to find out what might happen. This past Wednesday I went for a walk around the neighborhood with Cory, our seminary intern. It’s amazing what you can see when you walk and amazing how a different set of eyes will see the same thing in a different way. I wondered if anyone can walk anywhere in Grand Rapids and feel safe. I’ve heard any number of stories about white people getting lost in the “wrong” part of big cities and someone coming alongside their car to point them to “safety.” I wondered if Grand Rapids offered that same kind of anxiety. I’ve been told any number of times that you don’t want to be the single, black man walking or driving through East Grand Rapids at the wrong time of day. Does skin color still determine what neighborhoods you can walk through in Grand Rapids?

It seems that walking is not as simple as it appears. Last week, when a young man gets shot just two blocks from this church, we might wonder if it’s even safe. We might consider walking as a way to determine our communion. That is, we might judge how faithful we’ve become to God’s call by how many places we can walk and feel safe and, more importantly, feel welcomed. I say that because that what Isaiah seems to be saying in the brief passage that we read this morning. It’s a fascinating passage about three nations: Assyria, Israel, and Egypt. The tension between those three nations would not have been any less than tensions in the Middle East are today. Isaiah vision would have been considered too outrageous by some and simply unnecessary by others.

The first thing Isaiah sees is a road. “On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria.” Of course, we shouldn’t be imagining US-131 here or even 28^th St. Horses, chariots, and people on foot would be utilizing this road, still very long and connecting to very distant places. Isaiah also sees who will be traveling on that road. “The Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian will come into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.” You should know that this would sound just as shocking to Isaiah’s listeners as it would to us to hear someone envision the day when people from Iraq or Afghanistan or al-Qaida would worship with Americans. Egypt and Assyria were not only distant geographically, but politically, socially, and religiously.

These two nations were had their own god whom they worshipped. They each had their own culture which they claimed to be the proudest and most extravagant. They each had powerful armies that they imagined would increase their wealth and spread the influence around the globe. The world was not big enough for the both of them. They wanted the same things. They were rivals. The only reason an Assyrian would walk to Egypt, the only reason an Egyptian would walk to Assyria would be to attempt to conquer it. The last thing on their minds would be to join together in worship. This vision of Isaiah was nearly absurd. Most absurd of all was that Isaiah placed Israel right in the middle of it all.

“On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed.” Who was Israel? Israel was indeed in the middle of these two powerhouses, but by no means their equal. They had no culture. They had no class, as far as the others were concerned. Aside from some unique religious beliefs they had little to offer. It would be like pitting Ottawa Hills or Grand Rapids Christian against Michigan or Michigan St. We know that Israel was in slavery to Egypt and Egypt could probably assert themselves over Israel again if they wished. The problem was that Assyria was just on the other side. Far from serving as a blessing, most of Isaiah’s contemporaries would see Israel as the battleground between these two warring factions. For most others, Isaiah would have reached too high with this vision. No one could bring together such different people from such different places. But Isaiah persists, “The Lord of hosts says, ‘Blessed be my people Egypt, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.’” For most others, Isaiah’s vision would be too far beyond reach.

We sit here today, however, because most others were wrong and Isaiah was right. His vision would become a reality hundreds of years later in a way that most others could never envisioned. Perhaps, Isaiah himself would never have pictured the rush of wind or the tongues of fire or the fishermen and tax collectors taking command of a crowd in Jerusalem. It all started pretty quietly. All of the disciples were gathered together in one place. No doubt they were still mesmerized by Jesus’ ascension into heaven and still puzzled by his words to wait for power from on high. Without a moment’s notice, with the sound like the rush of a violent wind, divided tongues of fire appeared and rested on each of them. It was the Holy Spirit who rushed into that place. It was the Holy Spirit sent from on high. It was the Holy Spirit who gave each of them the ability to speak in other languages.

Jerusalem was a busy place at that time. It was Pentecost after all. Jews from every nation under heaven had gathered there. They had walked from distant lands to find communion with God and with one another. They got much more than they expected. As most strange sounds do, the disciples’ babbling attracted a crowd. Strangely, the closer they walked, the less it sounded like babble and the more it sounded like home. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs all gathered to see what was going on. They were awestruck.

They saw before them men who looked and dressed like they were from Galilee. They seemed to have no special education that would equip them for such a performance. The crowd could not believe their eyes, but they had to believe their ears. “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?” As they stood their puzzled at the sound they were hearing about all of God’s deeds of power. Many of which they were probably familiar with and then some of which they had yet to hear. These Jews from every nation under heaven would hear about God’s latest deeds of power in someone named Jesus; how he walked from town to town and place to place healing and bringing good news; how this same Jesus died and was raised three days later and how God’s kingdom was now open to all who would come. About 3,000 of those listeners would jump at the chance. Others would sneer and say, “They’re drunk.”

