26
Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so
that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the
livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along
the ground." 27 So God
created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. 28
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number;
fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in
the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said, "I give you
every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has
fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky
and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath
of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and
it was very good (Gen 1:26-31)
This Sunday begins a new 'mini-series,'
a four week journey into the topic of Stewardship. The overarching theme this
year is FEARLESS GENEROSITY--a theme gleaned from Ephesians 3:20-21: 20 Now to him who by the power at work within
us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and
in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Throughout each
of the four weeks we'll look together at different aspects of Fearless
Generosity. The tricky part is that along the way we'll always have to keep two
things in mind:
(a) The theme verses, especially the
point that it is GOD who has the power (Gk dynamis)
to do abundantly far more than we can
ask or imagine. That phrase abundantly
far more is fascinating in the Greek; it's a piling on of sorts. The word rendered abundantly in English is a triple compound: hyper-ek-perisou. Just perisou
all by itself means "over & above." Putting ek in front of it is a strengthening...
so LOTS-more than over & above... would be the literal meaning. And then if
that weren't enough, hyper is added (and we all know what hyper means... as
in hyperactive, etc.). In the end it gets somewhat difficult to render into
literal English, but something like WAY-SUPER-LOTS-MORE-OVER-AND-ABOVE comes
close. And then there's the next phrase far
more ....which is another hyper in
the Greek! You get the impression that Paul is saying that whatever we can ask
or imagine of God is pretty much nothing compared
to the power that God is able to exercise (to
him who has the power, dynamis).
And fascinatingly, Paul says that power/dynamis
is within us!
(b) And the second thing we'll
always have to keep in mind is the supporting text for the individual week
itself, and its sub theme. It goes something like this: Fearless Generosity
liberates and transforms believers so as to engage in Fearless Living (wk1); it
liberates and transforms believers so as to engage in Fearless Service (wk2); it
liberates and transforms believers so as to engage in Fearless Sowing (wk3);
and it liberates and transforms believers so as to engage in Fearless Giving
(wk4). One of the things I like most about this series is that it quite rightly
challenges and expands the notion of stewardship beyond the point of giving money. That aspect is important,
but it really only comes up once in four weeks.
1983 was a long time and a lot of
movies ago, but when I read Genesis 1:26-31 this past week, I couldn't help but
think of the movie Risky Business. It's about a wealthy suburban Chicago high
school student named Joel (Tom Cruise) who's left home alone while his parents
go on a trip. And while he's home alone, Joel breaks just about every rule
imaginable, including temporally turning his parents house into a brothel and
wrecking his father's Porsche. It's the sort of movie that gives all parents pause when considering whether or not to
leave your teenager home alone. There is RISK involved in such a BUSINESS. You
tell yourself you want to trust them;
you tell yourself you want to hope
you've raised them right; you tell yourself that they need opportunities like this to be on their own in order to grow
up... And, in the end....maybe it will be ok.
But now think back to Genesis
chapter 1. God said, "Let us make
human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish
in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild
animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created human beings in his
own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created
them. It's a similar concept. Humanity is created... as offspring.... in the image of God.... PRECISELY so that they
can act or function like God... or in place of God... here; so that they may rule,
as it says in the text. Humanity is to be left here, in charge, home alone. But there's a problem. God can't hope that things will turn out right,
because ... being God... he knows they're
going to mess it up. He can't trust that
they're going to make good decisions and model the fine example he has set for
them, because ... being God... he knows they're
not going to. And with that kind of Divine, insider information, one wonders
why God didn't just scrap the whole idea?!
To apply this week's stewardship
theme to the question, he didn't scrap the whole idea because he wanted to Live
Fearlessly. Theologically, we say that in The Fall, the image of God in humanity is destroyed. That's the power of sin. But
by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the believer, the image of God is re-born. To its full state of original
perfection? I think we all know the answer to that is no, not to its original
perfection... but on that road. And part of what that means is that by God's
grace people of faith are liberated to
once again take up the task of modeling God's values here; to once again take
up the task of giving of one's self, as God gives, here; to once again place
God's importance on relationships here; to once again... perhaps slowly, maybe
with imprecise stutter-steps... be like God... and begin to Live Fearlessly....
here.
Cheers,
T.M.
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