Category Archives: image and likeness of God

I have no flag to wave

28 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in authenticy, image and likeness of God, personhood

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no flagThere are a number of flags being waved these days.  On the news and all over social media I have seen various flags being posted and waved – the Confederate battle flag, the gay pride rainbow flag and the American flag.  As I have watched this virtual parade of flags I have realized that I have no flag to wave.

I will not wave the Confederate battle flag.  Even though I live in a state that was part of the Confederate South (though East Tennessee was pro-Union I would note), I will not wave this flag.  I recognize what is good and true in the south and southern culture but for too many of my African-American brothers and sisters this flag is an all-too-painful symbol of oppression and slavery and I cannot abide that.  This flag holds none of my identity.  I will not wave this flag.

The gay pride rainbow flag?  No, I cannot wave this flag either.  I recognize that homosexuals also have experienced oppression and pain throughout history and I sadly recognize that Christianity has been warped to legitimate this oppression and hatred but this flag also holds none of my identity.  Despite the appeal to diversity, this flag equates for me the tendency to reduce the fullness of the human person to one single component – sexual orientation – and to state that this one component holds primacy and even dominance over all others.  I cannot accept this.  As a Christian I hold the deepest core identity of a person to not be orientation, gender, race, nationality, or economic class but rather the Imago Dei – the image of God in which every man and woman is made.  Although these components are important to a person’s identity and not to be dismissed, no one component should ever eclipse the Imago Dei.  Sadly, though, this happens far too often and we forget the full truth of who we are and we get lost.  I cannot applaud this when I see it happening.  It is, in essence, a form of tyranny.  I cannot wave this flag.

The American flag?  Sadly, I am beginning to wonder if I can wave this flag and I do not say this lightly.  Since my youngest days I have been taught that religious freedom was one of the foundational principles of which this nation was based.  Yet, I currently see a secularism developing and being triumphed in our society that makes no room for religious freedom and its expression outside of the privacy of the home.  It seems that just as the activities of the bedroom are being celebrated and paraded in the open public square; religion is being told that it must be content with remaining behind the locked doors of one’s home.  No, I claim my religion to be just as constitutive to my identity as any other qualifier out there.  Therefore, I cannot leave it behind when I walk out the front door each morning – to do so would be to live a schizophrenic life.  Does the secularism developing in our society have room for me or will I and my core beliefs be written off as either too antiquated or even bigoted?  The answer seems uncertain.  Will I be able to authentically wave the American flag or even be allowed to?  I am not sure and I say this even as I love this country and what is so good about it.

So, at this point, I have no flag to wave.  What I do have though, is the empty tomb of our resurrected Lord and here is where I will remain and here is where I will draw my strength, my inspiration, my resolve, my joy and my decision to love.  In a way I am grateful for this recent virtual parade of flags because it has reminded me that as a Christian there never really is any flag that we can ever truly wrap ourselves in – whether that be national, social or ideological.  Flags can quickly become idols and idols quickly turn into tyrants.  All that the Christian has is the empty tomb and in this is found our freedom which the world can neither comprehend nor contain.  The Christian, it has been said, is in the world but not of it.

The good people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston have witnessed this freedom of the Christian to our entire nation.

I will not squander my freedom.  I have no flag to wave.  All I have is the empty tomb.  All we have, as Christians, is the empty tomb but here is found our freedom – a life that has overcome even death itself.

I will remain at the empty tomb.

Christ the King and how we honor Him

24 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by in Christ the King, humility, image and likeness of God, will, willing the good of the other

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There is a story told about the temple mount in Jerusalem.  

