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The holiness of God and the demand it places on the lives of God’s people is what
initially called and continues to empower me for work in both the academy and domestic mission
fields. After encountering the transformative holiness1 of God at age 17, I was never the same
again. This experience triggered within me a pursuit to discover my true identity, rooted in the
image of God. As I began to discover the gifts God had given me in community, I could not help
but seek ways to participate in God’s action in the world – that is God’s mission. I did not have
these words to describe my experience, but coming to understand my identity in God for the first
time allowed me to accomplish work in the kingdom of God that I never imagined possible.
Churches today in North America often suffer from a lack of identity, both individually and
collectively. Because of this, many churches consider mission something to check off of their todo-list, when it should be the very thing that shapes who they are as a community. Many have
encountered God’s transformative holiness in the way I have briefly alluded to, but few churches
have been able to discover their God-given images in order that they may more fully participate
in God’s ruling action in the world. Some churches lack the kind of community necessary to
educe these realities, while others severely underestimate humanity’s role in God’s mission. The
Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 58-61. This is well illustrated by what Wright
calls the indicative imperative. For example, because God has shown mercy (i.e., delivering
1
Israel out of bondage), Israel shall obey God’s covenant. Also, “Lev 19:2, ‘be holy because, I the
Lord your God am holy’ shows that these commandments are founded on indicatives about the
identity, uniqueness, singularity and holiness of YHWH as God” (59). Because God is holy, this
must be evident in the people of God. Because God engages with creation, so will the people of
God.
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following theology of ministry suggests a framework for Christians and church communities to
become co-workers in the kingdom of God. This is a theology I hope to both develop and bring
forth in the academy setting in a way that benefits the church, and it is something that will be
foundational in my future church planting and community building ministries.
In the story of the burning bush, even a limited presence of God demands holiness. When
God calls Moses in Exodus, non-living elements are made holy by the mere presence of Yahweh.
There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.
Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will
go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the LORD saw
that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your
sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:2-5)
Yahweh’s holiness is so great that his sheer presence permeates the soil around him and makes
the dirt at Moses’ feet holy. Yahweh’s presence has the same affect on His people. Only, in our
case, the transformation requires love, forgiveness, purging, judgment, and the issuing of
righteousness. Yahweh’s transformative holiness can sometimes raise questions about a
perceived “paradox” in his character. Yahweh is abounding in love and forgiveness, but his very
nature changes the environment around him. Because of Yahweh’s transformative presence,
intimacy with this God requires change – change so radical that Yahweh warns Moses not to
come any closer. This is the why the people of Israel must undergo the painstaking processes of
building the tabernacle; much is required for an unholy people to be able to travel with such a
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holy God. Yahweh is a God of love and he is also a God of justice. The two qualities are
inseparable, and as a result, God’s issuing of judgment and righteousness in the Hebrew
Scriptures makes manifest God’s love and faithfulness, because it is necessary to restore right
relationships between Yahweh and humankind.
This is the bottom line for the church’s mission today: to restore relationship between
God and creation. This is the reason for Moses’ calling: to free God’s people, under the
instruction of Yahweh, from the world’s bondage in order to be reconciled to God. The exodus
event is paralleled in the New Testament by Jesus’ death and resurrection. In Christ, we are no
longer slaves to sin, but servants of a holy God.
Like Moses, I have encountered the Holy One and can do nothing else but fight to free
God’s people. Over the years, this has led me to pursue a better understanding of God’s
relationship to creation and how God might use humanity for the sake of preserving and
redeeming that relationship. Arriving at clearer understandings about these relationships can help
the church and the academy work together in the task of moving the world towards right
relationship with its Creator. After experiencing God in this way, God’s holiness begins to
transform Moses in a way that leads to increased participation with the Divine.
MOSES’ PARTICIPATION WITH GOD
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Encountering God in my teen years propelled me to join in what I perceived as God’s
purposes, as it did Moses when he encountered God in the burning bush. The introduction above
implies that something of God (in the example – God’s holiness) is transferred to the persons
who cross paths with the Divine and that this something requires change for the one who
receives it. This change moves created beings towards right relationship with God. What kind of
change then specifically takes place between the human and the Divine? Here, I have suggested
that because the ground at Moses’ feet was made holy by the presence of God in the burning
bush, God’s presence also had a similar effect on Moses – an encounter that drew him into God’s
ruling action in creation. As the narrative continues, after Moses’ encounter, his participation
with Yahweh begins to elevate. First, Yahweh convinces Moses to accept his calling. Soon after,
Yahweh gives him miracles to perform before Pharaoh and Egypt. At Sinai, Moses has the
audacity to talk down Yahweh’s anger and eventually speaks with him face to face, as he
becomes the mediator of the covenant. While we can only speculate about the internal changes in
Moses, he is clearly being drawn into deeper participation with God’s actions as a result of his
encounter with Yahweh. As the narrative progresses, it is as if Moses’ actions are beginning to
image those of God with increasing levels of similarity. My theology of ministry suggests that
this progression of participation should be operative with all of God’s people via the image of
God. This process does not necessarily require a “burning bush” type of encounter with the
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divine. In a church context, it can begin following any sort of meaningful contact with the
Divine.
