Blogging Towards Sunday, October 12, 2025
Today we’re starting a month-long series on Sin. While it sounds like a bummer, it’s actually a way for us to remember how we’re created and what we’re invited to be and become.
Genesis 1 and 2 tell two stories of creation. John chapter 1 reframes the story of Genesis 1. So this story of creation is important. The word בָּרָא pronounced /bara/ meaning to shape or create is used in the Bible exclusively with God as the subject. Men and women don’t, can’t, create. But God does. When nothing we can do makes any difference and we are left standing around empty-handed and clueless, we are ready for God to create. When the conditions in which we live seem totally alien to life and salvation, we are reduced to waiting for God to do what only God can do, create.
Humanity, man and woman, are created in the “image of God.” The Latin translation of that exact wording in Genesis 1:27 is Imago Dei. It’s come to represent this foundational aspect and theological doctrine of Judeo-Christian belief with regard to the fundamental understanding of human nature. The exact meaning of the phrase has been debated for millennia.
A number of Jewish scholars argued that being made in the image of God does not mean that God possesses human-like features, but rather the reverse: that the statement is figurative language for God bestowing special honor unto humankind, which God did not confer unto the rest of creation.
Other interpretations include the view that that this means that we share characteristics with God such as rationality or morality. A relational understanding argues that the image is found in human relationships with God and each other: being in relationship is being in the image of God who is three in one – eternal dynamic relationship. Another view interprets the image of God as a role or function whereby humans act on God’s behalf and serve to represent God in the created order. These different views are not in competition with each other, you can hold on to several at the same time.
The word Sin in Hebrew and Greek means literally to miss the mark. It’s not being bad. It’s more about falling short of what God intends for, with and alongside us. It’s denying, over-riding, or rejecting the Imago Dei in and for which God creates us.
Questions for Reflection & Examen:
- What engaged, enraged, or surprised you in these texts?
- How does being created in the image of God differ from acting (choosing to eat the fruit) in order to become like God?
- How do you relate to this creation story?
- What do you hear God saying to you through today’s readings?
CAPC Oakland 