Last evening as we met together to discuss Nouwen's book, Can You Drink the Cup?, a very important question came up. Rather, I should say that an important point that has brought up caused many questions for me, to wit: What does it mean in Genesis 1.27 that humanity is made in God's image? If all of humanity, indeed all of creation, was made good, how does sin enter into the equation? How does Jesus factor into said equation of life? Let's look at Gen 1.27...

So God created humankind in his image;
in the image of God, he created them;
male and female he created them.

First, this says something about God and how God is with/for us. In order to understand the fullness of this, we need to look at these phrases as the Hebrew poetry they are: three lines of parallel thought, in ABCD form.

A         B             C                    D
God   created   humankind    in his image;

D                                  A               B                      C 
in the image of God,  he            created              them

D                                  A              B             C
male and female         he             created     them.

So, what is the image of God according to this short poetical rendition? God's image is both male and female together in some kind of unbroken relationship. According to the Hebrew author's understanding of God, God is somehow beyond human gender and yet bound up tightly in all that it means to be both male and female at once. The author seems to convey an equality in God that transcends any limits you or I desire to place on the divine - even limits that would somehow give humanity the ability to achieve power over other creatures. Here in these few words, the author masterfully has shown a view of God that does not allow human power to usurp God's place in the universe. These words place humanity in God in such a way as to reveal that, in an intimate way, humanity participates fully in the divine life.

What does that mean? In chapter 3 of Genesis, we go on to hear the story of humanity's interaction with the serpent and the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. St Paul read this and interpreted it to mean that humanity fell from God, into a sinful state. St Augustine after him took the theological implications further and even said that human sin passes from one generation to the next. Later theologians, Luther and them Calvin and many others after them, narrowed the sense of the Genesis text and developed a whole theology of sin around it. Today, the Church almost exclusively starts from the point of sinfulness of humanity in order to justify the need for the death of Jesus on the cross.

What if we have missed the point? What if Jesus' death on the cross, as Rene Girard (a modern theologian) says, reveals to humanity the full extent of its violent tendencies? What if the death of Jesus were only necessary in that it was inevitable, given those evil, violent tendencies? In addition, what if Jesus willingness to "lay down his life" reveals not only his obedience to a God who is Love, but also reveals how far God's love would go in order to have the kind of relationship God wants?

This all still leaves us with the unanswered question: "What is Genesis 3 about?" Is every human born on this planet considered by God to be a child of God? To fully grasp and adhere to that idea would mean a great transformation in the world's thinking. It would change how we live, how we do commerce, how do/do not go to war.

So, children of God, what do you think?

Peace,
Tim