All of them, however, would walk back to the land of their native languages. All of them would walk back to their towns, their places of employment, and their homes with an amazing story of God’s power coming down out of heaven and into their hearts. They would talk about how their hearts were melted that day and how Arabs and Jews walked the streets together, how Romans and Asians broke bread together, and how Egyptians and Syrians worshipped together. Perhaps some of those Jews would go back to their native land and open their Scriptures and listen to Isaiah’s vision with new ears. They would see that Isaiah was right all along and understand that God has always desired a greater and more diverse people. No doubt many back home would think they were crazy to think such things. Such unity might last for a moment, but no Jew would ever be welcome by Arabs for long. No Egyptian is going to worship with a Syrian if they don’t have to. But they would be wrong.

All around the world today, on World Communion Sunday, people are worshipping together. In every nation under heaven, people are gathering around the Lord’s Table to commune with God and with one another. It serves as a sign to the world that God is on the move, that God still sends power from on high, that God’s Holy Spirit is still available for those who will ask. And, so we sit here today. Some of you may have mentioned who you were worshipping with today. Some of you may have received the response, “Have you been drinking? Why would you want to do that?” This morning we are reminded that we do it because this is what God had in mind all along. From the first days of Abraham, through the prophecy of Isaiah, to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God was calling all the nations to himself in order to create communion. We are reminded as we gather around this table that more important than skin color, more important than neighborhood, more important than the nation we call home, is our allegiance to Jesus Christ who we call Lord.

Three Cups of Tea gets its title from an old saying. It goes like this, “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything – even die.” The amazing grace of Jesus Christ is that he died for us so that we might become a family for him and for one another. The sad truth of the world is that many of us remain strangers because of our skin color or because of the neighborhood we live in or because of the nation that we call home. The sad truth of the world is that we label strangers and their homes as unsafe and unwelcoming places. The sad truth of the world is that we let custom and culture get in the way of learning and love.

The good news of the Bible is that God sent his Holy Spirit into the world to change all of that. This Worldwide Communion Sunday we are sign that that good news is good truth. We have let the Holy Spirit melt our hearts in a way that brought us together to worship. We have put aside culture and custom for the sake of worship. It’s like sharing the first cup of tea, maybe even the second cup. When we share in the Lord’s Supper, people who were once strangers can now be considered honored guests. But the Lord’s Supper would have all of us reach beyond honored guests to family. And families are not divided by skin color, by denomination, by neighborhood, or by nation. Families will walk into any neighborhood and do anything to be together, to commune with one another, to be a blessing for one another.

So, if your mind’s eye shares Isaiah’s blessed vision, if your ears long to hear about God’s deeds of power, if your heart is open to God’s Holy Spirit, and if your feet will follow after Jesus Christ, then you are ready to eat at the Lord’s Table. There is no tea here, but there is bread and a cup. These elements point us to someone and to something that seems beyond our reach, but something that gets closer every time we share in them. These elements point us to Jesus Christ whose broken body and shed blood offered us forgiveness and showed the way to a new and eternal life. These elements point us to another day when all God’s children from every tribe, nation, language, and people and will gather as one family around God’s banquet table to hear God say, “My people, the work of my hands, my heritage, welcome.” Amen.

Part 3 – The Unique Image of God

Let me preface what follows by acknowledging that the uniqueness of the Hebrew creation story is not everywhere agreed upon. There are those who see very little that is truly unique when compared to the surrounding creation stories. Some of this is covered in THE LIBERATING IMAGE and I don’t feel the need to cover it here. It’s my impression that even a simple reading of the stories offers some obvious differences that reveal a different view of God, humanity and the world. Walter Brueggeman has written in his book THE PROPHETIC IMAGINATION that “we are indeed made in the image of some God. And perhaps we have no more important theological investigation than to discern in whose image we have been made.” Again, it seems clear to me that the Hebrew creation story offers a unique perspective on the character of God, the vocation of humanity, and the place of creation.

First, there are obvious differences in the character of God as we explore Genesis 1 and even the following chapters. The first thing to note is that, while God does order the chaos, God creates out of nothing. There is no violent combat, no spilling of blood that results in the formations of humanity. It seems that God is enjoying this task of creation and its result, commenting again and again how good it seems to be. Perhaps one way to say this is that the God of the Hebrew story seems self-giving, while the gods of competing stories come across very self-centered. Drawing the story out a little further illustrates the point.

In Genesis 6, humanity is making their fair share of noise. In fact, they are violent and corrupt in all their ways. As opposed to the other creation stories in which the gods become annoyed, the God of the Hebrew Bible is grieved; sorry that he had made creation in the first place. In other words, God’s motivation for sending the flood is different. In the Hebrew Bible, God is a suffering god verses the vindictive gods of the other stories. The method of creation (out of nothing) and the reason for flooding it (eruption of violence) portray God as one who is opposed to death and destruction and resorts to the flood only out of deep pain and loss; grieving the corruption of humanity whom he has invited to join him creating the world. That point brings us to the next unique aspect of the Hebrew story.