Before there was a temple, before there was even a city, there were two brothers that lived on either side of the hill.  One brother was wealthy yet he had no family.  The other brother had very limited resources but he had a large family.  One evening the wealthy brother was thinking of his brother on the other side of the hill.  “My brother,” he thought “does not have much and he has many mouths to feed and here I am with all my wealth.  I know what I shall do, every night under the cover of darkness I will take one sack of grain from my granary and carry it over to my brother’s and place it in his granary.”  Now, that very same evening the other brother was thinking of his wealthy sibling.  “My brother,” he thought “does not have the blessing of a family but he does have riches, I might as well help him grow even more in his riches.  I will take a sack of grain from my granary every night and carry it to my brother’s granary and place it with his grain.”  The brothers began to do this every night, all the time not saying a word to the other about what they were doing.  They were both amazed to see every morning that the number of sacks in their granaries remained the same although they had taken away a sack the previous evening.  This all continued for a while until one night they met one another at the crest of the hill carrying their sacks of grain.  Upon seeing one another they immediately realized what had been transpiring and they embraced one another in love.  And upon their embrace the voice of God sounded from heaven, “This is where I will build my house upon earth!” 

The moral of the tale, I believe, is this: when we make the choice to love and to give then we open our hearts that God might come in and make a dwelling place within us.  When we choose to love, God makes his home within and with us.

In one of the Harry Potter movies (I cannot remember which) the wise wizard Dumbledore shares this insight with the young Harry, “Harry, it is neither our abilities nor our skills that define our character, rather it is the choices we make that truly define who we are.”  It is when we make a choice, when we exercise our will; that we truly define and determine who we are.

One of the beautiful aspects of our Christian faith tradition is the belief that every human person is made in the very image and likeness of God – the “imago Dei”.  As we proclaim this, it is understandable to then ask how we are made in God’s image.  Is it in our bodies, our physical makeup, that we image God?  No, because God is pure spirit and does not have a body.  Is it in our abilities or our skills that we image God?  Well, not really, our skills and abilities (no matter how impressive they might be) are not really all that much compared to the truth of God.  How are we made in God’s image?  Many of the greatest thinkers and saints of our faith tradition have answered this question by saying that it is in our will where we find most fully the image of God.  It is by our choosing the good that we show forth God’s image in which we are made.  When we, aided by God’s grace, make the choice to love, the choice to give, the choice to let go of self, the choice to forgive, to show mercy then we truly reveal the image of God in which we are made.  Our character is defined and determined by the choices that we make.

On this feast of Christ the King we proclaim that Christ is indeed Lord and King of all creation.  He is master.  Christ is the one who was dead but who is now risen and alive.  He is the firstborn.  As we proclaim Christ as King it is fair to ask what type of king do we have?  What is our king’s character?

The Gospel reading for this feast (Lk. 23: 35-43) tells us something truly important about the king we have and proclaim and it is revealed in the choice he made.  It is important to note that in the space of just eight verses, as our Lord is being crucified, he is presented with the same temptation three times; three times from different groups: the rulers, the Roman soldiers and the criminal hanging next to him.  The temptation is simple, “Save yourself!”  Rulers: “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.”  Soldiers: “If you are King of the Jews, save yourself.”  Criminal: “Are you not the Christ?  Save yourself and us.”  Three times this temptation is presented before our Lord and he could have chosen to save himself … but he did not.  Rather, he made a different choice.  He choose to obey the Father’s will; he choose to love both God and us, he choose to give of himself even unto death.

This is the king we have, the king that we proclaim and that we glorify!  Our character is defined by our choices and our king’s character is revealed in his choice here at the end of Luke’s gospel.  In the face of all the world’s temptation, Christ made a different choice – he made the choice of love.  Today we glorify Christ as king and as we do the same gospel truth is now put before us.  We all have the same temptation that our Lord faced and we know this.  In so many varied ways the world continues to put the same temptation before every disciple of Christ – sometimes subtly sometimes very blatantly.  “Save yourself!  Do not care about others.  Do not think of others.  Who cares about them?  Think only of yourself.  Save yourself!” 

But Christ our King shows us that there is a different way, a different choice can always be made.

When the world says, “Save yourself!” we, with God’s grace, can make a different choice.  We can make the choice to love.  We can choose to serve and to give of self.  We can forgive and offer mercy.  “Save yourself,” is not the only option we have.  Like Christ, our king, we can make the choice to love and to give.  We can always make the choice for the good regardless of the situation or the context in which we find ourselves.    

