Imago Dei

Sermon for Sunday, February 10, 2008

 

1.     Good Morning.  Let’s pray.  O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

 

2.     Opening Comments:  Today is the first Sunday of the Season of Lent.  As many of us know our Lord uses the season of Lent to scour off a whole lot of unnecessary stuff that has become “barnacled” to us and needs to go.  This is a great time to begin fasting!  Some of us are doing just that.  Our daughter Hayley is not eating meat for the Season of Lent.  It’s a season for dropping off excess baggage. 

 

That focus was where we were during the last Season of Lent.  If you’re new to this Church family and haven’t had much experience with the idea and reality of “Lent” then please ask some of the oldies about the Season of Lent and what can happen for those of us who really want God to cleanse us from anything that is not of Him.  This can be a very challenging but pivotal season in our lives!

 

So our focus could be on the cleansing and penitential aspect of the Season of Lent but our infinitely loving Lord has been revealing something else to me and it’s about why this cleaning – this penitence – is necessary.

 

Let me draw y’all into a very deep place – a place of sublime reflection and its here that we’ll find the reason for Lent.

 

So buckle up your seat belts and get ready to be amazed at the God we love and worship!

 

3.  Why does God want to cleanse us?  What’s the point?  Can anyone speculate on why God wants to cleanse us? 

 

Invite congregational response.

 

The key is in our Scripture readings but hidden a little.  Please turn with me to our Scripture readings and let’s try to reveal this deeper truth shall we?

 

OK – the Old Testament reading from Genesis gives us the story of God’s creation of the world and in verse 16 and 17 we hear these words:

 

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;  17.  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

 

Ah!  And we all know what happened don’t we?  Yes, they ate of the forbidden fruit – they disobeyed God – and in so doing broke relationship with Him and the rest of salvation history is about God’s efforts to restore right relationship between Himself and His human Creation!

 

But we need to go back to the beginning to get the scent of why we have the season of Lent.

 

If you have your Bibles please turn with me to Genesis 1:26 and 27:

 

Gen. 1:26

             Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” :27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

 

So God created man in His own image – in His “Imago Dei.”

 

What does that mean?  Now please believe me when I say that this is the key question of the whole reflection this morning.

 

What does it mean that you were made in the image of God – the Imago Dei?

 

4.  Other Scriptures:   We’ll come back to that question very soon but before we do that we need to review very quickly the other Scriptures:

 

Please turn with me to the Second Reading – Romans chapter 5 beginning at verse 12:

 

In these sublime verses St. Paul in his summum bonum letter to the Christians in Rome clearly made the point that while the first Adam failed the Second Adam- Jesus Christ – didn’t fail.  His sacrifice overcame the first sacrifice and through Him we are redeemed and restored into right relationship with God. 

 

This is all magnificently summed up in verses 18 and 19 of chapter 5:

 

Rom. 5:18

  Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!  19 One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.

 

Jesus put it right for us!

 

What was happening here? 

 

Remember – we were made by God for God – we, you and I, were literally made in His image! 

 

So what was Jesus doing?  What did He accomplish?  And what does this have to do with Lent?

 

Hmmmmmmmm!

 

5.                Now please turn with me to the Gospel reading.  In this reading we see Jesus being tempted by the Devil.  What was this all about?  It was Eden revisited wasn’t it.  It was Satan trying to seduce the Second Adam.  He’s been successful with the first – why not the Second?

 

Ah!  Jesus was very different from the
First Adam!  He was not a creation of God He was God incarnate!  He knew that Satan was a liar!

 

Satan seeks to seduce Jesus with 3 terrible tests.  In the first test Satin tries to get Jesus to turn stones into bread.  What is this all about?  Satan wants Jesus, God incarnate, to reveal Himself according to Satan’s timetable.  He wants to control Jesus and His revelation!

 

But Jesus defers to God Almighty

 

But Satan responds with:

 

Matt. 4:5

     Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

     “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,

              and they will lift you up in their hands,

     so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’’”

Matt. 4:7

     Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’’”

 

What is this all about?  Again Satan is trying to take the initiative from God!  But Jesus responds with – “God is God and you are not!  You cannot put God to the test!

 

And finally Satan tries a third time:

 

Matt. 4:8

    Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Matt. 4:10

    Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’’”

 

Ah!  Satan, the great liar, offers Jesus an opportunity to submit to Him and Jesus responds – No!  I will serve God and God alone!

 

Satan – the great usurper – the great Liar – is revealed for who he is by the Second Adam.

 

You see Jesus, the Second Adam, saw Satan for who he really was – an imposter.  He who has really noting to offer!

 

And so Satan is left undone!

 

And it concludes:

 

Matt. 4:11

  The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs.

 

Ah!  All that we’ve been reflecting upon can come down to this single statement:  “I guess it always comes down to the belief of either ‘Namaste’ or ‘imago dei’ – where ‘Namaste” asserts that we are all God, and ‘imago dei’ asserts we are made in God’s image and likeness.

 

That is – God is God and we are not!

 

But, and this is the wonder!  We are all “made in His image.”

 

And the Season of Lent is about our cooperating with God in the process of revealing our true identity!  The scouring and purging is all about “REVEALING” our true identity!  And that is that we are all made in the image of God!

 

6.                Imago Dei!  What does it really mean that you and I are “made in the image of God?”

 

Let me share with you my first encounter with Monsignor Jerry Krieg.  We met in his priory and I was fully of my reformed theology and in a casual comment I said, “I am a sorry sinner – a pathetic being.”

 

I noticed that when I said this he winced noticeably.  I could see that this statement really affected him.  I vaguely remember saying, “What did I say?”

 

And then followed his deep reflection upon the reality that while we are in fact sinners all – we are also “made in the image of God!”

 

Ontologically – in our very being – we reflect in some sense God’s very inner being!

 

Now what does this mean?  Ultimately?

 

It means that if I can look very very deeply into you – into your being – I will discover the hint – the very scent of God and it will take my breath away!

 

This is what the season of Lent is really all about!  Uncovering – revealing – scouring away all of the accretions – the barnacles – that obscure – that deface – the very image of God!

 

6.  The Challenge:  Is it “Namaste” or “Imago Dei?”  Is it “I am god” or “I am made in the image of God.”   The first focuses on me as the center of all while the latter recognizes that God is God and I am not.   St. Augustine once said, “God you have made us for yourself – we are restless until we rest in you.”  And he also said and I want to close with this statement:

 

 “Noverim te ut noverim me – noverim me ut noverim te – May I know You so that I may know me – May I know me so that I man know You.” St. Augustine.

 

It’s in discovering God that I discover me – for I am made in His image!

 

The true journey of self discovery is to look for and discover God!

 

The true journey of the Lenten Season is one of deeper discover of God and this invariably leads to a deeper discovery of yourself and as you do this – you begin to discover a magnificent being – You!  Made in the image of God.  And as you do this – you begin to discover others – who, themselves, are made in the image of God.

 

Now you’re beginning to see the majesty of God’s plan – to draw us into discovering the wonder of Him and the wonder of us and each other.

 

Ah!  There are not such persons – as the least, the lost and the lonely, for they are all – made in the image of God!

 

May we be a community in which all beings are seen for the wonder of who they really are and may this Season of Lent be a journey into this discovery of Wonder – Real Wonder! 

 

Amen and Amen!

 

Let’s us pray . . .