Genesis 1:1-2:3; Psalm 136 :1-9,23-26; Romans 8:18-25; Matthew 6:25-34
“Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry”.
Do you feel “good”? Do you feel “very good”? I think most of us would probably answer: well, sometimes! Sometimes we do feel good about ourselves. Sometimes, not so good. It is so easy to get into that spiral of worrying, or anxiety – it only takes a word from someone to knock our confidence, make us feel unsure, make us feel anxious, alone. But, it also only takes a word from someone to make us feel stronger, valued, upheld. As Martin Luther King III wrote recently in The Guardian (1), words matter, the language we use when we speak with or about each other, any others, matters – it can affect whole groups of people; language can cause hatred and prejudice: something to remember as we commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day recently. And, of course, it is not just what we say, but how! But, the example we have from God is of language that builds up others, valuing, loving them regardless, through thick and thin; everything, everyone, is very good. “It is he who remembered us in our lowly estate … and rescued us from our foes; for his steadfast love endures forever” as our psalmist puts it. God sees all of us as good, as very good, sees all creation as very good. And that should be enough for us, and for our attitudes towards others, towards creation, surely. “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.”
But what does it mean to be blessed by God in this way, to be called very good? Well, it is not meant to make us feel superior, to make us see ourselves as better than anything or anyone else – than creation, than each other. Because we are all part of creation, part of the created order of things. But as children of God, made in God’s image and likeness, we have a special relationship with God. In some ways we are to be Godlike – to do what God would do, to do what God would will us to do, what God showed us through Christ we should do. Being in God’s image and likeness is a responsibility to live Godly lives, lives that reflect God, God’s image and likeness in us. It means recognising the image and likeness in ourselves, and living up to that in our behaviour, in our language towards others, in our treatment of others, of each other, and in our treatment and attitudes towards the rest of creation: the creation that God also saw as good, more than that: “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” God loved creation into being, loved us into being, and we, as images of God, given stewardship over all that God created, must reflect that love in how we live in creation, and how we live with each other. It is a commandment: if we love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength then we are to love that which God loves: all of God’s creation, all of God’s children. For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son into the world, to bring us forgiveness and salvation. To redeem creation, and to bring reconciliation between God and humanity, between humanity itself (and that is so needed today) and between humanity and creation (and again, that is so needed today).
God reveals his love primarily in the sending of the Son, but also in every gift given to us: through creation we have light, water, day and night, sun and rain; we have food, drink, clothing, shelter, each other: for God knows we need these things. But, humanity gets so caught up in things: in having the right clothes, eating the latest foods and drinks, following the latest trends, worrying about being on trend, seeking the perfection promised by social media influencers, that we can lose sight of God’s goodness. We are distracted from seeing ourselves as good, as made in God’s image, and seeing others as good, made in God’s image, by the constant adverts, constant messages telling us what is good, who is good, telling us how to behave to be accepted, acceptable, who to like, who to dislike, who doesn’t fit in – the ones who don’t follow our trend, don’t look like we do, don’t eat the same things, the same way, who aren’t “us”. And hate and fear replaces the lovingkindness we should show each other. We dehumanise, degrade the other. Again, I reference Holocaust Memorial Day and how easy it is to be convinced of the worthlessness, the non-humanness of others. We lose sight of the goodness of others – of the fact that God calls them good too and that they are valued in the eyes of God – because we are too caught up in making ourselves good, perfect, in our eyes, in the eyes of the world. In our “doomscrolling”, we lose sight of how good the world is, how good God’s children are, how good they can be. We worry so much about not fitting in that we do and say things that undermine the goodness of God’s image in us and in others. And we lose sight of Christ’s gentle words: “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.” We fail to “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”
So, we have a divine duty given to us, given to us right from the beginning. To be those who live as ones made in the image and likeness of God, who do the things God wills, think in God’s ways, love as God loves, all things and all people. To be ones who can look at the world and see God’s goodness there, to see that it is good, very good. And to be the ones who challenge those voices which try to undermine the image of God in others, which try to take away their humanity. We are called to see the good in all people, to build them up, give them hope; to see God in all people and to respond to them in ways that reflect God’s ways, God’s will, God’s love, God’s goodness. Then we can feel good. Then others can feel good, and the whole of creation will be very good. And we can live up to God’s faith in us, God’s trust in us to be good stewards of what he has entrusted to us: each other and all creation. And then God can look at everything that he has made and know it is very good. And so we respond to Christ’s call to “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness“, then everything else will follow because God knows what we need, and has provided enough for all, if only we would see it. And if we do see it then we can sing, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven: “O give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures for ever.” Amen.