Surprised by Hope

It's been a while, but I just finished reading another great book.  "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church," by N.T. Wright is a book that firstly looks at the question of heaven.  The inside flap of the cover says, "For years Christians have been asking, 'If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?' It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer.  It is not heaven."

It's a provocative book from the start.  Right away I thought the title should be changed to "Rediscovering Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church."  While many of the ideas presented may seem new to Western Evangelicals, they are, as Wright argues, the beliefs of Jesus, the New Testament and the early church.  Wright is not breaking new ground completely as much as helping the church understand what was intended by the resurrection language of the New Testament writers.

Wright argues that when we die we our souls receive rest and refreshment in the presence of God.  Perhaps you can call it heaven, but it is only the first part of a two stage process.  He discusses the current view of disembodied souls going to an other-worldly heaven as a current form of Gnosticism which believes that matter is essentially evil.  Wright suggests that the true hope of Christians is not in our souls leaving this place and the earth being destroyed by God in favor of a matter-less heaven.  What the New Testament, Jesus and the early church were far more interested in was the Resurrection and restoration of the created order.  God created a good creation in the beginning and his goal is to redeem and restore not to destroy that creation.  Ultimately the hope of Christians is that of a bodily resurrection and restoration of creation when Christ returns to fulfill and complete his kingdom on earth which has already begun.

Wright combats the gnosticism of current views of heaven as well as the escapist rapture theology made popular in American Evangelical circles by Hal Lindsay (Late, Great Planet Earth) and the Left Behind books and movie series.  In these views God will destroy the created order and whisk his chosen to a heaven somewhere else.  Wright suggests that heaven is not really somewhere else, but that the realms of heaven and earth can be thought of as concentric circles with the goal of one day heaven and earth becoming fully visible to one another.

Wright briefly discusses purgatory and hell.  He tears down the traditional idea of purgatory and says little about hell.  He leaves room for a final judgement, but casts judgement in a positive light as the wrongs of the world are made right.  Judgement is not primarily a vindictive act.  Rather the longing for judgement throughout the Bible is for God to correct the wrongs of the world.

In the end, Wright talks about how our hope for the resurrection and restoration as God's "kingdom comes on earth as in heaven" affects our thinking of salvation (no more eyes closed, hand raised magical "sinner's prayer"), building of the kingdom and mission of the church.

There's a lot in this book and too dense for such a short summary.  Go read the book.  It's great stuff.  The conclusion is that this life matter so much more than most Western Evangelicals want to admit.  Christians have a responsibility to seek Justice, Beauty and Evangelize (bear witness to the true hope of the Gospels and live as colonists of the kingdom now).  Wright believes that the things we do to reveal and expand the kingdom not only in human lives, but in the whole created order as well, will somehow be carried over in a redeemed state into God's marriage of heavens and earth.  Christians have a responsibility to care for the justice of the outcast and poor.  We have a responsibility to care for creation and help to see it restored.

Wright voices many of the concerns I've had in the last few years of pop-Christianity and its love affair with escapism and reducing the human being to a disembodied soul.  How can God look down at Creation and declare everything "good" only to have us believe that Revelation is about God destroying that good creation.  Wright points out that the final picture of the Revelation of John the Seer is of heaven coming down to earth and God making his dwelling among man.  It's described as a great wedding between heaven and earth that were made for one another.   Go Read this Book!

Sustainable Living?

Last week I was working on mulching our flower beds around the house. This is the first year that I've been responsible for edging, mulching and maintaining my own flower beds. It's a treat, once it's done. But as I talked about earlier, work is not a bad thing. I was reflecting again on the Creation story that begins in a garden. Today you hear a lot about Sustainable Living. It's a big deal because the way much of the world is living cannot continue. During the industrial revolution the church developed a theology of Dominion over creation rather than stewardship of creation. We've stripped the land, developed unhealthy, unnatural practices and over-all degraded God's good creation. So sustainable living is a step in the right direction.

But in the Creation Story God says "be fruitful" (Gen. 1:28) and the writer states God placed the man in the garden to "work it and take care of it" (Gen. 2:15). It seems that God intended life to multiply for growth and expansion. And for it to be done in harmony with the rest of creation. Today we're just hoping that we can hand something down to the next generation through sustainable living.

A few years ago a the Grove we started a recycling ministry. We recycle paper in the office and used bulletins as well as plastic, metal and glass containers in the kitchen and old magazines. I remember when we started that the group said if anyone should care about Creation and being green, it's Christians. We should be the ones leading the way in being stewards of God's creation. It doesn't mean that we can't use resources that God has provided for us, but that we should use those resources in a responsible way. The way we live should be fruitful and multiply for the next generation. What if all Christians would take a look at our resources and practices and seek for the best way to honor God in those ways. Perhaps we would change from just being sustainable to being fruitful and multiplying.