We are God’s image bearers called to cherish His image in all we meet.
Opening question:
Does anyone have own a piece of cutlery or silver or gold item which bears a Hallmark?
What does a Hallmark mean?
According to the official government website, “All items (over certain weights) sold in the UK and described as being made from gold, silver, platinum or palladium must have a legally
recognised hallmark. The law is set out in the Hallmarking Act 1973 (which has been amended and updated on various occasions).
The same documents explains, “A complete hallmark consists of 3 compulsory marks…A two letter sponsor’s or maker’s mark, a metal and purity (fineness) mark and an Assay Office mark which shows which of the 4 Assay Offices in the UK tested and hallmarked the item.”
Psalm 139: 14 attests, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Jesus, in our gospel also bore testimony to the beauty of Creation and the Father’s hand upon it. Do you think we bear the Father’s hall mark?
I think we do and what’s more important is that we should recognise and honour the
hallmark of God in all of his Creation.
The flowers and the field and the birds of the air as well as all human beings are stamped with the hallmark of God. We are precious, we are fearfully and wonderfully made and God cares about each one.
The Rev’d Brian Draper, one of Britain’s foremost popular spiritual thinkers in recent years and author of “Soulfulness: Deepening the
mindful life”, encourages us to see human beings, not as “bodies with a soul”, but as “souls with a body.”
It is that soul, which bears the hallmark of God in humans, but I would also argue that in their own special and unique way every animal, plant or even mineral, bears the hallmark of God’s handiwork.
The purity of God’s handcraft is attested in Genesis 1. All things that God has made are
are stamped as “good” and humanity “very good – bearing the image of God himself.”
Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
If we believe that every Creature in some way bears the hallmark of God, then using Brian Draper’s thinking, even plants, animals and even inanimate things are creatures belonging to God with the “body” of a plant, animal or inanimate thing. St Francis of Assisi saw Creation in this way certainly.
“All things of creation are children of the Father and thus brothers of man”
Why, then that we are so cavalier in our disregard toward each other and to the well-being of Creation?
Why might seeing all human beings as “souls with a body belonging to God and bearing his image” affect t6he way we treat each other?
Why might treating all other Creatures as “Creatures of God bearing his hallmark each with unique “bodies”
according to their own kind” should challenge the way we behave toward the environment?
We make judgments in accordance with outer appearances. We think that a drunk on the streets rifling through bins is yet another fall-out from society who is probably either an alcoholic or drug addict.
But recognising them as a “Soul with a body” rather than “A body with a soul”
encourages empathy. Tat soul is lost and may be damaged and in need of hope.
If we simply see a human as a body with a soul, we are tempted to judge the soul by its body, but seeing a human as a soul with a body challenges to see soul that is groaning with longing to be loved, appreciated and saved.
If we apply the same principle to the rest of Creation, rather than carelessly treading on a Creature we see it as bearing the hall mark of God its Creator with a purpose and role in Creation. It is not there to be wantonly damaged and abused. That cliff face is a Creature bearing the hallmark of God its Creator which happens to have the “body” of rock and sand which has taken millions of years to make. It is there
to cherish not to be abused and exploited.
St Paul in his letter read today writes in vv 20-22, “For the Creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole Creation has been groaning as in the pains
of childbirth right up to the present time.”
Like Jesus, Paul uses the image of the pains of child- birth to describe the anguish of Creation. The Earth is crying out waiting for liberation.
V 20: “For the Creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it.”
What does he mean by that? Look to Gen 3: 17
“Cursed is the ground because of you.”
Who is God talking to? Adam!
Rom 8: 13 “For the Creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.”
Waiting upon whom and how will this liberation be effected?
Look to Isaiah for the Messianic hope. Isaiah 11: 6-9: “The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together;
and a little child will lead them.The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down
together,
and the lion will eat straw
like the ox.The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.”
Creation restored and the curse lifted.
When does this happen? Paul answers, “ Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” When v 19, “the children of God are revealed.”
Who are the “children of God”, they are God’s people who by virtue of their status value every aspect of God’s craftsmanship.
Conclusion
Could it be that the earthquake in Turkey is a result of Adam’s curse? Maybe, maybe not, but I certainly believe from scripture that such things are not what God intended.
I had the enormous privilege of being present of the birth of all four of my children.
Although I can certainly say that I shared in the anxieties and tension leading up to the birth of each child, I certainly
cannot say that I shared in the pain of delivering them.
I wouldn’t blame any woman going through such an experience for at least questioning the wisdom of God’s Providence at some stage in the proceedings, but as we are reminded that pain in child birth was not God’s original intention either, but after the screaming the baby is born and peaceful bonding between the sleeping baby and its mother starts.
There will come a time when such things will no longer be. The re-birth will have happened and the curse against the earth because of humankind’s rebellion will be lifted and the true children of God revealed.
We are children of God although we are all very definitely a work in progress. I long for the day of my complete healing and restoration, but in the meantime we can all do
something to change how we view the world.
God’s care for us, Jesus teaches is evidenced by His care and sustenance of Creation, but let us think how seriously we take our “duty of care” as “rulers” over God’s Creation?
I want to challenge you this week to see every human being and every Creature as bearing the hallmark of God Himself and just see how that
alters the way you view things.
Amen