Made in the Image of the God with Dirty Hands --- A Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost/Labor Day Weekend (Psalm 139)
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 The Psalmist invites us to sing God’s praises because we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Not only is God the creator of the universe, but God has formed our inward parts and knit us together in our mother’s womb. That means we matter to God. The first creation account reveals that we are created in God’s image. Then in the second creation account, in Genesis 2, it’s revealed that God’s hands got dirty when God created the first human. Jeremiah reinforces that message when he describes God’s relationship to Israel in terms of God the potter. While Jeremiah uses that image to speak of God’s judgment on Israel, we can also read into that imagery a sense of God’s intimate relationship with creation. So, it appears that God isn’t concerned about dirty hands! ( Jer., 18:1-11 ) All of this suggests that life is sacred. Just as the Psalmist speaks of God’s intimate relationship with God’s creation, the prologue to John’s Gospel reinforces...