.jfif)
Tom (NT) Wright notes that "while heaven is important it's not the end of the world!" Today, as we struggle with how we are to be Christian in this world so that God in Christ may truly be Lord, we are recognizing that that means allowing God to be Lord in this World so that we might truly be all we are called to be and too, that God's Creation might be the Eden it is meant to be. One view of heaven and Christianity sees heaven as the final destination of all the faithful, now disembodied, and earth or "the world" in which we dwell as something we must escape, but that is not the view we find in Scripture.
Instead, we know that we find ourselves justified by God so that we may carry out a mission in and to this world. We look for the transformation of all reality into God's new creation. Even the hermits I know understand that their own withdrawal from what we may call "the world" is a call to withdraw from that which is resistant to Christ in order that Christ may be the Lord of the larger world around us with the aid of our prayer and other ministry, limited though this latter may be. We must focus our gaze and our energies not on "getting to heaven", or on some sort of disembodied existence, but instead on being the pioneers of God's new heaven and new earth. We are called to live as People of Hope so that God in Christ and the Power of the Holy Spirit, may transform our world in light of Jesus' death, (bodily) resurrection, and (bodily) ascension.
Postscript: My Scripture class finished NT Wright's Surprised by Hope this morning and it was an amazing experience for almost everyone. Not only were most folks' perspectives on heaven and what Scripture teaches about this and the future that ultimately lies in front of us changed, but so were some aspects of our view of the role of the Church in this world and the importance of being a People of Hope so that we can move forward despite the looming consequences of our recent election and the growing influence of Christian Nationalism, etc.
.jfif)
Posts
