Grace, mercy and peace be to each of you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I invite you to pray with me. “0 Lord, speak in this place, in our minds, in our hearts, by the words of my mouth, and in the thoughts we form. Speak, 0 Lord, we, your servants, are listening. Amen.”
As I mentioned earlier, today we will look at one of the most basic questions of life…
Who Am I?
Have you seen the movie, “The Blindside?” It is a moving real-life drama of Michael Oher.
He was a really big kid who grew up on the streets of Memphis. By God’s grace, he was adopted by a wonderful couple, a family very different than his. His adopted mother was a mama-bear. She watched out for him.
His high school football coach saw no use for him since he was a big kid, but too passive to use his strength to hit people in football. But mama-bear saw something the coach didn’t. The minute the coach put him on the blindside of the quarter back to protect him, Michael flourished. This led to a stellar career in the NFL.
What would have happened if she hadn’t seen him for who he really was? He probably would have listened to his high school coach, and believed he was a terrible football player. Imagine the story … IF he never discovered his true identity!
The reality is, we all have a similar story. Somewhere along the line some well-meaning coach, teacher, parent, or classmate misidentified us, and we believed them. Some of you right now, had a mama-bear or other angel in your life who saw your true identity, and helped you discover it as well.
Others may feel your heart racing right now, because you sense in your gut that you are not living up to your potential. You know you were meant for more, but the mirage in the mirror is keeping you from it. The voice in your head is telling you, “You’re not good enough.”
“Who do you think you are to dream that dream?”
But what if you were destined for more? Fashioned for greatness, created for a higher purpose. What if…
This is one of the oldest and most perpetual questions of humankind. Who am I? It is a core question of every philosophy and every religion in world history.
Our text for today is Genesis 1:26 on page 1 in the chair Bibles. Then God said…
“Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Notice that I’ve underlined three words. I believe these are keys to understanding your identity and God-given purpose.
The first underlined word is Us.
Genesis 1:26 is one of the most curious and most important verses in the Bible. Notice how it begins: “Let us.”
The God of the Bible, from the very beginning, is described as a community. God is “we” not “me.” And theologians have called this the “Doctrine of the Trinity” for 2,000 years.
We will never fully understand the mechanics of it, but the basic idea is simple … a single God with multiple persons (or the ancient Greek Fathers called them “manifestations”).
In some mysterious way, our God speaks of himself as “us.” Of course, the Bible will later reveal the “us” as Father, Son, and Spirit. But all of that is above my paygrade to understand.
Nonetheless, it is critical for us to embrace this for a number of reasons. But the one reason I want to focus on right now is the communal nature of God.
You see God himself is community, and he made us to be communal. By nature, we were created to be more WE than ME.
God created us in and for community. So, our identity (not just our preference) is communal. Who am I? Well, I’m a son and a father, a husband, a friend, a partner, and a pastor. And all of these roles are about relationships.
Without my relationships I don’t have an authentic identity. I suspect that’s why so many young people who run away “to find themselves” get lost in the process. Perhaps that’s why those who rise to the top of their organizations feel so isolated and alone.
Those, who achieve fame, often become isolated by bodyguards and managers, and they experience emotional and social crisis.
When we lose community, we lose our identity.
The second word I underlined was Image.
This leads to another major truth from Genesis 1:26 … what does it mean when the Bible says we were made in the image of God?
Granted it is a mystery beyond our understanding. Yet, I want to explore one facet of what this might mean.
Clearly it does not mean that physically we look like God, since God is a spirit. So, we need to look at characteristics that we share with God.
Obviously, God has some characteristics that are unique to him – omnipotence (we don’t have all power), omniscience (we don’t know everything), omnipresence (we can’t be everywhere at the same time).
But then, think about the fact that there are some characteristics of animals which we DO share … both feel fear, experience hunger and cold, both feel connection to like species.
