Image of God

…so God created man in his own image…male and female he created them…

(or God created people in God’s own image)

Genesis 1.27 (NIV)

A couple of months ago, under the caption "Words that confuse?" I began a series of workshops, with our congregation, that considered the meaning of John Chapter 1, verses 1-13. The first session, on verses 1-3, explored the notion of Jesus as "Logos" in the usual greco-roman understanding of the term – as "the Word". We also explored other possible interpretations; in particular a more fluid understanding through the use of the Chinese word –Tao, to indicate Jesus as "the Way".

The second session on "Darkness and Light", with verses 4-9, illustrated the tendency to divide into opposites, that often also sanctify or demonise. Genesis tells us that God dwelt in the darkness and this motif is continued in Exodus, by Moses approaching "the thick darkness where God was"– yet we associate darkness with evil. Again we underplay the diversity present in humanity by a focus on restrictive divisions of male or female…are we not people of God? We sometimes reduce our sense of God to ethical notions of "right" or "wrong" and ignore God’s love of justice, for us. To illustrate my point, I played an extract from Spike Lee’s film on the "controversial black activist" - Malcolm X. Whilst Imprisoned for drug pushing and pimping, he educates himself and converts to Islam. In the chapter "The Preacher" we witness Malcolm X challenging the prison chaplain on the colour of Jesus and thus God. The resulting exchange shows an exasperated chaplain, standing at a lectern, in front of a picture of Jesus as "blond and blue eyed" and referring to it as evidence of God’s whiteness.

Whilst watching the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI on television, I noticed that he too, whilst on his papal throne in St Peter’s Square, sat in front of a similar picture of Jesus Christ. I wondered, if the Pontiff had been selected from an African or Latin American country, whether that picture of Jesus would still have reflected what Garvey refers to as a Europeanised God? I meditated on the significance of this within the context of what has been described as "Roman imperialism" as an aspect of "spiritual colonialism". I noted several reflections in the media, commenting on the then Cardinal Ratzinger’s declarations that women were surrendering to "masculine values" if they were not virgins or mothers. That homosexuals were, by nature leaning towards ‘intrinsic moral evil’ and were "objectively disordered". And more exclusively, that all other religions were "defective". I concluded therefore, that Jesus would probably remain the same colour as the smoke that arose above the roof of the Sistine Chapel that heralded the Pope’s selection.

To quote Garvey "If the white man has the idea of a white God, let him worship his God as he desires. If the yellow man’s God is of his race, let him worship his God as he sees fit. We, as negroes, have found new ideal…If Jesus is God born as a Jew, and the Buddha is God born as an Indian, why cannot Jah (God) appear as a Black Man".God is spirit and in the final analysis, is beyond any kind of political, theological or cultural baggage we wish to impose. But whilst we continually need to understand the Divine, in a language of personal relationships, we sometimes re-create God in our own image and in an earthy finite dullness.

"...that through the church the complicated, many sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known…" - Ephesians 3:10 (Ampl.)

Does your image of God, reflect who you are and does it empower or disempower you?

Love yourself ….and be empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.

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