We Monday girls have begun a new study. Imago Dei.* It set me thinking back to the Duke Divinity summers. Those long, wonderful, excruciating days when wise scholars attempted to squeeze a theological education into the already crowded minds of us local pastors. We'd snuck off from our appointed pulpits and tried to gulp all the rarified air out of Duke and Goodson chapels. To squirrel away enough jots and tittles to kickstart a few sermons. To celebrate and commiserate with our preacher compatriots. To learn to pronounce enormous ideas as if we knew what they actually meant. Imago Dei. Lectio Divina. Eschaton. Adiaphora - my favorite which I occasionally try to work into ordinary conversations. (Means: indifferent things - no opinion either way) It's not an easy word to casually drop. But it can be impressive. And effectively ends this conversation: What do you want for supper? Adiaphora. Boom.
I actually dug out some notes a bit ago and reviewed esteemed Professor Rackley's discussions about Imago Dei. It is like a scrap of Eden that remains in our DNA - umpteen generations removed - and compels us to live in communion with God, creation and one another. Garden-walking; garden-tending; garden-dwelling. The image of God that, though tamped deep down, flares up at the still-small-grace-voice. The God-pilot-light that cannot be extinguished, even by sin. The impulse to stretch out toward God with dirty-beggar-hands though we are nearly dead with shame. That place in us where God condescends to our understanding - tiny though it be. Raising tear-blind eyes to Jesus and seeing the holy-possible reflected back. Mysterious and miraculous. Our sin, the marvelous failure that merited so great a Redeemer. Imago Dei. God in us. Who could imagine such a wonder? Selah.
*Imago Dei: God's Image, God's People, God's Mission by Mike Gosper and Gospel Coalition
Comments