Sentness - Part Two

By: Paul Novak on: 03.07.06

It may look from Part I that I am against “The Great Commission” – far from it.

What I am against is the emphasis that has been placed on this command and the inadequacy that it breeds among the Christian community. I am reacting, absolutely, and I recognise it. But it is a deliberate tipping of the scales the other way in an attempt to reverse what has happened; at least in my past anyway. And judging from some of the comments from the other boaters, I am not alone.

The command I want to re-emphasise is the one in Genesis 1:28. After making humans in his image God gives the command to all humanity: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

God could have easily created this planet and ruled it micro-management style, involving himself in everything. But he doesn’t. He makes a creature that is just like himself and gets that creature to look after the earth - in his stead. The earth and its creatures are a gift to them as are the humans a gift to the earth and everything in it. They are to be the “god-like” creatures on this planet.

In no sense is the creation story declaring that this is a temporary measure. God doesn’t say: “This is just a task until you die, then you can be what I really intended you to be – beings who sing songs on a cloud somewhere above the earth or in another dimension.” The purpose of the human race is to be God’s agents, God’s likeness, God’s representatives in the world he created.

Pretend, for a minute, that the animals could talk. If a cow asked a horse what the god of the earth was like, then Mr Ed should reply: “Just look at the humans. See, they have the authority on this whole planet and possess it. They have the capacity to love and relate, a superior intelligence for investigation and judgement, strength to create and build, the use of language and all sorts of communication, and they involve themselves in activities that have a purpose beyond mere survival or the existence of their own species. That is what the god of the earth is like.” And with that the cow should nod, stare blankly and continue chewing her cud.

So when any human plays God they are actually doing what is innate and even commanded of them. God has said to all people, “Be me on the planet!” And the scary thing is that he has actually given them the capacity to achieve this. There is a marring that has taken place (and hence humans do not reflect to creation God’s non-transience), yet still the image and command remains. Once you get a notion of who God is, what he is like and the work that has gone on in creating a planet, then “being him” is a joyful privilege and of course, a gigantic responsibility.

It flies in the face of those currently in political power across the ocean who think it doesn’t matter what we destroy down here because God is going to come down and micro-manage it soon, or just destroy it all anyway. By no means is that anything like the image of God. In fact it is more like his enemy.

Don’t get me wrong. I too would love God to just come on down and sort out the problems – particularly mine. Either that or take me away to some blissful state where problems don’t exist. But this does not appear to be on his agenda at all. The biblical narrative shows us that for thousands of years he has been working on the project of getting humanity to do his work on the planet. He wanted a family, then a clan, then a group of people, then a nation under a king to be his representatives – to “image” him to creation. How frustrating for him as the project kept running up against, what we call in the IT industry, a “show-stopper”. It is no wonder he couldn’t contain himself when he saw one bloke, about 2000 years ago, be his image on the planet. He bellowed out …

“This is my son, listen to him!”

So now, the church by sacrament and rites are related to this Jesus, and are the people who are declared by God as restored “images” of him. Paradoxically, by his Spirit they are still in the process of being restored. Be that as it may, God now has a set of people that are the right God-image on the planet – doing what he wanted all humanity to do in the first place.

And “Sentness” at Small Boat Big Sea resonates with that purpose. It asks the boaters to recognise the importance of imaging God in their every day lives. To sense how wonderful it is to have the capacity and then actually carry out the divinely given role of representing God.

But more than that, to be sent to do it! The church has a model in the book of Acts to send missionaries out to convince others of God’s project coming to a climax with his image in Jesus. But we need a model to send the rest out into their own home and homely worlds to be the creator’s image; to know it in their bones that they are, finally, the fulfilment of the purpose of God since the creation of the world; to celebrate that fact alone - just by itself - without having to resort to the astounding promise of what the resurrection means to our physicality.

Surely such knowledge, such revelation, can make the commute into the city full of purpose and the changing of a nappy into the work of God.

So that’s why I just love our “Sentness.”

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