Genesis 1:26-27
I love going
over this story of Creation with the youth group during confirmation classes.
There are a few of these quirky events in the Bible where you think you know
the details but it turns out they are made up—like the number of wise men who
visit baby Jesus—we think there are three because three gifts are listed but
the actual number of people who traveled to see the Christ Child is never
revealed. The youth are always surprised when they find out there are two
creation stories—this seven day one with God saying things like, let there be
light and then creating humankind and then the story in the next—you know the
one where the man is created and given the job of naming all of creation and God
feels sorry for him being all alone and creates a woman from his rib. Two very
distinct stories of creation. Anyway, the creation story Donna read for us is
from chapter one and takes place after God has created everything in the world,
except for humans. We don’t know much about God at this point other than how
powerful God must be to have created so much out of nothing. Over these next
three weeks, Stephen and I will be exploring the images that we have for God.
Many of us grew up in a time in which there was not much question of how we
would describe God if asked—the answer would likely be, an old white, bearded
man, living in heaven up in the sky. I don’t know about you but when I was
younger I couldn’t help but think of Charleston Heston like in this photo—he
was actually playing Moses but to my mind, this is how I thought of God while I
was in Sunday School. It’s hard to know
when this older male image of God was created in the imagination of
humanity—perhaps Michelangelo had something to do with it when he revealed his
painting in the Sistine Chapel—you know the one, where God is creating humanity
by reaching out and touching fingertips with Adam.
Translating
the Bible into English would likely also have been a factor. The Old Testament,
the Hebrew Scriptures, were written in Hebrew. Hebrew does not have pronouns
such as the English language—no ‘he’ or ‘she’. But the Hebrew language does assign
a gender to all things in a similar way of the French language. As such, God
had a masculine designation, not necessarily because the early Hebrew people
understood that God was a man, God was just happened to be masculine. I
suppose, it’s just as likely God could have had a feminine designation just as
the Hebrew words for grapevine or sun. Of course, later in the Christian
Scriptures, the New Testament, Jesus refers to God as Abba, which is Aramaic
for father—abba refers to a relation of personal intimacy—which is exactly what
God is to Jesus. Jesus was likely very aware of the story of how his mother was
made pregnant through divine intervention and so it follows that Jesus would
have thought of God as his father, therefore directing humanity’s imagination
to the image of a older man. The lighter features of God comes from the very
fact that it was western Europeans who have had authority over the church for
so many years. Using English, Bible states, God created humankind in his image.
The word for God is masculine and the English language requires a pronoun to be
used in this situation, so the sentence is God created humankind in HIS image. Our
history had men interpreting the Word of God for the people, and so they read
this bit of information revealing what God was and they looked at themselves. Their
logic probably went like this…if God made us in his image, we must be what God
looks like. Which leads us to the pervasive uses of older, male imagery for God
today. Even in the TV show, The Simpsons,
the character of God is light skinned and has a long white beard. Here’s a fun
fact that I’ve shared before but I still like to point it out…God is the only
Simpson character to have five fingers, the other characters all have four
fingers on each hand.
There is
nothing inherently wrong with this older male imagery for God other than it can
be restrictive when portraying God if other perspectives are not permitted. The
English language is limited when it used to describe the Holy Mystery that is
God. Last week we heard the early Christians speaking about the Holy Spirit
using images of fire and the sound of wind because they did not have the
language to describe the fullness of how God was moving in their lives on the
day of Pentecost. As much as we try, developing a comprehensive image of God is
very, very difficult, impossible even. But humanity, as a general rule, likes
order in the world. And, let’s admit it, we the faithful, like rules and
organization. If you need any proof that humanity values consistency as a
virtue, have a look at the success of McDonalds or stand behind someone at
Starbucks as they discover the location they are at has run out of earl grey
tea. You can’t possibly make a tea latte with anything other than earl grey.
