Your Image

Creative and loving God, we are made in your image. We are a reflection of you and from you we receive our identity. But it's all still so confusing. You see, it is difficult for us to remember what it means, what it looks like to be your image. Without guidance we chase our selfishness and it leads us to destruction. Without clarity we submit to our coercion and press our family under the flood waters. In our ignorance we speak of our own strength and celebrate our own riches as though we earned them. All of it, all of this, is speaking against us. Your image is smudged by the blood from our hands. Foolishly we ask, "is this how it's supposed to be?" as we raise our hands against our sisters and our brothers and as we drink the poison from our own cup. We say, "this is the way, right?" as we walk toward the edge of the cliff pulling our kin behind us. We've made quite a mess of things, haven't we?

But Jesus, our brother whom we crucified on the stake of our ignorance, makes all things new and  says to us, "this is how it's supposed to be" as he washes our feet and heals the wounds we've inflicted on ourselves. "This is what the image looks like," he says as loves and liberates his own enemies, as he touches the lepers and welcomes the sinner, as he opens his arms to the poor and feeds the hungry. He demonstrates the image and defeats the powers that work against us... even our own powers. He heals the scars and mends the brokenness. He puts us back together and wipes the stains from your image. He replaces our selfishness with compassion and our laziness with passion. 

Holy Spirit, help us! If we're left to our own abilities, our own strength to follow Jesus, how quickly we'll forget and return to our folly. Holy Spirit, let us breathe you in and help us to reject this polluted air we've created. Create in us a new heart, a soft heart, a clean heart--the heart that Jesus offers us through his saving work on the cross. Make us new, God.

In Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.