They had thought God was on their side. They thought they were God’s favorites. Of course, they understood there would be some consequences if they went too far in violating God’s law, but they did not believe God would ever allow what had happened.

The people of Judah, especially in Jerusalem, had heard the warnings of preachers such as Jeremiah and Isaiah, but they could not bring themselves to take the warnings seriously. After all, God had delivered their people from slavery in Egypt. God had made a covenant with them and given them the commandants. God had sent David and made them into a united people.

Of course, they had to admit things had sort of fallen apart since then. The northern part of the kingdom, the part known as Israel, had been conquered, and between death and assimilation into other cultures Israel had ceased to exist. Only the southern part, Judah, had remained. But surely God would not wipe out this part of his people also.

But then the Babylonians came. And Judah was not only defeated, but the major cities and communities were destroyed, and God only knows how many were killed. Not only that, but there is no telling how many survivors were captured and marched into captivity in Babylon.

It was these captives in Babylon I was talking about at the beginning of this sermon. They could not believe what had happened. They thought God was on their side. They thought they were God’s favorites.

I suspect there are many of us who can understand what those exiles were feeling. Many of us have had bad things happen to us, to our families, to our situation in life. We have been told all our lives that God dearly loves us, but then the bad times, sometimes even terrible times, hit us, and like those prisoners from Judah we begin to wonder. We wonder about God.

Does God really care? Is God really God, or is all our God-talk merely some sort of human whistling in the dark?

The exiles wondered. How could God call them the chosen people and still allow what had happened? Their nation had been brutally conquered. Their cities were piles of rubble. Unknown numbers of men, women and children had died of hunger or disease during sieges, or been slaughtered when the cities fell. And when final defeat had come, hundreds, perhaps thousands, had been marched all the way from Jerusalem to Babylon to live the lives of captives.

Were the gods of the Babylonians stronger than their God, Yahweh? When Israelites had conquered other nations they had claimed the reason was because their God, Yahweh, was the true God. Now the shoe was on the other foot. Did their defeat mean that Yahweh was not the true God?

This is the situation when the magnificent poem we find in chapter one of Genesis was written. That poem was not written trying to explain how the world was created. That poem was written to proclaim and celebrate that the God worshipped by these exiles was not limited to the area of Judah and Jerusalem. In truth, He was not merely the God of the Hebrew people, but the Lord, God of all creation—even the God of the Babylonians.

The defeat of the people of Judah and the destruction of their cities was not a sign that God was not God. The bad times, the terrible times they were experiencing were not a time that called God into question, but rather a time that called their faith into question.

This powerful poem of creation celebrated and proclaimed that God created all that is, and that God declared all God had created to be good: God said: "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good [vs.3-4]. God separated the earth from the waters, created the sky, looked at all this and saw that it was good [vs. 6-10]. And the passage goes on describing all that God created and proclaiming that God declared it all to be good.

Then come the verses that we read today. God decided to create humankind, in his own image, to have dominion over the creation. This dominion was not to be a license to exploit the gift, but to be stewards of the gift, to dominate this planet the way God dominates creation. It is to dominate the way a good and responsible shepherd or farmer dominates the ranch or farm. Humankind was given the planet not to exploit it and use it up, but to be good stewards, taking care of the creation.

Now what did all this mean for those persons in captivity in Babylon who were struggling to cope with all the bad things that had happened to them?

Whatever else it may have meant to them, it was a proclamation that God was not merely their God. God was God of all creation, even the God of Babylon and the Babylonians. It did not matter that the Babylonians were unaware of this truth or even denied this truth. It was nonetheless true; God is the Lord of all that is.

To be in exile from Judah did not mean to be in exile from God. God was the creator of all creation; there was nowhere they could go and not be in the presence of God. God was with them, even in their captivity in Babylon.