And, no, English breakfast is never, ever an option for a London Fog, thank you
very much! As much comfort rule and order offers to us, sometimes consistency
can be filled with ruts that are hard to escape. And when our religious
structures become too rigid with the portrayal of God, there is not room for
those people who do not find comfort or peace in those portrayals. If a child
suffered at the hand of their father growing up, perhaps the image of God as
the loving Father cannot be reconciled with their abusive father. If a person
has been sexually assaulted by a man, it might be hard to find comfort in
praying to a man for strength and courage. There are also people who find it
challenging to consider the greatness of God’s mystery being contained within any
type human form. It is helpful for those folks to be given space for God to be
more, to be bigger, to be wider than any one person. For people whose vision of
God does not include Charleston Heston, we to allows for an expansive view of
the one we call the Almighty.
Let’s take a
moment to look at our scriptures to examine what they tell us about God. There
are many, many descriptions for God throughout the whole Bible—metaphors such
as fire, wind, the quiet after a storm and also characteristics such as being
just, loving, wise and in all places at all times. So, in this very first
chapter of the entire Bible, we find ourselves at the end of a rather
impressive list of things and creatures that God has managed to create and we
know that all of it is good. Then God makes humankind. In a stunning revelation
we find out suddenly that God does not seem to be alone. God says, “Let US make
humankind in OUR image.” It turns out that God is not an ‘I’ but rather, God is
an ‘us’. As an aside here, this is a piece of scripture that certain Christians
use to explain the Trinity and to ‘prove’ that Jesus was with God since the
very beginning of time. However, the same Christians then ignore the next few
lines and use only the creation story from chapter two to explain how women are
to be subordinate to men. But I’ll leave that for another Sunday. So, to recap,
God is an us, not an ‘I’ and God wishes to make humankind in their
likeness—again plural rather than singular. God goes ahead and makes humankind
and AGAIN we hear plural not singular—God created THEM. Male and female.
Did you
notice that the male is not named Adam in this story? That happens in chapter two.
The Hebrew word for red dust is adama and it is believed that Adam is named for
the dirt from which he was created. Back to chapter one and the male and female
being created together. One thought is that this one being had the male facing
from one side and the female facing from the other. Psalm 139 says, "You
hem me in—behind and before, you have laid your hand upon me.” At some point,
they were separated. Or it could simply be that both were created at the same
time as individual beings. What is important to take away is that both men and
women were created in the likeness of God. Which then begs the question of how
it is that we haven’t used other images for God alongside the father, an old
man with a beard? If we, each one of us, are made in the image of God, we do
not have to look very far to find out some of the possibilities of what God is.
Male, female, transgendered, homosexual, heterosexual black, brown, white,
tall, slim or wide.
Last summer,
in Zambia, in response to the question as to why the United States and Canada
had so many gays when Zambia had none, I told the Zambian taxi driver that we,
in Canada and in the United Church know that a person has no more control over
whether they are born gay or straight than they are born black or white or male
or female. We are born the way we are, just as God would have us be. And each
and every one of us is made in the image of God. God can be many things. I’ve
shared here before that when she was four years old, Abigail described God as
being big and blue and riding a bike. I think of God as being a big cloud type
of thing, like a massive flock of birds that move in tandem together in the
sky—as the love from which we are born and the love to which we return when our
time on earth is at an end. But it is helpful for me, particularly when I’m in
the drive through line at Tim Hortons and I’m feeling tense about who might cut
into the line to remember that each and every one of us reflects God and all
the possibilities of God. However, individually we are not the sum total of all
that God can be. Remembering that God created humanity, both male and female
together from their likeness—from the
plural we were created into community. Neither one alone is the full image of
God—only in the community of humankind is God reflected. For us to begin to
understand the Mystery of who and what God is and the power of God in our
world, we need to be with each other. We need to be together, acknowledge one
another, try to understand one another, be loving to one another, offer grace
to each other just as God’s grace is given to us, to ensure justice for our
neighbor as we would want for ourselves, to be compassionate and full of mercy
just as God is, for each and every one of us is made in the image of God. God
has created us into a community in which we are encouraged each and every day
to call each other into full being in fellowship, a fellowship that can only be
accomplished when we look at the other and recognize that God is as reflected
in the person before us as God is reflected in ourselves. And, if you need
reminding of all the possibilities of who the US is that is our God, of the US
that made humankind in their image…here are some photos of just a few in this
world who bears God’s image…
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