Welcome to One More Thing Before I Close, where I share sermons and additional thoughts from Sunday that I couldn’t squeeze in.
We began a summer series through the book of Genesis, where we are tracing the theme of God’s blessing, how it works and functions amid the dysfunction of human life. God is more faithful than our unfaithfulness, and I hope this word encourages you to receive God’s blessing.
Today, I offer the transcript of my sermon as we kicked it all off today. You can listen to the sermon here when it is published in the next day or two.
Text: Genesis 1:1-2:4
My girls have loved the original Mary Poppins movie for a couple of years now. They especially love Julie Andrews singing, and we play the soundtrack in the car all the time.
Since they love her singing, I recently introduced them to the soundtrack for The Sound of Music and, of course, the “Do-Re-Mi” song. The children Andrews character nannies do not know anything about music and singing, and so she begins to teach them by singing (of course) “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”
In order to understand things well, it is important to start at the beginning. Not just to understand what happened first, but to learn and remember what is of first importance.
We cannot understand how to live well in the world without knowing the most important things about our beginning. How it all started, and what everything else is truly built upon.
We may look around our world today and think, our world is built on conflict. Our world is built on greed or violence. Our world is built on lying, or chaos, or exhaustion.
Or that our world is built on trying to keep up and survive.
It feels sometimes that this is what life is. These things are surely happening, but is this what life is built on? Is this what is at the very beginning? What is intended?
As we look to the Scriptures, we find something else threaded into the story of our daily lives, something so foundational to who we are as people, and it is that God has blessed us.
We’re going to explore what being blessed means in the first book of the bible, Genesis.
The book of Genesis that we will be journeying through this Summer is about beginnings. In fact, the word Genesis literally means “beginning.”
It is important to remember that what we are coming to in Genesis, this summer, is not everything the Scriptures say about who God is and who we are, but it will begin introducing every major theme in scripture.
Two very significant themes in particular emerge from our text this morning that will help us as we journey through Genesis.
One of those themes is the word “Image” or “likeness,” and the other is “blessing.”
First God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.”
Now this word “man” is the Hebrew word “adam,” it doesn’t mean male, it means Humanity.
So, when God makes humanity, both men and women together, they are made in God’s image.
That means we are made in God’s image.
There are a couple of things about the “image of God” that are important to know.
One is that in the ancient world, only the kings of a particular kingdom would be referred to as “God’s image” or representative. To bear God’s image was to be a royal representative of a particular deity on earth.
In our Scriptures here in Genesis, however, we see that the royal attribute of being God’s image is given to all humanity, both male and female, in stark contrast with the rest of the cultures around the Hebrew people.
Our text is saying something very radical about the God-given dignity of every woman and man, but also about our status as all together being God’s royal representatives on earth.
The other thing that is significant about being God’s image is that it is not something you have more or less of. It isn’t something you carry or you can lose.
When reflecting upon what the image of God might be exactly, Old Testament Scholar Victor Hamilton says,
“Innumerable definitions have been suggested: conscience, the soul, original righteousness, reason, the capacity for fellowship with God through prayer, posture, etc…Any approach that focuses on one aspect of [humanity]—be that physical, spiritual, or intellectual—to the neglect of the rest of [humanity’s] constituent features seems doomed to failure. [Our text] is simply saying that to be human is to bear the image of God. This understanding emphasizes [humanity] as a unity. No part of [humanity], no function of [humanity] is subordinated to some other, higher part or activity.”
To summarize what Hamilton says, it is not in doing something specific that you and I bear God’s image. But simply because you exist, you bear God’s image.
Now that is particularly powerful and significant as we think about the messes of our lives.
You could be medically incapacitated and in a vegetative state in a hospital and still be in no way lacking the fullness of being the image of God.
You can be disobeying God and walking away from the life God has called you to, and you are still fully and completely bearing the image of God.
You may not be functioning in your calling very well, but you do not have less of the Image of God because of something you do or do not do.
God is the originator of this imaging that humans do.
Our ability to be the image of God is not something dependent on us in any way, shape, or form. It is entirely and completely possible only because of who God is.
Being God’s image is a complete and utter gift.
This is what we call grace.
You and I received God’s grace simply by being brought into existence, and by being brought into existence, we are God’s image. God’s royal representatives alongside all of humanity.
You and I are recipients of grace simply by existing out of the life-giving love of the Triune God.
So receive God’s grace this morning.
