Relational Eikons

How does your small group relate to Adam and Eve? This morning, I was reading some thoughts from Scot McKnight about the story of God and our place in it. Genesis 1:26-27 says this:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

The word for "image" in those verses corresponds to the Greek word Eikon. We were created in the image of God to be icons of him — incomplete but faithful reflections of a bigger, grander, more perfect being. But what parts of our being are Eikonic? That is, which parts of us reflect the nature of God, and which parts are just baggage? Just so much blood and tissue? And is it even possible to separate the divine from the carnal? Here's what McKnight says about that:

To be an Eikon means, first of all, to be in union with God as Eikons; second, it means to be in communion with other Eikons; and third, it means to participate with God in his creating, his ruling, his speaking, his naming, his ordering, his variety and beauty, his location, his partnering, and his resting…To be an Eikon means to be in relationship.

Of course, Genesis 1:26-27 is followed closely and mercilessly by Genesis 3. That's when conflict entered our story. That's when our enemy attacked everything it means to be an Eikon — our relationships with God, with one another, and with his kingdom reign. Now we are cracked Eikons. We offer inadequate reflections God's glory to a world at odds with his reign.

All that made me think of small groups. Our mission in Small Groups at IBC is to grow deep relationships that advance the kingdom of God in dark places. We are to be on mission together to restore little pieces of our universe that were ruined in Genesis 3. And it occurred to me this morning that those relationship we're building are, themselves, the kingdom. If being Eikons means being in relationship, and if what was cracked in the Fall was relationships, then the Missio Dei can be defined by restored relationships. To the extent that we bring light and health to our relationships with other Eikons, we are helping restore the kingdom reign of God in the world.

One other thing McKnight emphasizes is that this Eikonic restoration is prosecuted by the Holy Spirit. He is leading our charge — opening opportunities for us, revealing the cracks in our reflections, sending us to serve the broken world, calling us to deeper love. Our success in our mission does not correlate to our church attendance, the quality of our training, our allegiance to pastoral leadership, our copious sermon notes, or our agreement to any model of group life. Our success in the mission of God depends on our following the Holy Spirit's lead.

We may never bring Eden back, but if we'll allow the Holy Spirit to deepen our relationships, we can bring light to darkness, joy to despair, health to illness, and the kingdom reign of God to dark places in our world.