What are you worth? Well, that might all depend on who you’re asking or what kind of relationships you’re in and under what circumstances. In the New Testament literature of the Bible this question is answered by one word: Grace. In this episode John M.G. Barclay, professor of New Testament studies at Durham University, England, connects our thoughts of human worth and God’s grace to the concept of gift and gift giving in the ancient world. As we’ll come to see, “grace” was a very common word in the ancient world, yet, it carried a lot of meaning for creating social bonds and establishing a persons worth in society. The system of gift as experienced by ancient cultures (and even in some today) differ greatly from how we perceive giving and receiving gifts in the world of modernity. And yet, the New Testament authors, like Paul the apostle, saw the Gift of God in Jesus as radically subversive to the gift system of his own day. Likewise, Paul's message of grace, when understood against this backdrop, also subverts modern notions of gift giving and human worth. The outcome of this message of God’s grace is the creation of new and powerful social identities where communities of people from different backgrounds derive their sense of worth in the world and among each other, not from any prior conditions such as achievements, ethnicity, gender, education or social class, but solely from God’s gift in Jesus.

The search for significance and security is inherent to human identity. The pull to give our lives and actions meaning is founded in the story of our origins as imagers — people made in the image of God. As imagers reflect God we realize more and more who we are and what we were made to be, but our pursuits for security and significance, apart from the Original whom we've been made, can also result in taking on an inverted form of grasping for meaning in life. This inversion of identity in the Bible is called idolatry. In this episode Richard Lints illuminates the power of idols upon human identity while also showing us the Way out of the possessive cycles that idols draw us into.

Richard Lints was Professor of Theology and provost at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary for several decades. He now serves as Consulting Theologian with Redeemer City to City.

Internationally acclaimed artist Makoto Fujimura joins our ongoing conversation about the true story of human identity as we explore the themes and reflections from his most recent book, Art + Faith: A Theology of Making. Makoto puts forth compelling and spiritually-sustaining reflections about our role in the world as makers. Makoto calls this a “theology of making”. Mako’s life experience as a studio artist in the Nihonga “Slow Art” tradition and a disciple of Kintsugi art, bring powerful and beautiful interpretations of the Biblical themes of creation, darkness, suffering, love, hope, redemption, and the "new newness”.

I’m joined in this journey by my friend Austin Ruiz. As a fellow artist, Austin sparks good dialogue with Mako for other Jesus-following-artists who are grappling with giving a Spirit-infused voice to their art in a culture crying out for meaning and healing.

Makoto’s paintings have been featured in galleries and museums worldwide including Tikotin Museum (Israel), The Huntington Library, Sato Museum (Tokyo), Vienna’s Belvedere Museum, Bentley Gallery in Arizona, and Shusaku Endo Museum in Nagasaki. Makoto Fujimura is an advocate for the arts and is the founder of the International Arts Movement, and co-founder of the Kintsugi Academy.

He is one of the first artists to paint live on stage at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall as part of an ongoing collaboration with composer and percussionist, Susie Ibarra.  Their collaborative album "Walking on Water" is released by Innova Records.

In the midst of an ever growing restless age, dominated by digitized technology and services, which know neither rest nor sleep, human identity and flourishing is continually caught in the balances of being submerged by these forces. Mark Scarlata joins us in this episode to put into perspective the rhythm God built into the universe: Sabbath Rest. In this episode we look at the multi-layered beauty of this innovative biblical concept as the path toward breaking the cycle of anxious toil, worry, and greed. The Beauty of God’s Rhythm invites everyone as people made in the image of God to celebrate the gift of Sabbath Rest as the way toward a life that puts trust over a scarcity-mindset, community over self-fulfillment, and human dignity over dehumanizing systems of toil and worth. Sabbath rest says “no” to a culture that seeks to define us by our jobs and social worth, it is an embodied act that reminds us that we are not machines but bearers of the divine image. Mark poetically describes the sabbath’s story as a “flower blossoming" throughout the Bible and eventually displays its most vibrant colors in Jesus’ Kingdom activity.

Mark Scarlata is a Tutor and Lecturer in Old Testament Studies at St. Mellitus College, London, an Anglican priest and the author of Sabbath Rest: The Beauty of God's Rhythm for a Digital Age.

