An initial question this morning: Does anyone remember
the first great end of the church? or the second great end? The reason
I ask is this: for the next five weeks, I invite us to ponder the “third
great end of the church,” i.e. “the maintenance of divine
worship.” If there is a logic to these great ends (and there is),
maintenance of worship becomes a “natural” consequence of
the proclamation of the gospel and its resulting fellowship. At any
rate, given our sermon text from Genesis 1&2, I invite us i) to
observe the God of creation as the One who created humankind; then ii)
to observe the God of creation as the One who rested; only then iii)
to apply these actions of God to our lives.
Now first, in v.26, we read of God’s determination to make humanity
“in our image,” and to grant them rule or dominion over
all other living creatures. Over the centuries there has been much thought
given to this “imago Dei,” the image of God, and how it
characterizes humanity; but in my mind it is fundamentally a “relational
image in action.” To be created in the image of God is to be created
in and for relationship—we are to be those who relate actively
to and with one another, who relate actively to and with the natural
world, and most especially who actively relate to and with our Creator.
Furthermore, as gleaned from v.26, we are those, like our Creator, who
are to rule, to have dominion and authority over the remainder of the
created world. In this regard, we are perhaps God’s representatives
in creation.
Now, if v.26 is a general statement regarding the “image of God,”
then vs.27-31 are a further commentary upon v.26; for in these verses
we read that the image of God is to be seen as imprinted upon the interactions
between male and female, that together, and not otherwise, is that image
to be discerned. (The implication here, of course, is that the exaltation
of one or the other over the other, the male over the female, or the
female over the male, will result in a grotesque distortion of the image
of God.) A further attestation of this image of God, found within the
relationship of male and female, is the Creator’s command for
them to be fruitful and multiply—that is, they are to procreate,
they are to advance God’s creation. From this command, by implication,
emerges the family and community-life; and with the emergence of the
human family, as the next two commands indicate, arises the need to
subdue the earth and to rule over the creatures of the earth. Moreover,
with their creation, the God of heaven and earth pronounced creation
“very good.” Humanity, you and I, from God’s perspective
makes His creation very good—we are not an add-on, and certainly
we are not a mistake; rather, we are those who make creation “very
good,” perhaps just as God is “very good.”
Now secondly, although the God of creation is seen
as One who fashions and shapes, labors and works, according to Genesis
2, He is also One who rests, who ceases from His labors and activities.
Thus, God is not only characterized by activity and work, but also by
rest and inactivity. According to Thomas Cahill, in human history the
idea of “divine rest” as applied to human beings came into
thought and practice first through the ancient Hebrews—to which
our passage attests. For if humankind was created in the image of God,
if humanity is to be a representative-characterization of God, then
human beings are to be God-like as seen by their work and by their rest.
Moreover, within the framework of Genesis 1, this rest receives specific
boundaries: one day in seven is to be given to rest—a ceasing
from the labors, which characterize the other six days. And the ancient
Hebrews denoted this one day as “Sabbath,” derived from
the Hebrew word for “rest” and found in English as “sabbatical.”
In summary: You and I, together, are not a mistake—we are those
who make creation very good; and, as the reflection of God’s image
in our male-femaleness, our lives are to be characterized by our working
together in relationship.
Now, thirdly, with these affirmations, I now want to
pose a question I would have you give serious consideration: When is
your day of rest? Truly: when is your sabbatical rest? And if you tell
me “Sunday,” please allow me to express some initial skepticism;
for we Americans have lost virtually all understanding of rest as cessation
from activity and labor. The reason most Americans describe Monday as
“blue,” as a “down day,” stems from their having
exhausted themselves upon the weekend. Oh, it’s true, many Americans
live for the weekend—they can’t wait to be done with Monday-through-Friday,
in order to experience the weekend; but their experience of the weekend
is anything but restful (e.g. repairs to the house, work on the car,
washing and cleaning, alpine skiing, homework, biking, snow-blowing,
painting the kitchen, baby-sitting, shopping the mall, cooking in the
church kitchen). None of these are bad activities; some of these are
necessary, and many are satisfying and fulfilling—but few if any
are truly restful.
At times, actually many have been the moments, Mary
will ask me: What day are you taking off? Many times I falter to give
a good answer; for the question is not, What day or days are you spending
at home, but what day are you ceasing from work and activity? Likewise,
at moments I will ask her: What day are you taking off? In our culture,
this is often a question more difficult for women to answer than men;
for, at least in our household, there is always food to be prepared,
which Mary generally enjoys preparing—but that’s not the
issue. It is still work, labor and/or activity.
For all of us I pose this question: When is your sabbatical
rest? And in posing it to us all, I am convinced that we will need one
another to rightly answer this question. But we will also need one another
to affirm that this is not an abstract question of secondary or lesser
importance: No, this question addresses directly who we are as those
created in God’s image—and if we do not rest, we are seeking
to be other than we were created to be—we are living contrary
to our shared image. Or, by extrapolation, if you and I desire to be
faithful followers of Jesus Christ, who is the visible image of the
invisible God, then we will recognize Godly-rest as the response of
a faithful disciple.