The Big Picture -
Disaster!
Bible Reading:
Romans 1: 18-32
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
You are the eyes of God.
Yours are the hands of God.
Your words are the words of God.
When people see you they see the Lord.... at least they should.
That is what we came to realize the last time we were together, when we talked about the image of God. Here at Calvin we’re in the middle of a Sunday morning sermon series we’ve titled, "The Big Picture" - on worldview.
We began by trying to figure out what, roughly, that word means. Came to realize that when you take the deepest values and core beliefs that we hold about this world and life in it, about time and eternity, about what is seen and what lays beyond the sense --
– when you bundle all of that together in a package, you can stamp on it the label, "Worldview."
Then we took a step back for long perspective, big picture look at things. We discovered that the Bible’s view on things is that we’re living in God’s world; He cares deeply about it..... from beginning to end.
Scripture begins on earth. Scripture ends NOT with some escape from earth and the eternal plucking of heavenly harps while the Rome on earth burns. Rather, it ends on a renewed earth, God dwelling with humanity, and people able to once more work for their Creator Lord in developing and caring for the Creation as had originally been the intent in Paradise.
It was that task of working which we considered next. You know how it is that sometimes one can look at a child and say, "My, she’s a chip off the ol’ block.... he’s a spittin image of his father...."
When God first created humanity, He made male and female to have some of that in them - we are fashioned out of a chip of divine marble, as it were; created to image our Heavenly Father - something like Him, reflecting Him;
that when others see us they, somehow, are reminded of where we came from, and whose family we’re part of - the divine family of God which we celebrated earlier through the marvelous event of baptism.
that when others see us, they see a a glimmer, a reflection, of God.
We call that the imago dei, the Image Of God.
I want to carry on with thinking about that a little bit this morning.
Think about Jakob and Anke and Sklyer.
Little images of God.
Growing up in a home with bigger images - Ed and Jo, who together with us pledged to the Lord that, in response to His divine promise of holy paternal care and the love of Jesus, they would raise these children His way; they would mold and shape them, sculpt their characters and morals, hope and dreams and behaviors to reflect Him.
What sorts of challenges will face them in living out that calling to image God? What sorts of obstacles and pitfalls await them? Temptations? Dangers?
What are the sorts of things with which, not only they, but we struggle in that whole image-bearing project?
We do that thinking and reflecting underneath this large cross at the front - reminding us of the suffering, sacrificing, saving work of Jesus; reminding us that somewhere way back human beings crashed badly while engaged in the expedition of imaging God.
A disaster! So bad was it that outside saving help was needed - the eternal and renewing salvation that Jesus brings.
We note that at this point in the series, because any consideration of a Christian worldview, a Christian way of understanding things in this life, simply cannot function without an acknowledgment of this disaster – this huge, grinding twist and corruption in the image-bearing project. We have to factor it into not only understanding how things were, but how they function right now.
How life, with all its challenges, will function for Ed & Jo’s kids.
How life’s aberrations confront them as parents
How they assault you and I.
Today is the "heads up!" call that allows us to be watchful, wary and careful as Christians working our way through life.
The problem, then,
the disaster that occurred, was that while the mission was to reflect, to image God, humanity somehow got sidetracked and ended up trying to reflect, to image, something or someone else.
Whatever or whoever that was varied depending on time, place and circumstance.
And..... The exact whatever or whoever doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that there was some stand-in at the center, at the place where God rightfully belonged.
There was an illegal substitution.
Focus became shifted in a wrong direction.
And the whole purpose of human living - reflecting God, imaging Him, representing Him and His ruling majesty in this world –
all of that became twisted and distorted.
I tell you this because the dynamic which led to that illegal substitution in imaging, the setup for it and tendency toward it, still exists.
Every image bearer today still struggles with it.
Its power tugs at us; tries to trip us up; gets in the way of effectively living like God, reflecting Him as a chip of that heavenly marble.
That disastrous crash is referenced in the Bible in a passage I’d like to read with you - please follow along:
Romans 1: 18-32
There are two phrases that I want you to take special note of.
If you have your own bible, and tend to underline stuff, two words here are worth your underlining. They’re a repeat of one phrase:
v.23 [they] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images....
v.25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie
A swap happened right at the core of human life.
There’s something about our lives as people - something that Skyler, Anke and Jacob share with every single one of us.
We are inherently religious creatures. We need a center, an ultimate focus, a point of orientation for our lives. And we have two alternatives in that way. Either we serve the Lord and obey His will, or we practice what the Bible bluntly calls idolatry in disobedience.
It’s a rather simple either/or.
