Flash Forward

This Sunday I will begin a series "On Being Human." The text for the sermon with the same title as the series is Genesis 1:26-31, and is the well-known passage about humans being made "in the image of God." The question is, what does the "image of God" mean and if we can discover what it means, how does it apply to our lives? The discoveries we have made about our biology, genetics, pathology, treatment have huge potential but are also accompanied by huge ethical questions. This has led to the field of Bioethics. In order to make moral decisions we need to have an understanding of what it means to be human. This understanding will not then provide easy answers for difficult questions, but at least it will provide a grounding from which to address these issues. As followers of Jesus, we need more than the "soundbite" discussion that one hears in the media. I hope that this series will provide a vehicle for us to think more deeply and faithfully about what it means to be human and the ramifications of this in the way that we live and die.