"We bear the image of God. We are beloved by God. We are God’s own."

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Preached by the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, October 19, 2014

Repeat after me.

I bear the image of God.
I am beloved by God.
I am God’s own.

Now turn to someone else and look them in the eye. If someone is unpaired next to you do a threesome and figure it out. Ready? Look in each other’s eyes and repeat after me.

You bear the image of God.
You are beloved by God.
You are God’s own.

Now everyone look forward. Look at Jesus on the cross. Now repeat after me, together.
We bear the image of God.
We are beloved by God.
We are God’s own.

You may be seated.

What we just experienced was not some feel-good, self-help, kum ba yah, Hallmark Card moment. What we just affirmed, what we just experienced is the deepest foundation of our faith. There is no more important or more profound truth.

Everything we say, everything we do, every breath we take as people of God and followers of Jesus is grounded in those words.

Let’s say them again.

We bear the image of God.
We are beloved by God.
We are God’s own.

Again, together
We bear the image of God.
We are beloved by God.
We are God’s own.

Again
We bear the image of God.
We are beloved by God.
We are God’s own.

We know these things are true from the very beginnings of our faith. In the very first chapter of the very first book of our scripture, Genesis 1, God says “let us make humankind in our image.” We bear the image of God. And we know we are beloved by God the same way we know that we love and are loved by others, because God could not bear to be separated from us, because the Word became flesh and lived with us, because the resurrected Christ promises us I am with you always even to the end of the age.

God put God’s image on us – each and every one of us. Bishop Hays Rockwell used to say the image of God is on every one … only on some it is in deep, deep disguise. But it is there. On every one. God loves us – each of us and all of us – beyond measure and beyond comprehension, loves us as God’s own not just then, not even just for now but for ever and ever and ever.

God loves you. We throw that phrase around like we’re adding fries to our order at the drive-thru. God loves you. God loves you. But stop and think for a moment that that is actually true.

It doesn’t matter whether you think you’re too fat or too thin or too tall or to short. It doesn’t matter whether your skin is white or black or brown. Whatever you think, whatever others think when they look at you… You bear the image of God.

It doesn’t matter if other people love you or even like you. It doesn’t matter how popular or unpopular you are. It doesn’t matter if you are adored or despised. It doesn’t matter that you might not even like yourself. …You are beloved by God

You are not what you eat or what political party you affiliate with. You are not owned by your mortgage or your student loans or even your addictions. No matter how trapped you feel by anything in your life, it doesn’t’ matter. … You are God’s own – and God delights in you.

Jesus came on a mission of liberation. To liberate us from lives of desperation and fear. I love that this pulpit is directly underneath this stained glass window up here. If you look at it you'll see that it bears two images. On one side is Moses leading the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt and on the other is Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves. I love that we put our pulpit under this window because it's a reminder to us that the heart of our Gospel is liberation. That Jesus came on a mission of liberation. To liberate us from lives of desperation and fear.  And because of that, he bid us then and still bids us today to do extraordinary things. Things like loving our neighbor. Things like seeking and serving Christ in people who are incredibly different and even offensive to us. Things like giving up what we have for love of one another.

And Jesus bids us do these things not as a punishment or even as a trial, but so we can live into trusting these deep truths that have echoed through the cosmos since the moment of creation.

That we bear the image of God.
That we are beloved by God.
That we are God’s own.

In this morning’s Gospel, the Pharisees and Herodians are trying to trap Jesus with a question about taxes. Should you pay them. And Jesus takes the coin and says “whose image is on this?” They say “the emperor’s.” And Jesus says “give therefore to the emperor what is the emperor’s and to God what is God’s.”

And what is God’s? We are. Because we bear the image of God. We are beloved by God We are God’s own.

And because we are, we can give not just our money but our whole lives away in love. But that message of “give it away” doesn’t make any sense … in fact it seems downright crazy if we don’t trust the deep truth that makes it possible.

That we bear the image of God.
That we are beloved by God.
That we are God’s own.

I’m not sure there has been a more important time in recent memory for us to remember, to remind one another and to proclaim to the world these essential deep truths. Truths of how deeply we are loved.

We are in a time of incredible stress, trauma and division right now. A time where truths of our deep brokenness are being shouted from the streets. It is a time of fear and anxiety. It is a time where our city is literally bracing itself for the possibility of war. It is a time where some of us are feeling attacked and some of us who have felt under attack for years and years are finally feeling like the voices are starting to be heard.

And often when things are going hard in life we come to church for sanctuary, only this time when we come to church, I and others keep talking about it over and over and over again. And to top it off, it’s stewardship season, and you know how much we love to talk about money .. and to top that off, our church is changing and change is hard.

We’re all being asked to weather so much, and it is going to get harder before it gets easier, and this Cathedral will NOT be an escape from any of it. But this Cathedral will be the place where together we do not shrink in the face of any of it. This Cathedral will be the place where we turn toward one another and turn toward the cross because the only way through this is together, together gathering at the foot of the cross.

The only way through this is through all the pain and all the division and all the temptation to turn away, to keep turning to each other and saying these words over and over and over again. Words that remind us who and whose we are. Words that remind us that those who disagree with us, those even who have abused us and those even who hate us truly are our sisters and brothers. Words that remind us that Jesus doesn’t call us to hide from storms but to fix our eyes on him and together to boldly walk out into the middle of them.

So, if you leave here this morning with nothing else, leave here with these words on your lips and imprinted on your heart. Leave here trusting even a little bit more that they are true. True for you. True for us. True for this world.

So say them one more time.

I bear the image of God.
I am beloved by God.
I am God’s own.

Now turn to someone else and look them in the eyes. Now repeat after me.

You bear the image of God.
You are beloved by God.
You are God’s own.

Now everyone look forward. Look at Jesus on the cross. Now repeat after me.

We bear the image of God.
We are beloved by God.
We are God’s own.
Amen.