Receive God’s grace and God’s commitment to your life, existing as being made in God’s image.
Whatever hardship, whatever struggle, whatever challenge or conflict you face today. Receive God’s grace, the gift of being made in God’s image.
If you have been running from God and avoiding things in your life. Receive God’s grace, the gift of being made in God’s image.
Let’s now take this realization of being made in God’s image as a received grace, and let us consider how God is the one who is making this image-bearing happen.
God is naming humanity as his collective representative in the created world.
In other words, God has made us responsible for all of creation.
While we are always God’s image, whether we act in accordance with our created purpose or not, is an open question, especially since sin has entered the world.
The reality is, we do have a responsibility connected with being the image of God.
The text says we ‘rule’ over creation.
We are to be compassionate caretakers of the world God has made. Does that seem like an overwhelming job?
Are you a compassionate caretaker of the things you are responsible for?
The work you are responsible for?
The relationships you are responsible to?
The children you have a responsibility to raise?
The homes you live in, whether you own or rent?
What about responsibilities to neighbors, as Jesus teaches us?
Or responsibilities to serve the world?
Do you go about your day as a compassionate caretaker? Or an impatient overlord?
This is difficult to do well, isn’t it?
It is often the cause of our problems in life. We sometimes shirk our work responsibilities. We harbor unforgiveness towards others. We isolate ourselves or do not tend to the material responsibilities we have. We do not consider other people to be our neighbors.
It is difficult to live out our humanity together as the image of God, as a compassionate caretaker.
To help us bear this responsibility, God does something I see as quite profound, and it is the main theme that will follow us throughout the book of Genesis.
It is what enables us to walk out what God has created us for in God’s power and in God’s strength.
What is it you ask?
It’s God’s blessing.
God blesses humanity.
I want to draw your attention to how significant it is that God blesses humanity right from the beginning.
Blessing - the word “barak” - in Hebrew is very significant and will continue to be expanded through the biblical story, but here in Genesis, we find its basic meaning in seed form.
God, the giver of life, says, “Be fruitful and multiply.”
God blesses his image bearers to continue to create life so we can be responsible for all of creation together.
This is why Christians think children are so important. Not because they are the future. Not because they are cute. Children are first and foremost important because they are a direct result of God’s blessing to create life.
But even more, creating life creates new human relationships for us to compassionately care for. And God sees this as a good blessing and function of his image bearers.
There is a practice in my generation of cutting off one’s parents for being “too much” or “toxic.” This sad practice is a result of not recognizing this first blessing of God, who says be fruitful and multiply.
Create life. Foster healthy relationships. Continue to flourish together in community, not separately.
God further blesses their ability to “subdue the earth” - a reference to tilling and working the soil, which is quite interesting considering the ancient worldview of the biblical world.
There is an ancient Mesopotamian creation story called the Enuma Elish in which, after a great conflict, the world is created. The losing gods in the conflict are all forced to farm and work the earth. But they complain, and so the high god creates humans not as the image of God but as slaves to do the work for the gods and the kings who carry the image of God.
In this account of humanity, we are an afterthought. Not important or significant to the created world. We’re an accident of much more powerful forces.
Yet that is not the case in the Scriptures. Humanity is created with purpose as the image of God, and blessed to receive the gift of creating more human life and to work.
The blessing of being human is actually to have community and work together.
We often think of being blessed as something we receive, like financial comfort or security.
Being able to put our feet up and not have to work as hard.
But God shows us what blessing really is. It is not just something we receive. Blessing is intimately tied together with being human, with being the image of God, and doing something with others in the world.
“To bless,” writes Derek Kidner, “is to bestow not only a gift but a function,”
Being blessed is not only what we get, but it is also what we do.
To be blessed implies that we have the responsibility of doing something as God’s representatives on earth.
To share life together and work together.
But it is God’s blessing upon us that enables this to happen. It is not something we can do apart from God. It is God-initiated, and God sustained.
God’s blessing is so powerful that it is the driving force behind all of human existence and activity, still to this day.
God didn’t just bless humanity then; God is blessing humanity now.
God is committed to blessing humanity to function in the way God created us, no matter what.
Now that might seem a little odd because much of what we see today is troubling to us. We might wonder, is God really blessing all of this?
That’s where recognizing the significance of God’s blessing becomes even more powerful.
We see that God blesses humanity to represent him, yet within one page of the biblical story, humanity will reject God, distort their blessing as image bearers, and they will not only bear God’s blessing, but they will also bear the curses of rejecting God.
