Genesis 1:26-31

Sunday, February 1, 2026

The Rev. Megan Collins

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In the 5th grade, there was one thing I wanted more than anything else in the world. I wanted to be a safety patrol at my school (which will surprise absolutely no one who knows me). But I just thought they looked so cool. Maybe not cool, but definitely powerful.

They wore those bright orange sashes with one strap around the waist, one that went across the chest, and they had this big shiny silver badge pinned on it. They got to leave class early at the end of the day. That was a big deal. To fifth-grade me, the whole thing just looked like power.

Then, one day, my dream came true. My name made the list. I got the sash and the badge.I was assigned a post to oversee. I would rule over the first grade pick up line at dismissal with all of my newly given authority. But, it turned out, being patrol wasn’t at all about the title. It wasn’t actually about ruling over anyone, or about what was in it for me. It was a responsibility.

I had to show up really early in the morning before everyone else got to school. I had to help first graders find their grown-ups. I had to look out for the kids who were younger and smaller than I was. It wasn’t about power at all. It was about showing up and keeping other people safe. I was supposed to be an extension of the teachers. They couldn’t be everywhere at once, but were still responsible for keeping the kids safe.

I don’t have that orange sash anymore. They made us give them back.

But the patrol work never really stopped - not just as a pastor, as a human. It’s not just my job. It’s your job too. It’s all of our jobs. Genesis 1 tells us we’re all entrusted with a post.

We’re doing this multi-year untitled, open ended study of the Bible from start to finish. Along the way, we’re unpacking and deconstructing a lot of familiar passages that we may have always thought of one way, but might actually mean something else. Today’s passage is no exception. Genesis 1 will have pretty direct orders for us, and it won’t always be easy to follow them, and it has often been misunderstood. 

But here’s the good news: If you’ve ever wondered “does my life matter? Or “Am I really here for a reason? Or if you’ve ever looked at the problems in the world (9:30  the violence, the injustice, the exploitation of people) and wondered if you could make a difference, Genesis answers all of that with a clear yes: your life matters, you are here for a reason, and what you do actually counts. Let’s read it together Genesis 1:26–31:

Genesis 1:26-31

26 Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

27 So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” *

*There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to gender in Genesis. When we get to the second creation story in Genesis 2, I’ll take a whole sermon to dive into just that. There have been some wild assumptions and misunderstandings about who women and men are based on a shallow reading of Genesis 2, and we’ll talk about all of those. But for today, let’s keep reading. 

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”  And it was so. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

I have always loved this passage. It’s this powerful claim right at the beginning of the Bible. You and I, we are created in the image of God. How amazing is that? There is something of God entrusted to us.

Image of God

When we connect this image of God idea to the rest of the Old Testament, it becomes even more amazing. Because in the ancient world, images were very important. They carried political and spiritual authority. Kings would place statues of themselves throughout their kingdoms to assert their presence and their reign in places they couldn’t physically be. These statues were visible reminders to the people: The king reigns here. His rule extends to this place, even if you can’t see him right now. 

We believe God’s reign extends to the whole world, but God didn’t put little God statues everywhere. God really didn’t want idols, that people would worship as some representation of God’s presence. In fact, that was specifically forbidden. 

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.” Exodus 20:4

When Genesis says that you and I are made in the image of God, this is a very big deal. We become this representation of God’s reign, everywhere we go. God doesn’t use statues.  Instead, God commissions people. People become the one and only one way God is imaged in the world. 

You’re it. You. You carry God’s reign and representation out into the world, everyday. 

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know that I feel up to that most of the time. But it’s there, right in the beginning of the Bible. God could have built indestructible gold statues all over the planet. But instead, God chose to send us. 

If you thought that was challenging, there’s even more to it. For a long time, I thought being made in the image of God was just a statement. It was something nice God said about us, something that described our worth, but didn’t really ask anything of us. It’s just true. It was this spiritual badge or sash God gives us to wear so we know we’re important.  But then look again at our reading from Genesis 1. It’s not just a description of who we are.  It’s what we’re sent out to do. 