Humanity is seen in a much greater light and, therefore, held to a much higher standard in the Hebrew story. Rather than being made after the lesser gods to slave over the structures of civilization, they are made a little lower than the gods and invited to join in creating the structures of civilization. This is true of male and female alike. While it may be valid to point to Genesis as a model for relationships, when comparing it with surrounding cultures, the main point seems to be to emphasize the equal place of the female gender. Any distinction or subservience seems to be the result of the fall that doesn’t come until chapter 3. The Hebrew creation story begins with a much more democratic and gender-equal perspective. That is, the image of God is found, not just in the king nor simply in men, but in all people, male and female. That same story moves forward with humanity playing a much more prominent role relative to the other myths.

In the creation stories of surrounding cultures, civilization is passed down to humanity by the gods and through the king. It is a way of keeping the humans in check and making sure they follow through on their task of keeping the gods fed. In contrast, civilization in the Hebrew story is never prescribed and always attributed to different individuals. The first city, arts and crafts, agriculture and animals, music, the first vineyard are all “discovered” in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. None of them are commanded by God. All of them come across as an expression of the creative work of those creatures whom God has set apart to “be fruitful and multiply” and to “subdue the earth.” In other words, the civilizations that humans build on top of the foundation that is the earth are actually a faithful response to God’s invitation and concrete expressions of what it means to live in the image of God. This final idea will be especially helpful in forming a definition of justice. We can pursue this further in the next post.

Part 2 – The Image of God in the World of God

The creation story in the Hebrew Bible is not the only creation story that history has passed down to us. That fact is often overlooked or merely goes unnoticed. A simple search shows that Israel wasn’t the only nation to consider how the world began and their distinctive place in that world. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and others all recorded their own views about the foundation of the earth. Many of them served to solidify current social practices in the creation of the world. It was done as if to say, “We are the way we are because this is the way our god created things to be.” If you’re a slave, it’s because that’s the way the gods intended it to be. If you’re the king, it’s because that’s the way the gods intended it to be. If my nations overtakes yours, it’s because my god is superior to yours and has ordained that we should be superior to you. Many of the creation stories of surrounding nations offer a decidedly different view of things than does the Hebrew creation story.

In reading THE LIBERATING IMAGE by J. Richard Middleton, competing stories such as the “Atrahasis Epic,” “Enki,” and “Ninmah,” were mentioned as some of the more well-known of the day. These three share a similar plot. A brief and simplified summary would go something like this: The greater gods exist together in various ways. Feeling the need to have someone else serve their needs, they create lesser gods to do the manual labor of maintain irrigation, cultivating crops, and building on the earth. Much of this labor is meant to satisfy the needs of the greater gods for food. Eventually, the lesser gods go on strike. Out of the conflict, the blood of one of the lesser gods is spilled resulting in the creation of humanity. However, it’s not long after their creation that the gods are annoyed at the prevalence and noise of the humans. They decide to do away with them.

Much can be said about the character of the gods in this story and the reason for being that is ascribed to humanity. Undoubtedly, the small nation of Israel would have been aware of these surrounding stories to one degree or another. It could be that that myth with which they were most familiar was the “Enuma Elish.” This was the creation story of Babylon, the nation in which some of the tribes of Israel would find themselves in exile. Some scholars suggest that the Hebrew people would have become very familiar with this creation story and would have found it to be a story that justified their exile and Babylon’s right to rule over them. It is also suggested that the Hebrew creation story was finalized in direct protest to those very ideas. Babylon’s creation story can be summarized as follows.

Apsu and Tiamat, order and chaos, male and female, are present together in the beginning. Together they create a new generation of gods; children so to speak. In this case, it is these younger gods who become rambunctious and annoy their “parents.” Apsu and Tiamat plan to do away with their offspring, but word gets back to one of the younger gods. They go on the offensive and kill their father before he can carry out his plan. This leave Tiamat to exact revenge for the slaying. Out of the ranks comes Marduk (god of Babylon) to say that if the other gods will make him supreme over the rest, he will certainly slay Tiamat. They agree. He does. Ruling over Tiamat (chaos), the female god, Marduk slices her open and stretches out her skin to make the earth. Humanity is born out of the blood of another slain god on the opposing side of the conflict. So, the world begins with divine violence.

Clearly, these stories are meant to assert one nation’s prominence over the rest and they are meant to root that superiority in the foundation of the world. Other implications include that creation is the result of violent conflict and that women are to be associated with chaos and brought to order by men. It is also true that we can see how surrounding nations also viewed humanity as made in the image of the gods. In these instances, humanity serves as a replacement for the lesser gods. In other words, humanity exists as laborers for the gods and the satisfaction of their pleasures. Or, as in the latter story, are created out of the opposition and can be viewed as rebellious.

Alongside these stories, we find examples in art and other aspects of civilization that reveal how the image of God was used. In its simplest form, to be made in the image of a god means to be a copy of that god. That could mean lesser gods of labor or the supreme god who rules heaven and earth. Many of the surrounding nations attributed that latter privilege solely to their kings. To be made in the image of a god would solidify the kings right to rule and the necessity to obey his every word and move. He, and it was always he, spoke the very words of god. An affront to the king was seen as an affront to the gods or, more specifically, to the supreme god. When we consider these competing myths and the illustrations from civilization, we find the Hebrew creation story to be a very compelling alternative to the surrounding myths. It is decidedly different. To read how, you’ll have to go to the next post.