January 25 2026
Genesis 1:26-27,Mark 10:43-45
One of the interesting aspects of I find about being a Dad is watching my kids be involved in activities that I never had any interest in. In High School, they were busy with Orchestra and Band, two things that I never had any interest in. Yet, I still enjoyed watching them perform at concerts and football games. As they have gotten older, they now all help out with The Little Theater, which again, is an activity that is totally foreign to me. Nonetheless, for Sarah loves to sing and perform on stage, and she has since gotten Matt involved with the building of the sets and lighting for different performances. And then she also pulled in Elizabeth to help with feeding the casts during their practices. So needless to say, I now know more about theater and acting than I would have ever thought possible which is really surprising.
Now, by going to all of the various shows that my daughter has been involved with, I have at least become aware of how the scenes in a play are set up to get the maximum dramatic effect. Perhaps this is why as I have read through the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis, I have begun to sense that God too has a flair for the dramatic.In this account of how God made us, I imagine that there in the beginning, it is like we are sitting before a dark stage, where nothing can be seen and the only sound is that of fluttering wings. Then, suddenly, a voice shouts, “Light”, and suddenly, there on the dark stage appears a solitary light. Then we watch as invisible hands move onto the stage the various set-pieces. First, comes the rhythm of the light of day being separated from the night. Then the heavens are separated out, pressed upward while the waters are pushed back to reveal the earth. Quietly, there is a stirring as seeds set forth shoots, shoots giving way to stalks and the stage is quickly overrun with plants and trees of every sort and kind. Then there is a pause and as we watch we become aware that these first set pieces are homes for what God is going to create.The heavens become the residence for the sun, moon and stars. The waters are now known as the seas which swarm with all aquatic life; the skies are covered with flocks of birds. Then the earth is filled with all manner of animals, and beasts and livestock in a breath-taking array. As utterly incredible all of this is, what is more astounding is that this paradise is merely the setting for what is about to happen next for at last the voice which has exclaimed that all that has been created is indeed, “Good”, now announces that time has at at last come for God’s crowning achievement. Just as all of creation has brought forth its own kind, now God calls forth one after his own kind, in his image and substance.Can you feel the excitement as this critical moment is at last upon us?
Well, we need to have a proper understanding of just what a big deal we all are to God in order for us to be able to be able to rest in this world. In this season called Epiphany, we are looking at what Jesus reveals to us which is that he is been given to us by our Heavenly Father in order that we might receive from him this gift of rest. In the eleventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells us that we are to take his yoke upon ourselves, and allow Jesus to lead us and teach us, how we might have rest for our souls. When we take that yoke upon ourselves we discover that where Jesus is leading us is back to the beginning because on the seventh day of the creation story found in Genesis, we are told that God rested. As God is resting, so too we are also to rest.The key for us to be able to rest, then, is to discover in the first six days of creation the reason why we can say that God has indeed created an unshakeable kingdom for us to live in.
Last week, we learned that the way that we can face an uncertain future is not to be superstitious but instead we are to pray to God knowing that he has created a world that will meet all of our needs. As the twenty-third Psalm tells us, if the Lord is our shepherd then we shall not want. So we pray knowing that God is well aware of our needs now just as he was aware of what is necessary for us to have life when he first created the world. Instead of fussing over the future, we instead can bear fruit that will change the future when we let ourselves be a life which brings forth more life, for life is indeed good fruit. You see, the order that God set up, there in the beginning, always ends with the life God creates being able to create more life, and God’s creation is able to sustain this ever increasing river of life. Just as God alone can create a world out of nothing he also can give and sustain life in ever increasing measure.We can rest assured that this is the truth we can be certain about.
At last then, we come to the moment we have all been waiting for, drumroll please, the creation of humanity. God says, “Let us bring forth mankind” which in the Hebrew is Adam, which signifies, red and earth. This definition reminds us that we all come out of the soil with red blood within us. This moment when humanity is created, though, does not happen by God merely speaking a word, as he has done many times before. No, God first announces his purpose for this, his last and highest creation. God says, “Let us make Adam in our image and likeness.” Now, those who first listened to this creation story would have been shocked when they heard this statement for in the ancient world, it was only the kings who were said to be created in the image of whatever god they represented. So imagine the surprise when God says that all people have been created to represent him so that wherever people might be found, there the rule or kingdom of God could be said to exist. Instead of the other creation stories told throughout the world where it was believed that the gods ruled through the few, we find instead, that the one, true, living God has a kingdom which is to be ruled by all people. You see, in the other creation stories people told back then, humanity had been created to serve the kings as slaves. This is the very origins of the belief in the necessity of a class system where some fortunate people get to rule and the rest of the grunts get to work. Yet, surprisingly God has a very different approach, one where all people have dignity and respect for all are equally created. The foundation for God’s call that all people be treated with equity and righteousness is right here in the beginning. This is why Paul could say, in the seventeenth chapter of Acts, that our God has, “…made from one person every nation of mankind to live upon the face of the earth…”. And also why Paul could also say at the end of the third chapter of Galatians that there is neither, “…Jew nor Greek, there is slave nor free there is no male nor female for all are one in Christ Jesus…”. You see, when Jesus calls for righteousness he is merely taking us back to the beginning where we were created to live a life where all are equals.
