The Obsolete Man (And Woman, and Child, and Baby, and Race)” 1 Peter 2:17 18 January 2015
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“The Obsolete Man (and Woman, and Child, and Baby, and Race)” 1 Peter 2:17 18 January 2015 What would you do if your government said that you had no value, no worth, no dignity and therefore you were obsolete? What would you do if your government said that it was going to dispose of you? Rod Serling tackled this in an episode of The Twilight Zone called “The Obsolete Man.” In this episode, Burgess Meredith, as expected, puts in a stellar performance as Romney Wordsworth, a man deemed obsolete by his country. Here’s a synopsis from Wikipedia- In a future totalitarian America, Romney Wordsworth is a man put on trial for the crime of being obsolete. His occupation as a librarian is a crime punishable by death as the State has eliminated books and literature. He believes in God, a crime also punishable by death, as the State claims to have proven that there is no God. He is prosecuted by the Chancellor, who announces in front of the assembled court that Wordsworth, in not being an asset to the State, shall be liquidated. After being convicted, Wordsworth is allowed to choose his method of execution. He cryptically requests that he be granted a personal assassin to whom he may privately disclose his preferred method of execution. He also requests that his execution be televised nationwide. Thinking that the spectacle will help show the public what happens when citizens become of no use to the State, the court grants both requests. A television camera is installed in Wordsworth's study to broadcast his final hours and execution live to the nation. He summons the Chancellor, who arrives at exactly 11:16 p.m. After some discussion, Wordsworth reveals to the Chancellor that his chosen method of execution is by a bomb set to go off in his room at midnight. He explains that the reaction to imminent execution that will interest the public is not his own but the Chancellor's, as the door is locked and there is no one outside to help the Chancellor escape. He intends to show the nation how a spiritual man faces death, and proceeds to read from his illegal, long- hidden copy of the Bible (in particular, Psalm 23 and Psalm 59). He also points out that, as the events are being broadcast live, the State would risk losing its status in the eyes of the people by trying to rescue the Chancellor. As the time draws to a close, Wordsworth's calm acceptance of death stands in sharp contrast with the Chancellor's increasing panic. Moments before the bomb explodes, the Chancellor desperately begs to be let go "in the name of God". Wordsworth says that "in the name of God" he will release the Chancellor immediately, which he does. The Chancellor bursts out of the room and down the stairs just as the bomb explodes and kills Wordsworth, who in his last seconds of life, stands tall and has a facial expression of peace and satisfaction. In the final scene, the Chancellor returns to the courtroom to discover that his own subaltern has replaced him and that he himself is now obsolete: "You have disgraced the State. You have proven yourself a coward. You have, therefore, no function." Immediately convicted, the former Chancellor screams as the crowd in the courtroom apprehends him. He continues to plead with the court, insisting that he is in fact not obsolete and wishes only to serve the State, as the crowd appears to kill him. What do you do when you are told that you have no value, no worth, no dignity as a human being and therefore you are obsolete? You run to the Bible. You run to Jesus. Because Jesus tells us, that no matter what we do or have ever done, we are valued, we have worth. God’s word clearly tells us that we bear the image of the Triune God precisely because the Triune God is our Creator. As human beings, we are the image of God, the image of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But that’s not how we typically see humanity. We tend, especially in the church, to see ourselves as no good, worms, awful sinners, etc. True, we are sinners. That is very true. There is no denying that, no getting around that. We are sinners. We are all born sinners and rebels against God. But we have value because God made us and He made us in His image. African-American actress and blues, jazz, and gospel singer Ethel Waters knew this. Though she was conceived in rape, she is credited with saying, “I know I am somebody ‘cause God don’t make no junk.” And that’s our big idea today as we talk about the value, worth, and dignity of human beings- GOD DON’T MAKE NO JUNK. As human beings we are made in God’s image- we are not junk! We have value. We have worth- even though we are sinners. That’s why Peter says in 1 Peter 2:17, “Honor everyone…” We are called to honor every human being because we are made in the image of God. So since today is “Sanctity of Life Sunday” we’re going to use this phrase in 1 Peter 2:17, “Honor everyone…” as a springboard to see why we are called to stand as God’s people against God-dishonoring things like abortion, and human trafficking, and terrorism, and child abuse, and spousal abuse, and bullying, and racism, and slavery. And next week we’ll circle back to verse 13 and Peter will tell us why and how we can submit to a government that allows the killing of unborn babies. We’ll see how and why we can submit to a government that does many God-dishonoring things. That’s next week. But today we’re going to see why Peter could command us to honor everyone. And the reason why we should honor every human being, regardless of what they do or say or how they live or what their political affiliation is- the reason we should honor every person is because every human being is made in the image of God. In fact, Peter begins verse 17 by saying, “honor everyone” and he ends verse 17 by saying, “honor the emperor.” This means that we are called to treat every single person with dignity and respect because every person is made in God’s image. That’s what God’s word says in Genesis 1:26-27… Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. So what does it mean that we are made in the image and likeness of God? First, let me give you a picture. When you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror, you think, “Wow. I look good.” We don’t think that do we? We think, “Wow. I look terrible.” But then we take a shower and we “fix” ourselves up and then we look in the mirror and usually we like the way we look. Or, at least there are some days that we stare at our reflection a little longer because our hair is just how we want it, or our outfit pleases us, you know like those days when you post a selfie to social media? Those days. Those days when you feel good about how you look. We feel good about ourselves those days. We have at least a few of those days, right? But the reflection that we see in the mirror that we either like or dislike depending on our hair or our outfit is, that reflection is not us. It’s just a reflection of us. The real us is standing in front of the mirror, the real us gets in the car, the real us drives to work, the real us grieves when the Dallas Cowboys get robbed by a ridiculous, very subjective phrase like “football move.” Sorry, but the “real me” is still a little bitter that the referee’s decision got turned over in last week’s playoff game. Our reflection does not do those things. Our reflection does not get upset at the results of a football game, it’s us who get upset. That’s what it means to be the image of God. We are just a reflection of Him, but we are not Him. We are not God, we just reflect Him. The Hebrew phrases in our image, in his own image, in the image of God that Moses uses in Genesis 1:26-27 could be rendered, “Let us make man as our image” {e.g. Exodis 6:3}. I think that’s the better way to translate the Hebrew preposition here. So to be the image of God means that we are God’s representatives in this world. We live as human beings who are His representatives. And that’s precisely the idea behind the Hebrew word for “image” {selem}. This word was used throughout the ancient Near East for models, statues, images, and replicas. As kings conquered lands they would set up statues of themselves in the lands that they had brought under their control.