Why God Needs Us (and We Need Each Other)

When we think of relationships, and needing each other sometimes we get a little confused, and sometimes we get it right.

We have two blockbuster passages today, and they are chock-full of incredible insights into needing each other that can change our lives. Today I want to draw our attention to two epic truths. Watch out! These are world-changing ideas! Perhaps the most surprising thing about these epic truths is that they point to why God needs us…and incidentally, why we need each other.

The first epic truth is that we are made in the image of God. An episode of the classic TV show, Twilight Zone, is called “Number 12 Looks Like You.” In this vision of the future, at the age of 19, a person can be transformed to be physically beautiful. An average-looking young woman is given the choice of two different models, Number 8 and Number 12. Into which image will she be made? Or will she decide to remain herself? What if you could be made in someone’s image, who’s image would you be made in? Would you go for Tom Brady or Katie Perry? How many Jennifer Anistons would there be? How many Brad Pitts? In our passage for today, we read, “God created [humankind] in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Did you catch that male and female are both made in God’s image? It seems that God’s image is full of diversity—male and female, black and white, red and yellow, tall and short, and on and on. In fact, God’s image seems to be quite beyond the petty differences some people seem to dwell on.

If we are all made in the image of God, what does that mean? First off, it suggests that we are all equal in God’s sight:  all loved and all valued for who we are. M. Scott Peck, in his book, Different Drum:  Community Making and Peace, tells the story of a monastery that had fallen upon hard times. There were only five monks left in the decaying house:  the abbot and four others, all over seventy in age. Clearly it was a dying order. In the deep woods surrounding the monastery was a little hut that a rabbi occasionally used for retreats. One day the abbot decided to visit the rabbi to see if he had any advice for saving the monastery. The rabbi welcomed the abbot to his hut. But when the abbot explained his visit, the rabbi could only say, “I know how it is. The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue anymore.” So the old abbot and the old rabbi wept together. Then they read parts of the Torah and spoke of deep things. When the abbot had to leave, they embraced each other. “It has been a wonderful that we should meet after all these years,” the abbot said, “but I have failed in my purpose for coming here. Can you think of anything that could help me save my dying monastic order?” “No, I am sorry,” the rabbi responded. “I have no advice to give. But, I can tell you that the Messiah is one of you.” When the abbot returned to the monastery, he said to the others, “The rabbi said something very mysterious and cryptic. He said that the Messiah is one of us. I don’t know what he meant?” As time went on, the old monks wondered whether the Messiah could he possibly be one of them. But which one? Could it be him? Could it be me? As they contemplated, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect. People still occasionally came to visit the monastery in its beautiful forest to picnic on its tiny lawn, to wander along some of its paths, even to meditate in the dilapidated chapel. As they did so, they sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery to picnic, to play, to pray. They brought their friends to this special place. And their friends brought their friends. Within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and, thanks to the rabbi’s gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality in the realm. When we honor the image of God, of Christ, in each other, then love and beauty and grace will flow from us.

Second, being made in God’s image means we are relational beings. The story is told that a Sunday School class was reading the Creation Story in Genesis, and how God created Eve from Adam’s rib. That afternoon, a small boy was running around when he got first a pained look on his face, and then a panicked look. He rushed to his mother. “Mom, mom, I think I’m having a wife!” But before Adam and Eve’s relationship, before Adam is even created, there are already relationships. How can that be? The real mind-blower (as I noted as I was reading the passage) is that the word for God here is Elohim, which is a plural form of the word for God, the word, El. But what we know from other places in the Bible (particularly, Exodus and Deuteronomy) is that there is only one God and God is One. Deuteronomy 6:4–5 reads, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” In fact, what we read from Genesis today is one of the key passages Christians have thought for centuries might point the way to understanding the idea of the Trinity, that miraculously, paradoxically, God is both Three and One, before the beginning. There’s a lot more meat to be had about this, but I’m going to save most of that for Bible Study tomorrow night. Since God is more than one (and One at the same time!), God has been about relationships and being in community before Creation! Which means we are called to be in relationship with each other.

Finally, being made in God’s image means that we are made to rule over the earth and its creatures, just like God rules over us. Caring for, nurturing, sacrificing. God demonstrates what that life is meant to look like in Jesus. He makes the effort to come to us, to be born as a human, to live and grow, to laugh and cry, to face temptation and be part of a family, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Paul writes in verses 19–21, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God… in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” In the same way that Jesus lived and sacrificed for us, so we are to live and sacrifice for the earth and its creatures.

Cool! So the first epic truth is that we are reflections of this God who created and loves us, so we take care of each other and the world. What’s the second epic truth? That God needs us! Whoa! Wait a minute! God needs us? Yes! God wants to work in and through us, to have a relationship of power and purpose. With the Holy Spirit as the channel, God wants us to live and sacrifice as heirs with Jesus Christ. Building relationships, loving our neighbor, seeing the face of Jesus Christ on each other—we were made to do these things, and to have the power of the Holy Spirit to help them all happen. Heady stuff, my friends! We are called to be the ones who get it best—everyone you will ever meet is made in the image of God, and we are part of the team that is trying to get that reflection clear in each other and our world. These are indeed, world-changing truths!