And the gospel truth is this: it is when we choose to love and to give (even when it seemingly leads to more hardship, more pain, difficulties and even death) that new and more abundant life is found and known.  More abundant than we could ever possibly imagine!  This is the truth of the cross and the resurrection – the seed of the glory of the resurrection is always found in the loss of the cross!

Today we celebrate Christ as King of Creation and we recognize the gospel truth that he puts before us.  As the world loudly proclaims, “Save yourself” to be the only option we know this not to be true.  Our king has shown us a different way.  There is always another choice that can be made – the choice to love – and it is in this choice that we find new and more abundant life.                   

St. Augustine and Miley Cyrus

28 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by in dignity, hypocrisy, image and likeness of God, Miley Cyrus, St. Augustine

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Feast of St. Augustine (Homily given at Notre Dame High School for the all school Mass)


The word “hypocrite” has its origins in a Greek word meaning “actor”.  If you have ever seen an ancient Greek play you will remember that all the actors wear masks, you never see an actor’s real face.  A hypocrite is someone who puts on a false appearance, someone who wears a mask.  Often, we use the term “hypocrite” in relation to people who put on a false appearance in terms of seeming to be religious or in terms of seeming to exemplify a certain virtue.  When hypocrisy is revealed we know how harmful it can be.  Jesus also knew this.  This is why in today’s gospel (Mt. 23:27-32) he chastised the hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees.  But hypocrisy can come in a wide variety and in many forms.   

Some of you may have seen Miley Cyrus’ act at the MTV Video Music Awards recently.  I did not see the show.  Since I have moved to Chattanooga I have decided not to have a TV and even when I did have a TV I did not watch MTV.  (I remember when MTV first came out and when they actually played music videos.  Now, I don’t know what MTV is really about.)  Anyway, so many of my friends were talking about it the next day on Facebook that I pulled it up on YouTube and watched it.  Now, I do not necessarily have anything against Miley Cyrus.  She seems to be quite talented which, to me, makes it all the more sad that she felt she had to perform in such a way but as I watched her performance I was just struck by the hypocrisy of it all.  For whatever reason (maybe to move beyond her Hannah Montana image or to prove she is an adult) Miley chose to deny her dignity and on a national stage belittle herself and her worth. 
 
Ladies, because Miley Cyrus is a role model (whether she chooses to admit this or not), because she is someone you grew up with, she also belittled you.  This act fundamentally said that all you are is an object, something to be used for the pleasure of another.  That is a lie.  You are no one’s plaything.  You have a dignity and a worth and if others ever try to deny that then to hell with them! 
 
Gentlemen, this act also belittled you.  Basically, it said that this is all you are about and that this type of activity is all you want from a woman and that it is also all that you are capable of.  It said that there really is no dignity or virtue in being a man.  This also is a lie.  Don’t settle for this lie. 

So, MTV has Miley and her crew up on stage dancing around with stuffed bears on their backs.  (What was up with that?  Who thought that was a good idea?)  Who do we have?  Well, we have a crusty old bishop from North Africa! 

St. Augustine lived in a time very similar to our own.  The security and peace of the great Roman Empire was unraveling at the seams.  There were many voices in society and culture competing with one another and not connecting.  The social institutions were just no longer working.  In the midst of all of this; Augustine was asking the question, “Where do I find God?”  God was certainly not in the diminishing strength of the empire nor was God in the structures of society.  In the best sense of the term, Augustine turned inward and he realized, building on the very beginning of Scripture that we are each made in the image and likeness of God, that the best place to find the reflection of God was within our very selves.  That, by God’s grace, once we move beyond our fears and hypocrisies, we can recognize within ourselves a dignity that is truly undeniable because it is a reflection rooted in God himself!  Augustine, throughout his life, proclaimed the healing mercy of God’s grace and that how in receiving that mercy we are healed and our dignity is restored.  Augustine was no hypocrite.  He did not need to put on a false appearance.  He trusted in God’s love.    

So, after MTV and Miley we are today presented with Augustine – a crusty bishop from North Africa.  His words to us today: “Remember your dignity.  Don’t be a hypocrite.  Don’t settle.”