“Scripture presses us to listen to the voice of God, who scripts for us an embodied life in order for us to see what he is showing us and and to share that wisdom with others. And if God created us as ritualed humans, then our exploration of rites can’t be limited to religion. If we are indeed shaped by our rituals, it includes everything.” - Human Rites, The Power of Rituals, Habits and Sacraments

The topic of this episode is human rites. Yes. You read that correctly…Rites. Professor Dru Johnson joins us today to peel back the world of ritual. He says, “It’s not quite right to say that rituals surround us. Instead, we are ritualized creatures…” Can understanding this about ourselves reveal something about how we were created to exist in this world? From wedding ceremonies to funerals, we participate regularly in ritual scripts.. Where did they come from, and by whose authority? These are some of the questions that permeate our discussion of human rites. Dru Johnson is associate professor at The Kings College in Manhattan, NY; editor of The Biblical Mind Magazine and the author of Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments.

Father and daughter duo — Andy and Amy Crouch, join me on the podcast to talk about how we can maintain our human identity in the age of tech. We source much of our discussion from Amy and Andy’s newest book, My Techwise Life: Growing Up and Making Choices in a World of Devices. This episode is brimming with thoughtful reflection, perspective shifting wisdom, and a hope-filled outlook for the tech age. As technology and our devices continue to permeate every square inch of our lives, Andy and Amy offer stimulating critiques of the assumptions that tech designers are making about our humanity when creating services and devices. All this and more causes us to ask the question: Are we being allowed to have ourselves made in the image of technology?

If you enjoyed this episode please send me an email with your feedback. It’s your encouraging words that help keep this podcast going!

“Christ is the foundation of all and so he is the foundation of nations and agriculture is the bedrock of any successful nation. We draw people back to the foundation of their lives through faith, farming, finances, and family…the productivity on the farm is just a bi-product of a heart that is transformed.” - Matthew Mbanga, Foundations For Farming

In this episode of The Imagers Podcast we return to the farm but this time our conversation of transformation, human dignity and identity comes to us from Zimbabwe. Matthew Mbanga is a Jesus following agricultural leader in Harare, Zimbabwe. Matthew shares his personal story of Discovering the Truth about Human Identity which eventually led him back to his hometown to help his community re-build their own lives through foundations first built on Christ and the Scriptures. Through a partnership with Foundations For Farming Matthew has been able to guide people toward an abundant life that reflects the image of God back into everything they do.

“Human beings were made for living in community, and it is in community that we flourish and become more fully human.”

In our search for Discovering the True Story of Human Identity we turn our focus to Community and Hospitality. Christine Pohl is our guest today to talk about these topics. With years of life experience and research on these matters professor Pohl highlights the identity shaping power of Community and Hospitality.

What sustains community? What distracts us from fully embracing the benefits of community? What can practicing hospitality teach us about being an imager? What does it reflect about God’s character? These questions and more are the focus of our conversation as we draw from the thoughtfulness and observations of Christine’s two books on these subjects: Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition and Living Into Community: Cultivating Practices that Sustain Us.

As we will see, some of the most crucial aspects of living out our human identity are found here, in community and what it can offer through the spirit of welcome to another imager.

What does it mean for God to Love a people? What does it look like for a community of people to reciprocate that love? In our first episode of the new year we are joined by Professor Jon Levenson who walks us through some of his research and reflections on God's love in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). As we'll come to see this love relationship in the Hebrew Bible takes place within an exclusive. covenantal relationship with one family: the children of Israel. Unlike popular notions of love today, the love of God is rooted in more than just a feeling or emotion but rather in covenant and service to one another. Besides his careful and reverent approach to the Hebrew Scriptures, Professor Levenson also brings a wealth of insight to this topic from both within Judaism and Ancient Near Eastern culture. This conversation is a fantastic entry point into future conversations on how the love of God shapes human identity as people made in the image of God.

In this episode we continue discovering the image of God identity in relationship to the land and specifically in the practice of farming. Noah Sanders is the author of Born Again Dirt: Farming to the Glory of God. Noah brings us into the world of farming from a Biblically conscious perspective. As we will come to see and understand, there is much for us Imagers to consider and act upon whether we are the farmer or the consumer.

Noah Sanders is a farmer, homesteader, and author who lives on a family farm in rural Alabama with his wife and 6 children. For over 10 years they have been supplying local families with natural, farm fresh

food and currently grow a diversity of vegetables in a quarter-acre intensive market garden. They use natural, no-till techniques based on God's design in creation. For many years Noah marketed his produce at the renowned Pepper Place Farmer's Market in Birmingham and now manages a subscription-based, customized, home-delivery CSA program.

Noah is also the author of Born-Again Dirt, Farming to the Glory of God. In this book he attempts to encourage Christians to think about

agriculture from a biblical worldview. He is also involved with Foundations for Farming, a ministry based out of Zimbabwe, Africa, that uses conservation agriculture to share the love of Jesus and bring hope to the poor.