I made my way onto the subway one cold December morning. I found myself squished amidst the crowds, tense about the fellow who was yelling out at the world words I couldn’t understand but I could feel with a jagged intensity; irritated by the teenager who played her music loud and sang along unaware of all of us around her; judgmental of the woman who was desperately trying to keep her child from leaping out of her hands. It was going to be one of those days, I thought, when all I can see is everything that’s wrong with the world. O, how I wish I could teleport myself straight from my home to the college where I work without having to be intertwined with all these stripes of humanity! How on earth can I possibly see God’s presence in my neighbours — the mass of people squished together in the mess of the subway car?
Genesis 1 tells us that we — all of us! — are made in the image of God, the imago Dei. Any discussion about God in our neighbour needs to address the doctrine of the imago Dei. What exactly it means to be made in the divine image has been the cause for much debate over the centuries. The debates primarily revolve around the temptation to claim too much affinity with God in a way that distorts both the truth of who humans are and who God is and quickly becomes the cause of — the sins of self righteousness, pride, arrogance, tyranny and idolatry, to name a few.
Some important distinctions in the consideration of the imago Dei include those between the essence of humans being made in God’s image and the historical existence of human beings in the world. The former, our essence, reflects the divine image — humans as God made and intended us to be. The latter, our historical existence, reflects the distortion from God’s intention for creaturely being — particularly in the history of war, violence, oppression, self righteousness, pride, etc., in the world. The distance between these two has been understood through the doctrine of sin, or the Fall, a doctrine that has had a checkered past. In spite of this past, however, what it seeks to show is the seriousness of sin, the way relationships in the world that are not ordered by love, become the cause of serious pain, violence and suffering. Our tradition, following the lines of Augustine, Luther and Calvin, holds that the divine image, though distorted at times beyond recognition, exists as the deepest truth of who we are made to be as human beings. It is the fact that we are beloved creatures of God, not anything else, that makes humans beautiful and worthy of love, kindness and compassion.
John Calvin, a central figure in the Presbyterian tradition, was particularly concerned with the meaning of humans being made in the image of God in his context of 16th century Europe. No doubt, he had seen people claim affinity with God in ways that served injustice, tyranny and self righteousness. At the same time, however, he sought to articulate ways of understanding the doctrine of the imago Dei in a way that could serve Christian faithfulness, particularly in relation to the love of one’s neighbour. In a discussion on the love of neighbour, Calvin says (in the Institutes of Christian Religion) that even when one is seeking us ill “we remember not to consider [people’s] evil intention but to look upon the image of God in them, which cancels and effaces their transgressions, and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.” No matter how difficult others may be, we are called to recognize the beauty of God’s image inviting us to love.
In a discussion of the imago Dei in the Christian life Calvin also explores ‘image’ as a verb, as a call to ‘mirror,’ image or reflect God’s presence and love in the world. Indeed, he says, all of creation reflects God’s glory as a mirror. However, it is only humans who can reflect God’s glory consciously in thankfulness. Further, it is in human action and way of being in relationship, that the divine image is reflected. Divine mirroring is recognized most obviously in acts of gratitude to God that manifest in the world as compassion, generosity, reverence, self denial, service, etc. These actions are the outward fruits of faith, the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life, that reflect a relationship of gratitude to God in daily life. When we meet our neighbour with eyes of faith we begin to glimpse the beauty of a God-beloved creature, the very mirror of God. There is a mysterious giving and receiving of divine presence that meets us in such encounters.
Who is our neighbour? Who are the ones in whom God’s presence might be glimpsed? Indeed, Jesus’ response to such questions, both in the story of the “Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37) and in Matthew 25: 31-46, invites us to see that our neighbour is one who is other to us, the one who is the stranger. She is one who is marginalized like the Samaritan. He is one who is in prison, poor and needy. In these parables not only is our vision of who is our neighbour stretched wide open to include all humans, but they also show that it is in the one whom we least expect it, that God meets us. “Whatever you do to the least of these you do to me” Christ says. The divine presence is reflected in the very heart of daily life and relationships. We are invited to see God’s elegant and hearty presence that meets us at every turn, in every face, to give thanks and be nourished by this in each moment of our ordinary lives.
So now, as I venture back onto the subway how can I begin to recognize God’s presence in my neighbour — in the guy shouting out at the world, in the teenager singing loudly with her music, in the mom struggling to keep her child quiet? O God, give me eyes to see the surprise of your presence meeting me, humbling and transforming me in this ordinary moment of life: that these angry shouts of a man’s rage may ring out your own prophetic calls for repentance; that this off-tune singing of a teenager may blaze out your own joy for life in song; that this struggling mother may call out your own parental call for trust, for peace; that in the very stuff of life you may ground us again as your very own beloved humanity of which we are all a part.
May it be so. Amen.
Questions for reflection and discussion
- Reflect on your life and relationships. Consider times in your life when you experienced the fullness of love, compassion, generosity, etc. toward others. Explore how this reflects the image of God mirrored in your life.
- What situations and relationships support you in expressing love, compassion and generosity to others?
- Consider times when you have experienced the blocks of sin functioning in you – pride, greed, fear, insecurity, resentment, etc. Explore how God’s image mirrored in you can be blocked in your life and relationships.
- What are some of the common temptations with which you struggle and which get in the way of God’s image being mirrored in your life?
- What are some of the common temptations with which you struggle and which get in the way of you being able to recognize God’s image in others?
- Imago Dei, the image of God. How does this idea of humans being made in the image of God connect with your own experience of humans?
- Can you identify moments when the image of God in others has become visible to you? What was your response to this recognition?
- In whom do you tend to find it easiest to recognize goodness (image of God)? The poor? Children? The vulnerable? In particular communities or individuals?
- Can you identify times when the image of God in humanity has been totally hidden by the shadow of sin – by hostility, violence, tyranny, resentment, fear, pride, greed, etc.? What was your response to this recognition?
- Some in the modern West consider that the primary problem for Christians is that we are held down by “negative” notions of humans as sinful. Redemption or liberation, in this case, lies in the need to embrace ourselves as good and made in God’s image.
Others in the modern West argue that the primary problem for Christians is that we have too “positive” a view of humans, do not take sin seriously enough and too easily see the goodness (image of God) in humans without recognizing the tragic and terrifying reality and consequences of sin of which we are all a part. The way to redemption, in this case, is to face our sin in repentance and await God’s forgiveness.
Reflect on these two perspectives. What do you think? What are the good points and bad points of each perspective?
