Dear Friends,
The image above this week’s news was painted by Jeannie Michael, who attended last year’s Pilgrim’s Course. Our Pilgrims’ Course 2024 got off to a flying start last Wednesday, with 36 people attending the hybrid class. We thought about God the Father as the Creator of the Universe, and how humankind is made in his image. We watched a fascinating video clip of the great biblical scholar, N.T. Wright, who used the analogy of an ancient religious Temple as a way of explaining the phrase, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26a NRSV). He explained how all ancient temples, except the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, contained an image or likeness, often translated idol, of the God to be worshipped, so that people would know which God or Goddess they were worshipping. However, Wright suggests, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, it is the whole created world that is the Temple – God created everything and he “saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31a). God placed an image of himself within it – humankind – so that “creation can appropriately worship him through that image, so that the power and love and sovereignty of God can be exercised in the world through the image.”
Now, that image is not like a mirror, in which God’s image is reflected back to him; rather, Wright argues, humankind made as the image of God is more like an angled mirror in which “the worship of creation is reflected up to God, and the stewardship and love and purposes of God are reflected into the world.” The more I listen to this beautiful concept, the more I marvel at the mission statement of our church; at its heart is Jesus. St. Paul says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” (Colossians 1:15) and we are all called to be conformed to that image. This journey begins at our baptism, and does not end at our death – the whole of our life is a journey to become more Christ-like. That is why Jesus is at the center of our mission statement, and why the three verbs to worship, love, and serve are the tools by which we become more like him; if you will, living out that ‘angled mirror’ by which we worship but also learn to serve, united in the love that has been poured out into the world through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you are interested to hear Professor Wright speaking about this, you can click here to go to the clip.
We are now in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. On Sunday morning, I will be preaching at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church (last year, Pastor Jared was our guest preacher at evensong). There are leaflets and prayer cards available in the church – please do take them home with you. On Sunday afternoon at 4pm, we welcome The Reverend Richard Mullins who is the Pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Washington, DC. Fr. Mullins is a good friend and a chaplain in the Order of Malta which, as you know, is an affiliated order to the Order of St. John. Please come along to pray for unity and greet Fr. Mullins.
Your Priest and Pastor,
Carl
Prayer for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
We pray, O gracious Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that we all may be one as you are one. In your community of complete unity, we have our beginning and our end. To you we pray, asking for the gift of visible unity among all who believe in your Christ.
As we commemorate this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we are reminded by your Word that all human beings are our neighbors and that we are to love them like ourselves and in the same way we love you. Help us to overcome the barriers and divisions we have nurtured against your will.
Grant to us, O Lord, a new Spirit of love and solidarity, that we may proclaim your good news to all of creation. We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirt are one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
