In the image of God

Easter 5 year C Sermon In the image of God Based on John 14

I’d like to begin this Mother’s Day message… with a reminder from Genesis 1:27… ‘So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 

God blessed them and said to them,
‘Be fruitful and multiply’.

Every time a baby is born… if they’re fortunate…
the first face they’re likely to see… is the face of love…
mother or father…maybe another…but the face of delight and affection… welcoming them to… life on this planet.
A face reflecting… perhaps the image of God.

But sometimes… it’s not like that… and that makes Mother’s Day or Father’s Day…tough days to preach on. And although everyone here has had a mother…
not everyone is a mother. Not everyone is a dad.

Some of you lost your parents far too early in life… others of you… never even knew them.  Some of you are grieving a parent… and your heart is tender.
And some of the mother’s in our congregation…
are grieving their children. Mother’s Day can be difficult.

We learn a lot about our lovability and our self-worth from our parents…don’t we? And we learn a lot about God from our parents too. What God is like…for example.

Sometimes our image of God is distorted or even destroyed… by our parents.

So today that’s what I want to talk about…and how our image of God might be healed.

When Mark was six years old…sleep…knife… pillow in fear of his father… drinking and violence

…protect mother…Mark’s family would have identified as a a Christian….but Marks image of God…someone to be feared…

Today his image of God is being healed by his understanding of Jesus.

And then there’s Jane.  Jane’s mother belonged to an ultra conservative church in Southland. Original sin was the primary focus and she remembers even as a small child being told she was sinful and bad… try as she might she couldn’t be good all the time…decided she’d been rejected by God and if that’s how God is she didn’t want to know God.

Today…she’s met people who see God as loving not punishing…

Kerry’s story’s quite different. A young Christian mum…
she wanted to love her new baby but she just couldn’t.
Kerry was suffering from post partum depression. Fortunately her own mother was on hand…to smile into her newborn baby’s eyes and ensure Kerry got the treatment and support she needed …to overcome the depression.

Today…Kerry’s emotions are returning to normal…
and her mum’s been able to return to New Zealand… knowing her daughter and granddaughter will be fine.

Alongside these three stories…are hundreds more.
Some people don’t learn enough about God…
to form an image in the first place. All they have is Bruce Almighty to go by…and that’s a better image of God than the three people I told you today had. [pause]

Sometimes without even knowing it…our mum or dad… or some other caregiver… warp and damage our image of
our self and our image of God...

But there is a way to heal these things… and it’s beautifully expressed in the reading…
set down for today from John’s Gospel.

At their last meal together  
like a mother reassuring her children …
Jesus… gently breaks it to his disciples… that he’s going somewhere without them…he’s going to be with God. The one he calls Abba…Father…

And ‘no…you can’t come too…Jesus tells the…
not this time…at least not yet… but one day you will.

And like fretful anxious children…
there’s no way the disciples can understand…
the kind of future Jesus is describing. [pause]
Peter… begs to go too. Thomas… is worried they’ll get lost trying to follow him. And Jesus gently reassures them all that they already know the way to find him.

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really knew me, you’d know my Father as well. So from now on…
you do know him and you have seen him.

But Philip… says look Jesus…just show us the Father already…that’ll be enough for us.

And Jesus sighs:

Don't you know me, Philip, even after I’ve been among you such a long time? Anyone who’s seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Don't you believe I am in the Father, and the Father’s in me? The words I say to you aren’t just mine.

It’s the Father, living in me, who’s doing his work.

I won’t leave you like you were orphans; I’ll come to you. 

Before long the world won’t see me anymore…
but you’ll see me. Because I live, you will too. 

On that day… you’ll realize… I’m in my Father…

and you’re in me…and I am in you…Those who love me will keep my word…and my Father will love them,
and we’ll come to them…and make our home with them.

Hey that’s incredible isn’t it? … Jesus is saying… in some mysterious way…
their love for him…in action in the world…
their obedience to his teaching…in some mysterious way… their love and their actions…will allow them to see him…allow them to perceive his presence…
and his Father’s too.

All through my life…Jesus seems to be saying…
it’s been just like this…the Father…living in me…
doing his work…all along… in every loving action I’ve taken…in every word I’ve said… about humility and mercy and compassion and justice and loving your enemy…my Father has been living in me… already…

So don’t be afraid of the future…
when you are loving me and acting out my love in the world…then my father and I are going to be right there living in you…In fact that’s how you’ll know we’re there …when you see love in action. That’s where we’ll be.

And still like fretful anxious children…there’s no way they can understand…the kind of divine presence…
Jesus is talking about. [pause]

Ok…then…think of it like this… Jesus goes on…

the Spirit of truth will live with you and be with you.

When my human body is long gone…broken…destroyed by the powers and principalities of Rome and the corruption of the Temple…

Where ever my disciples… are acting out my commandments in love…

the Holy Spirit…this helper…will teach you all things and remind you of everything I’ve said to you. 

You’ll have a new way of seeing…a new way…
to recognise the presence of God in your life…
and the lives of others…

and your love in action…will be the indicator…the clue…the sign…that the Father and I are there…
that God is right there. [pause]

So how do we heal…our broken and distorted images of God?

We look to Jesus.

How do we heal our broken and distorted understanding of our own loveability?

We look to Jesus.

How do we know God is with us…we know because Jesus has promised…that in every act of mercy…
every act of compassion…every attempt at peacemaking…or justice…

every time we practice what Jesus taught us…
God… Creator Redeemer and Spirit… is alive in us…
or in the one who shows mercy and love to us.

Where there is love in action…you can see…God.

The implications of Jesus’ new commandment…
to love one another as he has loved us…are clear…

His glory isn’t to be seen in great acts of power…or in the palaces of kings…

his glory will shine from us…as we act out…
his saving message of Shalom…in the world.