God created humanity in God’s own image,
        in the divine image God created them,
            male and female God created them.

Genesis 1:27

It is always good to wake up within a short walk of the beach. Or – as is the current situation, a few paces directly ahead to the “sound” side of the island and a short hike to the Atlantic in the opposite direction.

So Max and I went to the ocean side to watch the sun come up, turning the water into a hundred tones of silver, blue, yellow, white, and purple.

After lunch we walked back with Rebekah; it was one of those brilliant sun, cool air, crashing waves, strong breeze walks. By this time the colors had shifted into myriad bright shining shards of azure, sea-green, teal, platinum, and frothy white against the backdrop of pure Carolina blue. Stained glass bursting with light.

This is a good setting to consider theology.

Max reveled in it. “What theology?” he must have been thinking. “I just enjoy this good life full on without reservation! Let’s splash! Let’s run! Let’s love love love my people!” Tail wagging, ears blown back by the wind, free to – well – dog.

But we, both of us, are thinking theology. That is why we are here for this retreat!

And we must think about theology because we were – we are, all of us – called into existence by God and stamped with God’s own image. To not know who we are is an existential crisis. And so – as I write in my short book “In God’s Image” – if we want to understand what that looks like we must look to, and get to know, Jesus (“The son is the image of the invisible God”).

It all begins with Jesus:

Everything must begin with Jesus. Or, as our speaker – Rachel Baard – put it, “Christian theology begins when Jesus asks two questions: ‘Who do people say that I am?‘ and then, ‘Who do you say that I am?'”

More properly, I guess, it begins with the response to those questions, our response to those questions.

If we accept that Jesus is God and Lord (“of one substance with God” according the Nicene Creed) then we have to join Rebekah in her well-known Brief Statement of Faith: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”!

Because without Jesus we cannot begin to know what it means to be created in the image of God; we do not know the ground on which we stand. Without our knowing, and worshipping, and serving Jesus then we are, in a very real sense, lost.

So what are we going to do? And what message do we have to share with The World?

Take a look around. This is a world that seems hell-bent on self destruction. Do we have hope? Do we have any Good News to share? – DEREK