The concept and theological doctrine of Imago Dei, Latin for image of God, speaks of the fact that all people are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). We then interpret this to say that thus all people have inherent value and worth and that no man woman or child is less valuable than the next, regardless of race, sex, culture, place of birth, orientation, economic prosperity, lifestyle, tastes, attitudes, skin colour etc. etc. A great quote by Bono from the band U2 captures some of the spirit of the doctrine of Imago Dei.

“Where you live should no longer determine whether you live”.

It’s a beautiful doctrine and one that I personally hold very close to my heart. It helps me to see the good in any person no matter how broken or wounded they are, and despite how poor their behaviour is, as several of the people we work with at Streetlevel and Oasis exhibit some of these!

Yet I find that in our individualistic first world context we often flip Imago Dei on it’s head. Instead we make God in our own image. The more I talk and engage with young people everywhere I sometimes find that their understanding of God and Jesus seems radically different to Yahweh of the Biblical and Jesus of the Gospels. More tame, much less demanding, far more concerned with our individual needs and sin than with the state of the rest of the world. To quote from a message by Major Geoff Ryan, “Study most modern praise and worship choruses and note the number of personal pronouns you find and it may surprise you…my God loves me, I I I, me me me”.

Are we serving a God who when, we really boil down to it, is a lot like us? Safe, comfortable, doesn’t ask much of us, relatively unconcerned about others, except for anything which directly effects me …

“We sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs expressing our desire to know Jesus, but the Jesus we want to know is the sanitized Jesus that looks a lot like us when we think we are at our best. Despite Gods word to the contrary, we think we can say that we love God and yet hate our neighbour, neglect the widow, forget the orphan, fail to visit the prisoner, ignore the oppressed. It’s a sign of disordered love. When we do this our worship becomes a lie to God.”              – Mark Labberton

Many of the parables Jesus told were stories of God (personified as a master) telling his people (servants) to do certain tasks that reflected His will and purposes. In these parables the disobedient servants are almost never treated kindly in the end! Are we trying to shape God into our own image and pick and choose which commands or commissions we want to obey? Are we reading the Bible selectively and applying our own layers of meaning on top of what it’s truly communicating?

I believe we need to simply let God be God, let Jesus be Jesus, let the Bible read (no not lead, I mean read) us, and allow all that they are to radically transform, mould and ruin our lives for the ordinary. Who’s with me?

This YouTube clip captures this thought in a humorous way, as you watch it I’d encourage you to thank God as yes we are all made in His image, hallelujah for that! But also ask yourself are there area’s in my life where I;m ignoring what He’s calling me to do and in that act shaping God into my own image. Lets be a generation who raise our standards to Jesus’ standards, not lower His to meet ours.

nm