Stewarding God’s Imprint: A Theology of Worship
This whole year we have been thinking about stewardship and what it means to be given the role of stewards for God. We've looked back at Gen 1: 28-30 where God established that mankind would "have dominion" over creation and how that means that we have been asked to manage all that is needed for this world to keep going. We therefore strive to care about air, soil, and water qualities as well as the people, plants, and animals around us. In addition, we interpret that the "treasures" of time, wealth, and health are also resources given to us to manage so that all might live. That, however, is not the complete list of what God has placed in our hands—there's something subtle we often overlook.
Just before that command to steward, Gen 1:26 tells us that humankind is created in God's image. To be made in God's image means to have within us a sense of what is whole and holy. It means that deep in each of us we know that God's goodness and righteousness is more certain than what we can create for ourselves. So God's image in us sets the standard for us when it comes to true values. It's easy to grab a hold of the values of this world- things like money or status—and let those values direct our lives. But when we pay attention to the God-values imprinted on us, we cling to/ give worth to God-things, not selfish things. To eternal things, not passing things.
When we get right down to it, of all the things that God has put into our hands for safe-keeping, this image of God in each of us is primary although often overlooked. It is as though, when the Creator bent over the dusty form of that first Adam (from the word "adamah" meaning earth, so pretty much literally "one of the earth") and blew breath into the form, the whole form filled up with an element of God. Our outside shape still resembles dirt, but our insides are wholly/holy different. In my opinion, the greatest task of stewardship is the preservation and cultivation of the values of the inside... the eternal side—not the outside that can be rearranged with a puff of wind or passing storm.
The classic definition of the word "worship" is to demonstrate the worth/value of something or someone. Notice the word "demonstrate." Gathering together in worship services is one way we say/show that we value God; it is an opportunity to demonstrate that we value God more than we value ourselves. So too are our daily actions and interactions with the world around us—what we might call worship-full work—but only when we act for the good of all life and not just our own, just in the way that God in Jesus acted for the good of the whole, not himself. When we acknowledge God's value with our confession, prayers, study, and service to the least then we truly steward God's image in us. Each day becomes the chance to remember that we are creatures with a task, not Creator and owner of this world.
It is always good to jion in you worship and work; our conversations and connections are truly a delight. But, joining you in worship and work as a means of stewarding the value of God’s imprint in each of us—that brings joy and life. To God be the glory!!!
SAM Jeanine