But what I find most interesting are those unique characteristics that we, as people, uniquely share with God. Perhaps that is how we can better understand the concept of the image of God. So, what might those characteristics be? Let me list a few:
Artistic Creativity
Only humans create art…and we do it all the time. There is nowhere you go where you aren’t surrounded with some kind of art. We put paintings on our walls, we add splashes of color to our houses. We plant things around our property and dress with current fashions.
Our cars, offices, homes, and churches are all decorated with human representations of beauty. And we create sanctuaries of art called museums. Art seems to be sacred for the human species. Similarly, another characteristic is Time.
What is the first thing you look at in the morning? The clock. Why is that so important to us from the moment we get up? We have watches, clocks, and phones.
Why? We plan our days, count them on calendars, and memorialize them with birthdays and anniversaries. We are insatiably connected to time. What animal does that? NONE.
Time-management seems hardwired into us. God uses time even though he is above time. And he put the characteristic in us. Though we live in the moment, we also have eternity in our hearts. So, in a sense, as believers we live above time too.
The third characteristic that I want to highlight is Communal Eating.
There are often feeding frenzies with fish, or lions, or birds. But nothing like the meals we share as humans. No animal sets a time for meals with the family. They certainly don’t decorate a table with candles or linens. This is actually more significant than you might imagine.
Throughout the Bible, there are lots of meals and every one of them is spiritually significant. And what is the first thing we will do when we get to the new Jerusalem? It is a meal.
I think that’s why one of the few universal features of every Christian church throughout history has been the Lord’s Supper.
Let’s look at one more characteristic and that is Language.
God uses language to communicate his love to us. No other animal has that advantage. While certain apes have been taught sign language, and some aquatic mammals have advanced calls, there is no animal that writes poetry.
No birds truly sing … they only mimic sounds they hear. But that is a far cry from creating a melody, telling a story, composing a play, rhyming words, or writing a novel.
We alone share this characteristic of God. When we take these four characteristics together … something surfaces that is truly remarkable. What do these 4 characteristics have in common? Each of them are part of our MUNDANE days.
Think about it … each of these characteristics are part of our everyday moments. They come to us in the bedroom and boardroom, in the coffee shop and funeral home, at a sporting event and a romantic meal. They are everywhere…always.
In other words, we are most like God in our most mundane, everyday moments. We are created for such divine community. It is, in short, our created nature.
Every moment of every day in the smallest ways we are most like God. I’ll say it again, every day in the smallest ways we are most like God … in other words, we are most like God in our most mundane moments.
Now, here is a final thought from Genesis 1:26…
Rule
God designed us to rule over all of His creation. That is have dominion … NOT domination.
God created the heavens and earth, and then He charged us to make a world out of the “stuff” that makes up His creation. He put creation under our care to become a world reflective of his good nature.
As Christians, God presented us an incredible opportunity, especially through our local churches, to model a community devoted to compassion and love in the midst of brokenness.
It is time now for our “What difference will you make today?” question.
Remember, you are most like God in the mundane routine of your day. So, to make a difference today does not have to be a colossal effort. You just need to live your life with the nature of God.
So, here is a challenge I leave you with today … identify one of these four characteristics of God … Art, Time, Meals, and Language … that you could use this week to create community.
You can create community in your family, at work, in your church, and in your neighborhood. The idea is that in doing so you will bring a bit of heaven to earth.
Please do not race past this challenge. Be intentional. Calendar it. Choose a time, a place, and people, where you are going to exercise part of your divine nature for communal improvement.
Here are a few specific ideas…
At work: Write a note of encouragement to a colleague, or schedule a coaching session over lunch to improve their work.
At home: Schedule one more family meals where you go around the table and ask each person to identify three things they are thankful for.
Take a friend or family member to the Museum of Idaho, or the Colonial Theater.
Call a friend and invite them to lunch.
Remember, you are most like God in the mundane of everyday life. So, let’s all work to bring a little bit of heaven to earth this week. Amen