In Babylon, there were many gods that were worshipped, and there were all sorts of carved statues and molded images of these gods. And because the gods of the Babylonians were so visible, and because Babylon was rich and powerful, it was tempting to believe that their gods must be the real gods. But if the people of Judah who were in captivity were the least bit faithful to their religious heritage, they knew it was wrong to worship these images. The ten commandments made it clear that it was a futile and terrible error to try to center one’s living around anything that was made by humans. The Hebrew people were clear that God was not a god who could be contained in anything human made or anything human designed.

Now this poem declared in a clear way that the God who really is God is GOD of all that is—even Babylon and the Babylonians. This means God could be and was at work in their midst—even in those sad, terrible times. God was with them, and would be with them regardless of where they were or what they were going through.

This was true for them, and it was also true for the Babylonians. God is the God of all humanity.

But as later chapters in the Book of Genesis make clear, while God is always with us human beings, we have the freedom not to be with God. We can reject our place as God’s stewards of creation and try to become like God, just as Adam and Eve did in the story we can read in chapter three of Genesis. And the sad but true fact is that this is what we do, and when we do, we find ourselves alienated from God, who is nevertheless with us.

God is God of all creation, even the God of the Babylonians who have either never heard of God or who refuse to believe in God, and God is also the God of the people from Judah—even those who have followed the examples of Adam and Eve, even those like Cain who have murdered their brother Abel.

And there is one thing more I want to point out from this amazing poem that was written to proclaim the God-ness of God to the Hebrew captives in Babylon. Humankind, male and female, has been created in the image of God.

What was the poet trying to tell us? This poet lived at a time when he would have known the ten commandments. He would have known the command that we humans are not even to try to create anything in the image of God. So, what was he saying?

He was saying, "We cannot discover what God is like by looking at the stuff that humans have made to build their lives around. Only God can show us what God is like. And what is God like? We human beings have been created in the image of God.

If you can see the best that is in human beings you will catch a glimpse of what God is like. If you can catch a glimpse of what it would be like to live without sin, then you would be able to see something of what God is like. (This is part of the importance of Jesus to us.)

The poet was saying to those people in captivity surrounded by the idols of Babylon: "You want to see the image of God? Then do not look at the human made images, these statues and idols. To catch a glimpse of God, see human beings as God intended humans to be. Look for the best, the sinless best, in human beings and you will see the image of God. When you see persons, even for a moment, living as God intends them to live, there you will catch a fleeting glimpse of the image of God."

The poet was trying to tell those captives: "Not only has God created all that is and declared it good, not only is God the Lord of all creation and therefore wherever you are in life God is there, but God has also created us human beings in the image of God. Even though we may be going through terrible times, God is with us and we matter to God because, for better or worse, we are God’s representative in the world. When people look at us, what they are supposed to see, what God intends them to see, is the image of God."

What this poet of long ago was trying to communicate to those people in captivity he is also proclaiming to us as we deal with whatever we are facing. Regardless of where we are in life, God is with us; and as we deal with whatever comes our way, we are intended to live as those created in the image of God.

God, thank you for being with us—even when we find that almost impossible to believe. Forgive us our sin and transform us so we live in your image. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:

God, on this Memorial Day week end, we are aware of those men and women who have given their lives serving this nation and those who still carry scars of battle. We also remember the burden their sacrifice placed on members of their families. God, as we remember the high price so many have paid serving this nation, we experience both gratitude and grief. God, we pray for all these men and women and their families. Give them comfort, strength, and healing of body and soul.

God, we pray for the women and men who are today in harms way serving this nation. Help them be sensitive to your presence and enable them to draw upon the resources of your grace as they face whatever they must face.

And God, we pray that the leaders of this nation will make wise decisions and not waste the lives of these men and women. We pray that all leaders, not just those of our own nation, may be so guided by your invisible hand that they will be led to resolutions that will end warfare. God show them and us the way to peace and give us what we need to move in that direction.

This we pray in the name of the Prince of Peace who taught us to pray: "Our Father. ..."