Friday, March 14, 2014

Lenten Devotional – Day Nine

Q. 10. How did God create man?

A. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:27)

Annie Dillard once summed up a day like this: “All day long I feel created.” (Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm, New York: Harper & Row, 1977, p. 25)

  Ronald Patterson tells this story about his early training in pastoral care: "One day many years ago, as part of my training, I worked at Boston City Hospital as a chaplain's assistant. I was assigned to a prison ward, and one of the prisoners there was a big-time drug dealer. It was my duty to visit him because he was very ill. Well, with the half-hearted pseudo-compassion of the typical do-gooder, I did my duty. Later, I confessed this to the Roman Catholic nun who was my supervisor. I said, 'How can I go and pray with this man who is ruining the life of this city? He deserves his illness and a whole lot more.' Do you know what she said to me?

NewCreation  'Patterson, who died and elected you God? Somewhere deep within that man, covered by the layers of pain and denial and every rotten thing he has ever done, there is the kernel of God's image. Your only job is to see that spark; and the only way you can ever see it is to forget everything else about whatever anyone else has told you about right and wrong and believe with your whole heart that the spark is there. He, too, just as much as anyone you will ever meet, is a child of God's love."' - Recalled and preached by Dr. Ronald M. Patterson, Shiloh Church, Dayton, Ohio

  We sometimes forget God created all of us, even though some individuals in our society behavior less than human. As scripture reminds us God created us “very good” and both the confession and scripture tells us God created us “after his own image.” God intended far more for us within his creation than we often expect from ourselves. Later, the Shorter Catechism will deal with the question about sin, which not only forces us to live east of Eden separated from Paradise, but separates us from the love of God and his creation.

  Throughout history through the biblical story through generation after generation, God is found calling his people back to what he created them to become, “in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.” Paul reminds the Ephesians of this when he writes, “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24, NRSV)

  Leonard Sweet wrote a book called “The Gospel according to Starbucks,” where he writes, “Most people today don't fret over whether Christianity can get them to heaven. They want to know: “Will it make me a better person?” Jesus did not call disciples so they could become Christlike. He called them so they could become “little Christs,” or what Leonard Sweet likes to call spittin' images. Some linguists argue that the phrase spittin' image derives from the Southern dialect where spirit and image were contracted (some say corrupted) into one.

  Sweet goes on to write, “To say that you are the spittin' image of your father is to say that you bear both your father's spirit and image. You bring together the visible and invisible, the tangible and the intangible, of your parent. Jesus enables us to be his spittin' image in both body and character. The passion of Christian faith is the ability to say, ‘Yes, Christianity can make you a better person. That better person is Jesus.’”

  God created us in goodness and love as spiritual beings in his image. As I mentioned in last Friday’s devotional from Dallas Willard, our biggest struggle in life is how to be human, because we were already created in God’s image as a spiritual being. Even though we cannot return to the innocence of the Garden of Eden, God through Jesus can restore us and transform us into what God intended for us to become from the beginning. Despite our past or the mistakes we have made, God can restore us. Will it be an easy transformation, NO, it will require a great deal of effort on our part, but God will help and be with us during the entire journey. Lent provides for us the opportunity to deepen our faith as we become a new creation in Christ, “to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24)

Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning Psalm: 121, 149
Evening Psalm: 81, 82
Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Hebrews 4:11-16
John 3:22-36

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