“Let us make humans in our image . . . “ 

Then in the very same sentence, the very same breath really, it says this:

“and let them have dominion.”

Dominion

The first words in what we will do is “have dominion.” We know the word dominion. It sounds to us like power, or domination, or hierarchy. Dominion feels like something we have over someone or something else. Misreading this one word in Genesis has brought all kinds of trouble. That humans were given dominion has been used ever since to justify exploitation of the earth. Then people extended that dominion, not just over the earth, but over other people. Dominion becomes a jumping off point for sins like racism and patriarchy and absolute control. But that’s not what Genesis is saying.  Absolute power is not the work God is commissioning us for. 

So what does it mean then? Remember the first week in this series, we talked about how we understand any one scripture passage best when we read it in the context of the whole story of Scripture. When we look at the whole story of Scripture, it is very clear what dominion means to God. Look at Psalm 72, when the poem speaks about earthly kings. Verse 8 says

“May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.” (Psalm 72:8)

There’s that word dominion, from one sea to the other. That’s a lot of power. 

Verse 11 says: “May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.”

Wow. Absolute power even over other nations. But then look closely, because here is what that dominion really means, here is the responsibility it carries: 

“For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.” (Psalm 72:12-14)

Dominion then doesn’t mean just unchecked power, even for the kings. The Psalm says it means delivering the needy, helping the poor, freeing the vulnerable from oppression and violence. That’s what real authority looks like. Then the Bible gives us an image to help us understand what this means in practice. The image that would be very familiar to the original audiences they wrote to, and even though it’s less familiar to us, but it still gives us something concrete to hold onto. The image the Bible provides for dominion is a shepherd. 

A shepherd is charged with dominion over the sheep.But a good shepherd doesn’t dominate the sheep for power. A good shepherd doesn’t just take what he needs from the sheep. A shepherd guides, and protects, and feeds, and sacrifices for the flock. This image comes up a lot throughout the Bible when it talks about power.  

In Ezekiel 34, when God wants to critique the leaders of Israel, leaders who had misunderstood dominion, He does it by comparing them to shepherds who’ve failed their flocks.

“Woe, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat; you clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatted calves, but you do not feed the sheep.4 You have not strengthened the weak; you have not healed the sick; you have not bound up the injured; you have not brought back the strays; you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them.” (Exekiel 34:2-4)

These are strong words against the leaders of Israel. Because that’s what sinful dominion looks like, when it becomes distorted to be about power and what we can gain for ourselves, and God rejects it. Then when God ultimately wanted to show us what dominion done right looks like, he came. Sometimes you can’t just tell us something. You have to show us. 

Jesus says: “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

From the very beginning in Genesis, to the poetry of the Psalms, to the prophetic rebukes of Ezekiel, to Jesus standing among the crowds and saying, “I am the good shepherd.”, the story is the same. To bear God’s image, to take seriously the power we are given, is not to dominate, but to care, and to protect, to even lay down one’s life, for others. Scripture insists, over and over again, that those entrusted with power will be judged not by what they gained, but by how they guarded the vulnerable.

Dominion isn’t power. It’s shepherding.

So if you walked in today wondering, Does my life actually matter?Or if you are looking at the world out there and wondering What difference could I possibly make in a world this broken?

Genesis answers that question as soon as you ask it. 

Your life matters because you bear God’s image. What you do matters because God has chosen to show up in the world not through some little gold statues, but through you. You have a calling. You are made in the image of God, not just to be something, but to do something, to shepherd.

There are people counting on you who are smaller, more vulnerable, more easily overlooked.There are places in your life, ordinary places, where God has already given you influence. You get to go out and serve the people who need you the most. This might be in your family, or your workplace, or your classroom, or your neighborhood, or the places where you have influence, or access. 

You have been given a post, a place where God says: I need someone here. 

That person is you.