So the reason that no one can consider themselves to be greater than anyone else is that we all can say God has created each one of us and has he has given each person the very same purpose. It is us humans who have this great distinction of being the ones who have been created to be the image of God throughout his creation. So wherever people might be found, there is where the kingdom of God can be said to be located. Yet, even as great as this is for all of us, there is still more to our story for we have also been told that we are created in the likeness of God. Now, I have long been curious about just why this term has been added here because as most commentators will tell you, the idea of likeness is very similar to image. A clue to figuring out what it means for us to bear the likeness of God is found, strangely enough right at the beginning of this creation story, where we are told that creation was without form, and it was empty. Here again, we seem to find an unnecessary duplication until it dawns on you that the answer to why there is this form and what is meant to fill that form will be found at at some point in the creation story. So, at last we come to the part of our story where we hear about an image, the outward form of God which is to be what people are to be conformed to. This image, then is filled with what can be considered the likeness of God, as in, just what is God’s inner quality? Just what sort of king or queen are we supposed to be, in other words? How we understand the rule of of God, is I believe, one of the essential pieces that gets missed here in the creation story.
You see, not even the people of God who had told and retold this creation story for thousands of years seemed to understand just what it meant to be like God in the way they that they ruled others. The disciples, those who had read the creation story countless times, thought that by hanging around with Jesus, the Messiah, they were on the fast track to living the high life, sitting on the throne on either side of Jesus, I mean, what could be better than that? When Jesus heard his students squabbling over who was the greatest of among them he realized they did not know just who their God was, and therefore, they did not know what it meant for them to be created in his likeness. Sure, every nation rules from the top down through the fear of the sword yet they only do so because they believe in a false version of the way the world was created. For those who believe in the one, true, living God though, we find that we were created for greatness which is found through our willingness to serve all people. Can you imagine the look on the disciples face when they heard Jesus tell them that if they want to win first prize then they had to be willing to serve even those found way down there at the end of the line. You see, God created those who bear his likeness to serve others by fulfilling the needs that our neighbor might have. God simply did not create us so we could be king of the hill we are living on. No, to be created in the the likeness of God means that we are to be like Jesus. What Jesus tells us is that he came from his Father’s throne, and he entered into our human story and he did so as a servant. I mean, didn’t you hear Jesus clearly say that as the Son of Man he came from the throne of God to serve his brothers and sisters by giving his very life as a ransom for many? This is what it means to have a life shaped in the image of God, one that represents God as king, whose reign is found by serving others through the offering of life to all. This idea is confirmed for us by Paul who wrote in the second chapter of Philippians that we are to, “…have this same mind among us as Jesus had who even though he originally had the same form of God he did not try and make himself equal with God, but he instead he became nothing. He took the form of a servant when he came in the likeness of humanity. He humbled himself and was obedient even unto death, even death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Jesus. God has bestowed upon him, the name that is above every other name so that at the name of Jesus every knew will bow in heaven, on the earth and under the earth.” You see, when Jesus took on flesh, he became for us the New Adam, so that even though he was king, the very Son of Man, he nonetheless, came as one of us in order to serve all of us. Jesus served us all by dying upon a cross so that we might at last get the picture, the real picture of the God we were created to represent. Now we might all agree that the way God expects us as people to rule and represent him, seems too strange to be accepted. Yet, when Jesus revealed that our God reigns through serving others he was merely stating the truth found there in the beginning. Can we not see that in the first five days of creation that God is there serving as a stage hand setting every thing up, making sure everything is in good, working, order, so that we as human beings might have all we need. What God did not do is place humans in a vast wilderness, hand them a bag of seeds and them tell them go forth and make their own own paradise. No, from the moment of our creation, God has done what God has always done, he comes to us as a servant. We hear this in what Jesus teaches us in the sixth chapter of Matthew, where he says that our Heavenly Father is like a great servant, one who will see to it that we have enough to eat and something to wear, the very basics of life. God serves us in this way in order that we will be set free to seek the kingdom of God. And just what does it mean for us to seek first the kingdom of God? Well, if we return to the beginning when we were first created we will realize that this means our life will be conformed to the image of God, and we will extend his rule by doing so in the likeness of God which means we will serve others. Putting this all together then, our life has all it needs because our God serves us, so that we are set free to go and seek out someone who stands in need of our service.
Here we might remember that when God creates life he does so in the hope that the life he creates will bear fruit, being a life from which springs more life. We as humans, are no different, yet now, because of our role as being God’s representative in his creation, this bearing of fruit goes beyond us bearing children. You see, what it means to bear fruit also means that we serve others through taking this life God gives to us and turn and serve someone else, sharing the life God has given to us with them so that there might be more life than before.This is what Jesus means when he tells us that we are to seek first the kingdom of God for when we do so then all that we need will be given to us. You see, the more we serve others, the more we will become convinced that this must be the very life we were created to live. So when we become more and more convinced that our God created a world for us where we might rule through serving others, then we will discover that we are no longer overly obsessed about our own little life. Instead, we will find that we are filled with wonder at what only our God can do, for his power and ability are just as marvelous now as they were in the beginning.
So, there is much for us to consider when at last we read of the creation of humanity on the sixth day of creation. What God does in this story is to give us a different way to consider our world and just what exactly is our role within this world. It would be easy for us, wouldn’t it, that when we hear it written that we have been granted dominion over all living things that this means that all living things were created to serve us. Yet, as the disciples found out when they asked Jesus just where they would be seated on the throne, we too are called to consider our dominion differently. To have dominion according to God is to be a servant to all life, and most importantly, to serve the lives of the people that happen upon our way. God emphasizes the glory in which we were created when we are told, not once but three times, God created humanity in his image; in the image of God, God created humanity; male and female persons, God created them all. So when we look at the face of another we are looking at a wonder who stands at the very center of the stage called paradise, one who may not yet know the purpose and dignity that they were created to have. But we are the ones who do know how God created all people so let us live in the way God created us to live, serving all people with dignity just as God first served us. Amen!
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