Human Iives matter.
This weekend has given the world a sobering reminder - as the violence that whirls around different countries, found bloody expression in a nightclub in a major America city. At around 2 o'clock in the morning on Sunday, a gunman opened fire in 'Pulse' a gay Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on a bunch of human beings presumably doing whatever it is that people do in nightclubs at 2am. I;ve been in a few nightclubs at 2am in the morning - and most people re dancing, some talking, many drinking, and a few doing things of a 'romantic' nature.
I've never seen anyone die in a nightclub.
The reason that this Orlando shooting is so shocking is not just the scale, the numbers, or the targeting of one community, or even the ease with which someone acquired weapons and used them in a civilian context. The reason that it is shocking is because peaceful people were shot and killed by another persona.
I was at a wonderful theological conference in Bristol on Saturday, I went home with a full heart and then woke up with the news of Orlando scrolling across my screens. I was speaking on something foundational.
In Genesis 1:27, at the very beginning of the Bible, we read:
"So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them"
So far, so normal. I've written about it before, when the Image of God is broken, abused, and beaten, and then noted what happens to LGBT people in the misguided name of religion, by sinful people misunderstanding other sinful people and wreaking violence upon them.
I believe that every single human being is made in the Image of God. I believe that this gives each of us innate and inherent value, regardless of our actions or behaviour or thoughts or hopes - even as I believe in the inherent sinfulness and falleness of us all. Every one of those 50 human beings shot dead in Pulse was made in the Image of God - and was beautiful and valuable in their own individuality. The shooter, who is also dead, was made in the image of God. Yet the idea, the notion, the doctrine of the Image of God, biblically speaking, does not merely extend to the valuing of people.
In Genesis 9:5-6, after the cataclysmic and universal events of the Genesis 3 'Fall' of Humantiy, we read:
"And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
“Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind"
This is why murder is wrong. This is why people shouldn't kill people. This is why what the shooter did was wrong - but it is also not the end of the story.
Human lives matter. Right after the fall, right after humanity has deliberately and provocatively and knowledgeably and ignorantly turned away from God - as all of us do, each and every day, in a myriad of ways - the value of human beings is affirmed and recognised.
The fall affects everything. It lets death into the world. Yet something endures. A hope for more. A hope for justice. And wrapped up in the enigmatic words of Genesis is a promise of a future, of another man, who's blood is shed and who dies.
The New Testament uses the language of the 'Image of God', too. There are discussion around gender - but that isn't what I'm talking about today. In Colossians 1, the apostle Paul writes;
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross"
In this passage is the beautiful truth about everything we are feeling in the light of Orlando. The created goodness of things and people - and yet the wrenching need for reconciliation and peace. We find ourselves in a world we cannot explain by ourselves. A world so full of darkness that we long for the light to break in. And it is this Jesus, this God-man, this perfect image of God, that offers us a way through the sorrow and pain. Not by flippantly brushing over the death of people in a nightclub, but by recognising that the blood of Jesus shouts loudly of the love of God for his people, the broken bleeding of a world, and the possibility of resurrection.
What happened in Orlando is terrible. There is no excuse for Christians to dumb down their condemnation of this violence, and so I am grateful to Matt Moore on his blog and Joe Carter over at TGC for their posts. We can't pretend that anyone isn't human - as my friend pointed out in his own post about life as a wheelchair user. Human lives matter.
What happened in Orlando is a symptom of the deeper malaise of Humantiy. The links to ISIS and Syria are deeper than we might dare to say.
This is a human tragedy. Because human beings killed human beings, shedding blood of those who bear the image of God.
What if there were another Way?
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