PATICIPATING WITH GOD AND PSALM 8
Below is my translation of Ps 8 that illustrates this progression of participation with
God.2
2) Yahweh our Lord
How majestic is your name in all the earth!
May I serve your victory in the heavens!
3) You founded a stronghold (to guard) from the mouths of Sucking Babes,3
on account of your harassers, to put an end to the Avenging Enemy.
4) For I see your heavens, the works of your fingers,
moon and stars which you affixed.
5) What is humankind that you remember it,
or the son of humanity that you get involved with him?
6) Yet you made him little less than a divine being,
and you will crown him with glory and majesty.
7) You will make him rule over the works of your hands.
All of them, you put under his feet.
8) Sheep and cattle, all of them.
And even the beasts of the field.
9) Birds of the sky and the fish of the sea
The one who crosses the paths of the seas.4
2
This translation is a product of my current work on my MA Old Testament thesis.
Further explanations and citations are available upon request – some are available on my
portfolio.
3
The hendiadys of babes and the ones who suck (ynqm) in the MT refer to the goodly
gods of CTA 23, “the cosmic foes, known also to be children of the god El, [who] devour all the
beasts of the cosmos and are remanded to the desert for seven // eight years until they are
allowed into the sown region.” From Mark Smith, “Psalm 8:2b-3 New Proposals for Old
Problems,” Old Testament Essays 8 (1995): 639.
4
Here the singular masculine participle (translated substantively) ‘br, “the one who
crosses,” provides a good parallel with the masculine plural participle ynqm, “the ones who suck,”
to represent the most famous cosmic foe of Chaos – the sea monster.
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10) Yahweh our lord
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
My translation suggests that in v. 2 the psalmist praises God and expresses his desire to
participate in Yahweh’s fight against his enemies - the forces of chaos and death. In the story of
the burning bush, Moses dare not step closer, in fear of what might become of him in the
presence of God. In these opening lines, the psalmist declares his desire to take another step
closer to God, in order that – like Moses – his participation in God’s action might increase.5 In
vv. 3-4, the composer of the psalm depicts Yahweh’s creative power, evoking the creation stories
of God, or as Ps 74 puts it, the “King [who] is from of Old” (Ps 74:12, cf. 13-17 NRSV), in which
Yahweh defeats cosmic foes of chaos in order to establish a created order. In v. 5 he wonders
what role might humanity play in all of this. In vv. 6-7, the psalmist recalls that human kind was
made in the image of God, but still waits to become the anointed of Yahweh – to be crowned
with glory and majesty in order that they may eventually rule over the works of Yahweh’s hands.
In this expectation of future honor, the psalmist takes note of what God has and has not yet
placed under his feet, starting with what God gave humanity to rule over in Gen 1 and moving
towards the creatures out of his reach. These include sheep and cattle, even the wild beasts, and
perhaps to some extent birds and fish as well. One day However (similar to Ps 89), Yahweh, as
he “spoke in a vision to [his] faithful one” (Ps 89:19), will “set his [anointed’s] hand on the Sea”
5
I am not suggesting that the author necessarily had Moses in mind. The burning bush
episode is primarily serving as an illustration.
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(Ps 89:25), so that he too – with Yahweh’s help – might have authority over “the one who crosses
the paths of the seas” (Ps 8:9b) in the same way that Yahweh “crushed Rahab like a carcass [and]
scattered [his] enemies with [his] mighty arm” (Ps 89:10). Whether or not Ps 8:9b is actually a
reference to Yahweh’s watery cosmic foe, the poetry does seem to hint at the extension of
humanity’s rule over larger and more chaotic beings.6 If not Leviathan or Rahab, one might
compare this sea crosser to the likes of whale – perhaps of similar nature to the sea creature in
the book of Jonah.
