IT’S NOT JUST WATER THAT’S PURIFIED!
A meditation by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk
Harundale Presbyterian Church
Text: “When he had made purification for sins.” (Hebrews 1:3)
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The other day I had the privilege of being with Glenn and Christine as they were preparing to give birth to Samuel Glenn. We were having a good time in the birthing room, so much fun that the nurses kept commenting when they would check on Christine, as though we seemingly had forgotten just why we were there. But the visit had a profound effect on me, as any visit does to the maternity ward, because soon a new life would enter the world. That new life would be made in the image of God, the Imago Dei, and would enter this world as pure as the driven snow. And yet, we know that soon after that birth the child would become a very self-centered individual. In order to survive he would cry when he was hungry, cry when he had the colic, cry when he was tired, and cry for no other reason then he was exercising his lungs.
Yet, in spite of all that crying, all the trials the new parents would face, Samuel Glenn would continue to grow in the image of God. He would in time become his own person, with a personality uniquely his, a body that would help him to play, to run, to get into all kinds of mischief, and a determination that would pit him against his sister Emma, and together they would create some interesting moments for their parents, Glenn and Christine.
For the next few months the Session will be studying a book by Michelle Bartel called What It Means to Be Human. One of the points she makes in the book is that we can never erase the fact that we are created in the image of God. That lump of a person who would soon become Samuel Glenn will always be created in the image of God. No matter the mess he makes of our lives, no matter how scared he may become through the trials of life that await him, no matter the pain he experiences or the ecstasies he reaches, throughout it all he will always be in the image of God.
That’s the beauty of what The Letter to the Hebrews is trying to tell us. God has gone to such lengths to assure us that we are created in God’s image, that God sent Jesus into the world to experience any and all that life has to offer. Hebrews rehearses for us how through Christ God created the worlds. Christ is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being. Christ sustains all things by his powerful word. Then when Christ had made purification for our sins, he sat down at God’s right hand and continues to intercede on our behalf. That’s all by way of introduction!
Then on the next page the author goes on to remind us just what Jesus has done on our behalf. Bartel asks a very important question in her book and that is, “why do we want to be God?” The obvious answer is normally we’re not happy or content just to be created in the image of God. For example, we consume a lot of energy on our self-image. People are always telling us what that self-image should be. Channel surf through the television any time of day or night and you’ll see numerous aids for creating a better self-image. The problem with that is the self they want you to create is usually so far removed from anything we can attain. We couldn’t possibly lose that much weight, develop even half of those well developed muscles, have a face that is that shorn of any wrinkles and afford the clothes that make “the well dressed man and woman.” The quest for a better self-image in which we engage usually has nothing to do with the self we really are, and whose image are we trying to create, ours or the models we see on the television?
The point Hebrews makes is that we don’t have to re-make ourselves to fit some image we see on the screen. Jesus has come to tell us that we’re fine just the way we are. Just as with Samuel Glenn, so also with us, God knew us before we were born and has watched us grow throughout our years on earth. True, God has cried with us when we were saddened by something or we fell and broke a bone. God has rejoiced with us when we’ve made some particular discovery. God has even gotten angry with us when we’ve made some bad errors of judgment and God has probably gone so far to see that we were punished in some way when we deserved to be. But all of that hasn’t stopped us from being in the image of God. That image is what God intended for us to be, and hopefully before we die we’ll get to know just what that image is meant to be. When we do we’ll have a wonderful sense of well-being and won’t have to worry about all those beautiful creatures we see on the screen.
Vic Jamison makes a good suggestion. He suggests that we think of October as the image of God. He thinks that God was in a beautiful, bountiful mood when he created October. We could go along with that with the week we’ve just had. The nights have been wonderful for sleeping. We’ve even thought of turning the heat on to take the chill off of the morning. Then the days have been bright, crisp and cool, with pristine clouds in the sky and clear moonlight at night. The crops are ripening or already harvested. Football’s begun and baseball is almost to the World Series. The kids are back in school, and, as Vic says, “some of them have not yet discovered that they already know more than their parents.” (Presbyterian Voice, October, 2003, page 1)
Bartel concludes her chapter this way: “We are promised in the good news that we are precious, because God has said so, not because others have. We are promised that we are held in God’s hands, not because we bargained for it, but because God has already placed us there, picked us up, and cradled us. The goodness of being human has already been established. And we are promised that it is God’s passionate and loving desire that is waiting for our embrace. To be whole does not mean to find the right program, possession, stock portfolio, spouse, or house. To be whole does not mean to be a thing, but to be created by God. To be human, to be whole, (and we could also say to be in the image of God) means to live with God and with others, to live as a created being with the Creator and the rest of creation.” (page 17)
With all of that said it’s clear that water’s not the only thing purified, according to Hebrews in Christ so also are we.
Thanks be to God,
Amen