There are two basic categories: the Creator..... and the created. If we do not worship God, we will focus on something in creation and elevate it to the status of divinity. We will worship a false God.
[The Transforming Vision Walsh & Middleton, IVP]
We can never, as human being, not worship.
And we cannot have two centres of ultimate value in our life.
It’s either//or.
In all our doings, in all our ordinary human and cultural activities, we constantly face these two heart-focused ways of living.
They both tug and pull, wanting to shine through us, to have us reflect their particular values and qualities.
Antithesis, we call that.
Let me put it even more strongly:
Either we will properly reflect God as His image bearers
Or we will reflect other, illegitimate spiritual powers - we’ll be functioning as living idols.
It’s an either/or that cuts clear through everything in life.
There isn’t a single space, place or moment where we’re free from making choices of allegiance; no neutral turf where we can let our guard down and simple live a "whatever" kind of life.
Listen to these interesting words from another Bible book:
We know that there is only the one God. Even if there are so-called "gods," whether in heaven or on earth, and even though there are many of these "gods" and "lords", yet there is for us only one God, the Father, who is the Creator of all things and for whom we live; and there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom we live. (1 Cor 8:4-6)
An allegiance anywhere other than Jesus Christ is off-base, off limits, an illegal substitution.
Now here’s the kicker for this morning, even as we get ready to wrap things up for this meditation;
as we’ve been given this heads-up.
The forces of evil, under the twisted leadership of Satan, take what God created to be good and give it a slight twist, perverting it’s intent and focus.
They take what are meant to be areas of power and significant influence in our lives and try to turn them into a distraction; so that at the very least the shine will be taken off our ability to reflect the goodness and character of God, and that in what for them would be a "best case" scenario, we’d actually become so improperly fascinated with these areas that we do what our first human parents did,
what Romans 1 talks about
and pull an illegal substitution in our lives
makes these areas of life the central concern
"benching" God.
Colossians 1:16 says the same thing – there are many different types of powers and influence in creation, created for good, with a rightful place in the Cosmos where they can glorify God.
For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels -- everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him..... He was supreme in the beginning and.... he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far abover everything, everyone.... Everything of God finds its proper place in him.....
The problem is when the glory is diverted to another.
So, think of some of the "hot buttons"; spots/centers of power in Creation.
I’m going to name some. In each of them there is some kind of spiritual link and dimension, the dimension where demons can and DO root around, stirring up chaos.
Think of the powerful force that exists in TV, Internet and other media forms.
There is much holy good that can be done; but there is also a sinister way that they affect our society by pumping huge amounts of information at us, info that requires very little action, lulling us to a zombie like state that can at one moment watch scenes of devastation or injustice, and the next flip to a toothy grin selling mouthwash without a stir.
Or sex - a bond-builder that’s been turned into a mere consumer item.
Or sport - a North America religion complete with cathedrals & priests
Or the economic idea of Productivity - leading to a reduction and narrowing in the value of life so that anything not top-notch effective/efficient must go
Or Leisure - rest twisted into self-indulgence
Or Individualism - You and me share no link, no responsibility for the other
Or Money - where greed replaces generous and careful use of God-owned resources.
[Marva Dawn, Regent College lectures]
People, institutions, rulers, systems can ALL be areas of power that become derailed out of their proper sphere, illegally sub’ing in the central place in life where God alone belongs.
All of that happens not just because demonic forces of darkness flit here and there in creation — though that’s part of it.
There’s also the element of human service and choice - human energy that can easily run amuck.
And when these two come together in one of these hot-button areas of life particular trouble happens.
Skyler, Anke, Jakob will face a life as baptised children of the King, image bearers, where they’ll have to struggle with this dynamic.
For each one of us who desires to be a God-image-bearer, it’s a struggle that’s right there, in our face each day.
And so, we conclude this segment of the series recognizing that we need the power of the King whom we image as we struggle to combat run-amuck powers, and seek to keep the proper powers within their rightful boundaries.
We acknowledge and confess that we can NEVER do it alone by merely working harder, trying harder.
Such an approach just drives us to despair.
Ed & Jo -
Remind your kids each day whose servant they are!
Fellow believers -
Live, work and serve in His power!
Return to Him each day.
Draw on His resources each day.
When times and seasons happen, as they will, that you discover an illegal substitution cropping up somewhere in your life,
hurry back to Jesus.
Name it for what it is – no excuses or coverups.
Seek forgiveness and new power to put it as a power back where it belongs.
And then go forward - heads up and ready.
Baptised.
Identified with Him.
Belonging to Him.
Reflecting Him.
