“Born in the Image.  Choosing the Likeness”     

Saturday afternoon after Br Barry Donaghue’s Presentation

My friend Anna is a Buddhist who has been exploring Christian beliefs.  She is a retired teacher, a keen volunteer who lives in Sydney but spends about one third of each year in Korea caring for elderly relatives. This afternoon I sent her a photo I had taken of one of Brother Barry’s visuals because it referred to a teaching of the Zen master who Anna refers to as “my teacher”. Brother Barry was exploring the topic “Born in the Image.  Choosing the Likeness”. Zen Mater Sanu Sunim says “Your True Self is who you are objectively from the beginning in the mind and heart of God, ‘the face you had before you were born.’     This resonates with Jeremiah 1:5, God says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you; and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

I was sorry that Anna was not with me this morning as Br Barry, among other things, unrolled a fresh, well translated and scholarly account of the life of Jesus, emphasising that we were looking at the life of a real human who needed to learn from experience and from others, not some shallow pretend human performing magical cures.

What is our image of God, we are made in God’s image, yes, but what does that mean to me? God, judgemental, gendered, distant? Trinitarian, relational, deeply understanding of what it is to be human, perhaps having that tender fierce love of a parent for a newborn? Depending on the answer, what is my response?

Had she been there Anna would have a fresh and real insight in what is really is to be a Christian.