This summary of my analysis of Ps 8 illustrates humanity’s desire to follow in the
footsteps of the anointed (e.g. Moses or David) – to participate with God – a status that was
previously reserved for God’s covenant with the divinely appointed king or line of kings,7 as in
Ps 89. In the absence of a divinely appointed king, Ps 8 seems to function as a kind of response
to Ps 89:38-52, which laments that God has rejected his anointed (v. 38) and “defiled his crown
in the dust” (v. 39). If the author of Ps 8 is attempting to provide an answer to this kind of lament,
Richard Whitekettle, “Taming the Shrew, Shrike, and Shrimp: The Form and Function
of Zoological Classification in Psalm 8,” JBL 125 (2006): 764.
6
7
In Second Isaiah, in the absence of a Davidic ruler, the attributes of Yahweh’s chosen
representative are applied to the people at large. For example, in Isa 43:15, Yahweh is both
Creator and King, and Israel (v. 10) is now Yahweh’s servant – no longer the ideal Davidite.
Admittedly, these connections require much further research, something I have been unable to do
at this point.
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then whom exactly does God intend to anoint? The Near Eastern concept of the image of God
advances this discussion and sheds some light on how the author of a text like Ps 8 (within the
framework I have suggested), might conceive of his or her elevated participation with the divine.
PARTICIPATING WITH GOD AS IMAGES OF GOD
God’s designation of humanity as God’s images in light of Gen 1, Ps 8, and the Near
Eastern concept of the “image of God” provide a very compelling call to participate in what God
is doing. In the Ancient Near East, the “image of God” referred to the deity’s appointed king,8 in
which the god’s “image” (usually a king) was granted god-like authority. This type of relationship
is mirrored in Psalms 2 and 110,9 in which God gives power to the king to rule with Yahweh’s
authority. The universal application of the image of God at creation in Gen 1:26-27 is a
development called the “democratization of kingship,” in which the power of the king is
dispersed throughout the kingdom.10 Therefore Ps 8, by echoing Gen 1:26-27, evokes not only
dominion over animals but also the authority to rule in creation as God’s chosen representatives.
This is why the psalmist considers the prospect of ruling over the “the one who crosses the paths
8
John Levenson, Creation and the persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine
Omnipotence (New York: Harper Collins, 1988), 114.
9
Richard J. Middleton, “Created in the image of a violent God? The Ethical Problem of
the Conquest of Chaos in Biblical Creation texts,” Interpretation 58 (2004): 348.
10
Richard J. Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Grand
Rapids: Brazos Press, 2005), 204-218. See also Second Isaiah.
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of the seas” (Ps 8:9b; perhaps Leviathan, Rahab, or a fierce whale – as the representation of
chaos and evil in the world) – something well beyond the sphere of typical human action. The
psalmist desires to be able to serve in this arena (“May I serve your victory in the heavens!” Ps
8:2c) – something that Ps 89 suggests was on offer to the line of David.
When God creates humankind in the “image of God,” God’s authority no longer rests on
anointed individuals, but is distributed to all of humanity. If this is true, however, it may follow
that God actually created a race of divine images perhaps destined to fight for power. In order to
avoid this hypothetical debacle, these images – stamped with God’s ruling authority – must learn
to live in community with one another. Conceptualizing a community of God’s images today
brings this discussion to the community of God, namely the church. If God has created humans
in God’s image as individuals, how should these individual images function as a community in
relationship to God’s ruling activity in the world? How can humans image God both individually
and communally? And accordingly, how can I, as a leader in the church, harness this God-given
power in order to guide and disciple individuals and communities? I find the answer in God’s
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communal rein, made manifest on earth through God’s “economy of grace,” which helps form
communities that image the Trinity – the divine model for perfect loving relationships.11
THE IMAGE OF GOD, THE ECONOMY OF THE GRACE, AND THE TRINITY
The principles of “democratization” and “image of God” are actually not far from the
minds of the New Testament writers. In Eph 4:1-16, God’s grace is given not merely for the
redemption of humanity, but it is also distributed (i.e. democratized) to empower each individual
to mature in the body of Christ as his ministers, equippers, builders, and unifiers.12
But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift … The gifts he
gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. (Eph 4:7, 11-13 NRSV)
11
Craig Van Gelder and Dwight J. Zscheile, The Missional Church in Perspective:
Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 54-55,
120-123. Some whiplash is necessary here, as there is not space to unpack the theological
rationale for some of these principles. On 120-123 there is a concise description of the social
implications for the social Trinity and its relationship to the imago Dei. On 54 they write, “All
three persons of the divine community mutually indwell one another in a relational unity while
maintaining their distinct identities.” As God’s images, this points to the now but not yet nature
of the body of Christ as the church.
12
This concept of distributive grace, as God-given gifts for the edification of the body, or
household, of Jesus is what Kent Smith calls the “economy of grace” in “The Economy of Grace:
An Early Christian Take on Vulnerable Mission,” Missio Dei 4 (2013): 21-32. This concept is
strikingly similar to the democratization of kingship and the image of God suggested by
Middleton in The Liberating Image.
