"Who Are We?"
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
Genesis 1:26, 27, 31a; 3 (selected verses)
June 13, 2010
In the
mid 1700’s, philosopher Jean-Jacque Rousseau wrote about
his philosophy of education. Rousseau believed that children
come into the world pure, innocent, and noble. It is only
the corrupting influence of culture that causes them to do bad
things. Therefore, the job of teachers is to protect children
from society so they will remain good. If children are left
to their own devices and protected from evil influences, they will
be fine, Rousseau believed.
Just a few years later,
John Wesley, the Anglican reformer and founder of the Methodist movement, preached
a sermon on educating children. He believed that children come into the
world already tainted and corrupted by sin. Left to their own devices,
they become selfish and cruel little atheists. Therefore, the role of
educators is to confront their sinful nature, teaching children right from wrong,
and ultimately leading them to encounter their Creator, the only one who can
help them overcome their natural, self-centered tendencies. Otherwise,
they will never become constructive members of society and family.
So, who was right? Who
are we? Pure, noble, innocent beings who are corrupted by society? Or
selfish, sinful beings who can only be made whole by divine intervention? The
answer to that question has profound implications for education, child-rearing,
government, law, business management, and psychology. We’re spending
this summer in the book of Genesis. Genesis is foundational for understanding
the rest of the Bible, and it is foundational for understanding ourselves and
our relationship to God. The first chapters of Genesis help us tackle that
most basic question, “Who are we?” It asserts two basic truths
about ourselves that we must always hold in tension. We begin in Gen. 1:26,27,31a.
26 Then God said, "Let
us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have
dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the birds of
the air,
and over the cattle,
and over all the wild animals of
the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
27 So God created
humankind in his image, in the image of God he
created them; male and female he created them.
31 God saw
everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
These verses teach
us that we are specially created beings, made in the image of God. The
implications of that are profound! First, we are creatures. That
means we have real limits to our existence. We are vulnerable. We
need food, water, shelter, and rest if we are to even survive. We have
limited time in which to accomplish what we want to do. And, we are not
here by chance or accident. The Creator created us with a purpose; there
is a reason we exist. We are creatures.
Second, the passage makes it clear that each human being has great value. In
his book, “Leaving Home,” Garrison Keillor tells a fictional story
about a family from Lake Wobegon. After her husband had abandoned her with
her three children, Grace Campbell was forced to move back home, enduring the
relentless “I-told-you-so’s” of her mother. This was
not the life she had planned; it was a humiliating way to live. But one
day she received a letter from a man in Philadelphia who was doing research on
Scottish nobility. He asked about her ancestry. Grace replied and
within a couple days received a letter back from the man. The envelope
was addressed to “Mrs. Grace Campbell,” but the letter was addressed
to “Your Royal Highness.” It began, “Today is the happiest
day of my life as I greet my one true Sovereign Queen.” The man
had traced her lineage back to the House of Steward, the royal Family of Scotland.
Keillor writes, “The
Royal Family of Scotland was living in Lake Wobegon in a green mobile home, furniture
donated by the Lutheran church. They were astounded beyond words. Disbelieving
at first, afraid to put their weight on something so beautiful, afraid it was
too good to be true, and then it took hold- Here they were in the same dismal
place but everything had changed. They were different people. Their
surroundings were the same, but they were different.”
Why were they different? Because
they now had a new understanding of their heritage and value, of who they were. Suddenly
they saw themselves as royalty and that changed them! Our heritage, our
birthright, our identity is even greater than the Campbells! We may be
discouraged, beaten down, and failing at life, but we are specially created in
the very image of God! And that gives us incomparable value and worth. But
what exactly does it mean to be made in the image of God? I’m glad
you asked that question!
I read John Calvin’s
commentary on this passage, written in the 1500’s. Even then he noted
that theologians couldn’t agree on what it means to be made in God’s
image! Some people believe that the fact that we can reason shows that
we are created in God’s image, our rationality. Others point out
that like God, we have authority over creation. Or, the fact that we create
makes us like God. Artists, musicians, builders, cooks, organizational
leaders- all create something, and find great fulfillment in doing so. So
does God! The fact that we work also makes us like God. So does
the fact that we have freedom to make choices. These are all ways in which
we reflect the image of God.