This is quite a big mess. We will see this play out throughout Genesis. As we do in our world today.
Adam and Eve’s two children, Cain and Abel, will seek God’s favor through their sacrifices. Abel’s sacrifice will be received, Cain’s sacrifice will be rejected because it was not given rightly to God.
Cain, in his jealousy, will murder his brother. Evil, murder, and theft will begin to fill the whole earth.
Eventually, the evil will get so bad that the earth will be wiped out. God hopes to get rid of humans entirely because humanity has become so corrupt.
But God, so true to God’s nature, will always find humans ready to walk in his blessing, no matter what.
God will find favor in humanity through Noah and his family. They will receive his blessing after the flood, but things will still go horribly wrong in the following generations.
Empires will enslave others, imagine themselves to be gods, and they’ll force their enslaved population to build a tower to reach heaven.
God will still choose humanity and bless Abraham and Sarah to be a blessing to all the peoples of the world.
Abram and Sarah will conspire to force God’s blessing on their own terms by forcing a servant of theirs named Hagar to have sex with Abraham to produce an heir.
What does God do? God allows both Hagar’s child by force and Sarah’s child by promise to be blessed.
Isaac, the promised offspring of Abraham and Sarah, asks for God’s blessing.
He and his wife Rebekah’s sons, Jacob and Esau, will end up in a messy conflict over that blessing. There is favoritism between the parents with each child. What a mess! But God still blesses both Jacob and Esau.
Jacob has 12 sons from two different wives, and it’s rife with conflict.
The second youngest son, Joseph, ends up being the clear favorite. Again with the generational favoritism!
The mess gets deeper as the young son Joseph is sold into slavery by his jealous older brothers, they make it look like he was killed by a wild animal, and lie to their father about it.
Joseph is enslaved by powerful Egyptians, escapes a forced sexual relationship, is framed and imprisoned for it all, as if it were his fault. It’s again, a huge mess.
But God’s blessing is still working.
God puts Joseph in charge of all of Egypt to save his family from famine!
Joseph’s insight and wisdom not only saved his own family, but through him, many nations are blessed because they can get food during the famine.
We could go on beyond the story of Genesis throughout the history of Israel in the Old Testament.
Mess after mess was made, and yet still God did not waver in his commitment to Israel and to Humanity as a whole.
All of this culminated in God becoming human in Jesus. The ultimate solution to God’s initial blessing for humanity!
What I want you to notice in all of this is that all through human history, God is still blessing humanity.
And that blessing is to be taken seriously. It is meant to shape us to live in such a way that takes being made in God’s image as a grace to be lived out.
We are blessed in such a way that we are to be responsible to each other and to the world we live in.
I want to be clear. Blessing does not mean that God approves of all that we do. Just like the account of Genesis I just gave you, the messes are still terribly messy, and sin still plagues our world.
But God is so committed to humanity, and the blessing God has given us is to continue to be lived out.
Even though there is mess after mess after mess, God never waivers.
Let me say this Good News very plainly: God never has a plan B, only plan A.
God demonstrates his commitment to humanity by continuing to bless in the middle of the mess.
Because God’s work is stronger than our sin and stronger than our mess. God’s blessing ultimately will always overcome sin, brokenness, and evil.
Because you and I are blessed, we can trust that God will move in the mess.
All of this is to say that the God who made you in his image. The God who blessed you with being a part of the human family to work together with compassionate care.
This God is fully committed to your life.
That question is, are you?
If we can trust that God is that committed to us, even in our mistakes and in our messes.
How might that change how we live out our identity as being made in God’s image and living under God’s blessing?
If we knew that God was more committed to our lives than we are committed to our own lives, what might we do differently to receive God’s blessing?
Would we perhaps invite God into the messes of life? Into the complicated layers of responsibility, conflict, sin, uncertainty, pain, and brokenness?
Would we perhaps be better able to receive this all as a grace that we could never earn?
You cannot stop God’s blessing that he has put on your life and the life of every human being. Will you take that seriously this summer?
This leads me to two final questions, and these are the questions I’d love for you to join me in reflecting on this summer in prayer, in your life groups, in conversations, and in scripture reading as we journey through Genesis together.
The question is this:
If God is really that committed to your life…
What mess would you invite God to move through this summer?
How is God calling you to live out the blessing of being fully human?
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