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Christ’s gift is distributed to all – similar to the way God has distributed authority to God’s
images. God gave Jesus all authority as the perfect representation or image (e.g. 2 Cor 4:4; Col
1:15) of the Father. Jesus, however, by means of the resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit
has distributed (i.e. democratized) that authority to all in the form of spiritual gifts, “some as
prophets, some as evangelists [etc.]… for building up the body of Christ until all of us come to
… the measure of the full stature of Christ.” This is how God’s images live in community. God
gives grace freely in order that God’s people may become God’s human representatives on earth.
In this way, God’s grace functions as a commissioning for the receiver to become and carry out
the kind of good that God wants to see on the planet. This distribution of grace for the purposes
of God’s reign is what Kent Smith calls the “economy of grace (or God’s operating system),” in
which God’s grace fuels the economy of God on earth, i.e. the church. Accordingly, Churches
(i.e. God’s collections of images) ought to function as the stewards of God’s will and as co-
workers in the kingdom of God. God’s grace is bestowed upon each person, both healing and
calling them to join the body of Christ so the church can rightfully become the bride of Christ,
assisting him in reconciling all of creation back to God’s self.
In this way, the distribution of royal authority communicated by the image of God is
placed it in the context of the body of Christ – God is continually building up the church to
become God’s image bearers. Having received both graces of healing and vocation, the members
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of the church can work together as one body, in order to accomplish the work of God in their
community. Each recipient has been called to do the work of the Giver, and it is each individual’s
job to bring out the full potential in one another in order to carry out God’s work. When the
church participates in this great mystery, the members will begin to see themselves as a “real
family.”13 When this happens,
The church represents through its way of being community together a limited and
provisional but powerful glimpse of what it means to be human in God’s image. In this
manner, the church as a communion of persons sharing an interdependent, reciprocal life
of mutuality, concealed in Christ and united by the Spirit, shows forth something of
God’s own nature to the world.14
This “real family” is the image of the triune community of God’s self and a foretaste of the
eschatological community at the consummation of God’s reign. Therefore, “the image of God is
not a static set of individual attributes or a fixed nature, but rather an eschatological reality that
shapes the church’s identity and mission.”15
The church is a sign of God’s coming reign. God’s images display this both as individuals
and community, as they begin to image/become the body of Christ. As the church images the
13
Smith, 29.
Van Gelder and ZscheileIbid, 54-55.
15
Van Gelder and Zscheile, 121.
14
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Trinity, it can also begin to emulate its sending/missional nature in the world.16 “The classical
doctrine of the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son
sending Spirit is expanded to include yet another ‘movement’: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
sending the church into the world.”17
It is remarkable to consider God’s involvement with Moses in light of the humble human
experience. “What is humankind that you remember it, or the son of humanity that you get
involved with him?” (Ps 8:5). It is a wonder that God decided to make room for humanity, let
alone crown it with glory and honor to act as God’s representatives. If the church becomes the
incarnation of the Triune Community on earth, the body – formed by a collective of God’s
images – will be equipped to join in God’s mission.
IMPLICATIONS
As the leader of a future church community, mission is not something that I must add to
my to-do-list. The church’s mission is what God is up to in the world. Yahweh had a mission to
free Israel from the bondage of Egypt, into which he called Moses to participate. The initiative
16
David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission
(Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1991), 547.
17
Ibid.
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belonged to God, not Moses. As a future leader of a church, I must learn to participate in God’s
initiative, leading people into God’s grand narrative to reconcile all of humanity to God’s self –
as they themselves are reconciled. Because this is first of all God’s mission, the church must
learn how to participate in what God is doing before it manifests an agenda of its own.18
In order for me to help a church to discern how we will participate in God’s mission, I
must first help its members reclaim their God-given graces as images of the Creator, so that they
literally become the kind of good that God wants to see on the planet. This is how the church
becomes the city on the hill and the light to the world. This begins by discovering the individual
gifts of the members of the church body in order to use them as fuel for God’s mission in the
community. By doing so, God’s people – as they are built up into the body of Christ – are able to
participate in God’s ruling action in the world and become co-workers in God’s mission by
means of their election as the images of God in the kingdom of heaven. As a servant in God’s
kingdom, my task is to lead a church that is able to function as the hub for this transformation –
where God’s people help one another identify their God-given “images” and allow their Creator
to transform them (collectively and individually) into God’s appointed kingdom workforce.
18
Wright, 58-61.
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LORD, our Lord, may I serve your victory in the heavens, as I team with you to restore
relationships between you and your creation. Amen.