More recently, there has
been an emphasis on the fact that like God, we are relational beings. God
has relationship within the Trinity, and desires to be in relationship with the
human creatures he fashioned. Human beings desire relationships, too. The
story of human creation in Genesis 2 specifically states that it was not good
for the man to live alone. Woman was created to be his partner. As
John Donne reminded us in his meditation (#17), “no one is an island.” We
are, and need to be, in relationships with other people. That’s another
way in which we are made in God’s image.
So, the first truth about
ourselves that we learn from Genesis is this: As creatures made in God’s
image, we have great value. If we stopped reading here, we’d have
to say that Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s view of humanity was right on target. But
that’s not the end of the story. Genesis 3 casts a shadow over God’s
good creation of human beings.
In Genesis 3, humans chose
to disobey their Creator and assert their independence from him. Their
choice to eat the forbidden fruit had little to do with diet and everything to
do with their lack of trust in God’s good will for them, and in their willingness
to substitute their judgment for God’s. The consequences of that
choice began immediately. The man and woman became estranged from one another,
making crude clothing to cover themselves up. When confronted with what
they had done, they blamed one another for the sinful choices they had made. They
even became estranged from God, attempting to hide from him when he approached. And
it wasn’t long before sin and evil spun out-of-control and resulted in
jealousy and the first murder just one chapter later. Christian rocker,
Randy Stonehill, puts it like this, “We are all like foolish puppets, who
desiring to be kings, now lie pitifully crippled, after cutting our own strings.”
This is the second truth
about ourselves. We are sinners. Now sin is defined in several ways
in the Bible. It can mean to break a commandment of God- by doing something
we ought not do, or by failing to do something we should do. That’s
the way we often use the word. And we do have a propensity to defy the
rules. In a “Non Sequitur” comic entitled, “The Essence
of Human Nature,” a man and woman are standing in front of a sign that
says, “Absolutely NO Machete Juggling.” The man turns to the
woman and remarks, “Suddenly, I have an urge to juggle machetes…” Sin
gives us a rebellious nature which leads us to break rules, be they human
rules or God’s rules.
But sin also involves our thoughts, our desires, our feelings, and our wills. All
have been corrupted or tainted by sin. All tend toward selfishness. In
fact, Martin Luther described sin as a heart turned inward on itself. Sin
is much more than just the wrong things we do; it has infected every part of
us. That means that we need to be taught what is good, what is valuable,
what to desire. We don’t naturally know these things. And
the bad news is that we are helpless to overcome sin. And we don’t
like to be reminded of that.
When I was installed as
pastor at my former church, I invited Dr. Dick Hutcheson, a mentor of mine, to
give the installation sermon. Dick preached from I Timothy and did a fine
job until he came to a certain point in the sermon. I still remember vividly
the moment when Dick emphatically proclaimed, “In addition to having gifts
for ministry, you need to know that Dave is a sinner!” And it seemed
to me that he spent a pretty long time developing that point. Now I couldn’t
disagree with him, but I didn’t really want to be reminded of it publicly
as I was being installed as a pastor! Later in the service, an elder picked
up on the same theme, noting that “Dave is a sinner” in his prayer
for me, and the woman giving the charge to me at the end of the service emphasized
the same point. It became the theme of my installation service! It
wasn’t what I had in mind!
But it was true. Dave
is a sinner. That’s part of my identity. John Wesley got that
part right and Rousseau got that part wrong. No one had to teach me how
to lie or cheat or say hurtful things about others or take revenge. Those
things came very naturally to me. I had to be taught NOT to lie or cheat
or say cruel things about others or take revenge. And I’m still working
on those things.
In his book, Requiem
for a Nun, William Faulkner has a wise character say this about sin, “You
ain’t got to. You can’t help it.” That’s
part of what Christians mean when they talk about original sin. It is inevitable
for us, even though we may not want to do it! “You ain’t got
to. You can’t help it.” Sin has infected each one of
us and tainted every aspect of our lives- both our individual lives as well as
our social lives. Everything is stained by sin. And we are helpless
against it. That’s original sin.
So here we are. Magnificent
creatures made in God’s own image, yet fallen from God’s grace and
shot through with sin. That’s the tension within us. The image
of God has been hopelessly tarnished in us. And that’s that dilemma
that the entire remainder of the Bible attempts to resolve. As we read
Scripture, we find one attempt after another of God seeking to restore his creation
to its original glory and purpose. And, that of course, is the good news. God
has not given up on us and continues to love us and seek after us in spite of
our sin. As Paul reminds us in Romans 5, “But God proves his love
for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom.
5:8)
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