Just Thoughts

Ok, so here are some thoughts from a book I have been reading - that is challenging and has me thinking that maybe my Christianity up to now has been only "Half-Pie". Now this has nothing to do with us being in Thailand it is just a few thoughts written here as much for my benefit as anything else. The one contact with Thailand, is that this sort of thinking definitely has played a large role especially in me being here.
Anyway the book is called: Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision. It is written by Tom Wright. Some background, in theological circles there is this thing called the "new perspectives on Paul", and it basically is a group of people that look at Paul's writings in the NT differently, than the traditional view. The traditional view comes very much from reformed theology. A while ago John Piper, wrote a book against Tom Wright (also writes under NT Wright) that i forget the name of. This book then is Tom Wright response or defense you could say to that book written by John Piper.
Now there is a lot of detail --- that I don't want to go into. But there one thing that I think Tom Wright has dead on. That is the importance in the NT of Jesus' death and resurrection bringing together one people. Read Ephesians, Galatians, or Romans and take note of how often Paul is addressing the issue of Jewish/Gentile relationships - you will be amazed. Tom Wright writes, how we have made Christianity so much about --- an individual being saved, and going to heaven when we die - that we have missed what God wants to do with his people (together) here on earth. Anyway here are some quotes from the book.....

"The theological equivalent of supposing that the earth goes round the sun is the belief that the whole of Christian truth is about me and my salvation...........Salvation is hugely important. Of course it is!..................But we are not the centre the of universe. God is not circling around us. We are circling around Him. It may look, from our point view, as though 'me and my salvation' are the be-all and end-all of Christianity. Sadly, many people - many devout Christians! - have preached that way and lived that way........I believe that the salvation of human beings, though of course extremely important for those human beings, is part of a larger purpose. God is rescuing us from the ship wreck of the world, not so that we can sit back and put our feet up in his company, but so that we can be part of his plan to remake the world. We are in orbit around God and his purpose, not the other way around. ............There has crept back in theology, even good. no-nonsense, copper-bottomed Reformation theology, the snake whisper that actually it is all about us, that 'my relationship with God' and 'my salvation' is the still point at the centre stage of the universe. I am the hero in this play. Even Jesus comes on the stage to help me out of the mess I'm in. (pg 7ff)

I hope it is already clear that God's dealing with sin as the root problem, and God's purpose to bring Jew and Gentile together in the single family 'in the Messiah', are so tightly intertwined throughout this passage so far that it would be futile to try to separate them.(passage is Gals 3)
(pg 105)

As I have argued at length in Surprised By Hope, we are not saved from the world of creation, but saved for the world of creation. (Roms 8:1-26) Humans were made to take care of God's wonderful world, and it is too strong to say that the reason God saves humans is not simply that he loves them for themselves but that he loves them for what they truly are - his pro-creators, his stewards, his vice-gerents over creation. (pg 207)

Generally the point Wright is making and I think I have missed up to now is the point we often make with the cross. What we often says is that there is a vertical and horizontal part to the cross, and we say Christianity is about our relationship with God (the vertical) and with others (the horizontal). But, what we all hear and what Tom Wright argues against, is that the vertical is the really important part ---- prayer, worship - me, I and Jesus - the aim of Christianity is for 'me to grow closer to Jesus' for me to get to know Jesus more. The vertical is really where it's at. But here's the point. Without both, we don't have a cross. What if there is no both/and even here, for they are so close that the vertical and horizontal are simply meant to be "one thing". Jesus gave us two commandments - and maybe we make to bigger fuss over the fact that he called one 'the second' - maybe it is only our Western mindset's that think of this as a ranking. We are to love God (vertical) and others (horizontal). So why does this matter ....

- It matters 'cos it effects how we do evangelism. What are we calling people into? A place where they get there sins washed away, a free card to heaven - and more a boring life, 'cos now they have to be good. Or into a family, a community ---- that covers the globe ---- a force who have their sins dealt with and are now "doing" (when was the last time you heard a Christian Altar Call that said that when you become a Christian you are meant to do something - other than of course pray the 'sinner's prayer') what humanity was made to do ---- we're partnering with God for the sake of his kingdom, his rule, his purpose - seeking to turn this world the right way up. Which one of those options gets you say - Yea I'm in.

- It effects how we view Church. This is so much more than the often boring old Sunday morning/Sunday night thing. This thing,. this new community that should be breaking down barriers and showing the world what a unified community can look like (didn't Jesus say they will know we are Christians by our love for each other), is as much a sign of the cross as a forgiven changed new Christian. In Ephesians 2, Paul starts talking of how we get our sins forgiven - he then goes onto how Jew/Gentile are being brought together, he then talks of himself being the herald of this. But then he makes this amazing comment --- God's purpose in all of this was to use the Church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. The Unified Church was God' s plan to display his wisdom to the unseen rulers and authorities. How important then is Church??? In an age, where Christian community is almost seen as optional - after all it's about me, I and Jesus remember (the vertical) - I don't need Church (the horizontal) - I think this is challenging.

- It affects how we view life. I am here not as a man waiting for heaven, but as a man working for God's kingdom. That gives my life a very different point of view. It also when we consider the wars, and internal conflicts between people groups that ravage our world - shows that if God's kingdom is about being people together - then we have a lot of work to do.

Anyhow - sorry if you wasted your time reading all this it was more for my sake than anyone else. If you read this far I'm guessing your interested so you really should read some Tom Wright --- this book was Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision. Another good one is Surprised By Hope....especially the second half where he gets into the 'so what' of all the theology in the first half.

Til Next Time
D