A Mission Shaped by Hope

Presently, I am reading the insightful book by N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church. In the final chapter, he argues that the hope that he has described in the book (a hope that is rooted in God's promise to recreate all things, including the physical bodies of his children) is intended to shape the mission of the Church. He writes:

"A mission-shaped church must have its mission shaped by its hope; that the genuine Christian hope, rooted in Jesus' resurrection, is the hope for God's renewal of all things, for his overcoming of corruption, decay, and death, for his filling of the whole cosmos with his love and grace, his power and glory ... Think through the hope that is ours in the gospel; recognize the renewal of creation as both the goal of all things in Christ and the achievement that has already been accomplished in the resurrection and go to the work of justice, beauty, evangelism, the renewal of space, time, and matter as the anticipation of the eventual goal and the implementation of what Jesus achieved in his death and resurrection."

I could not agree more heartily with Dr. Wright. Here is what I want to explore though. How does the NT link the hope of new creation to the mission of the church? I can already think of several times that the Apostle Paul makes the link. For example, after a lengthy exposition for the Corinthians of our hope of resurrection that is rooted in the resurrection of Christ, the second Adam, he concludes with this commission.

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Cor 15.58, NIV).

Thus, I would like to pose this question. "How does the NT root the mission of the Church in our hope that was secured by Easter?" This is especially relevant for our church as in God's providence, we prepare for Mission Month in April, right after we celebrate Easter!!

God as Mystery: Part 2

The more I read from my Christian brothers and sisters who are not laden with albatross of modernity and postmodernity, the more I hang my head in shame at how we evangelicals just don’t get it. As many of us explore the discipline of theology, the Godhead is nothing more than a specimen that we put in the Petri dish; that we analyze with our own theories for what we can learn and then share our findings with the world of scholarship. Furthermore, all this arrogant experimentation is rarely done with any desire to actually serve the wider Christian community.

My head was hanging in shame this morning as read from the prayers of Blessed St. Augustine of Hippo. Did anyone pray or hear a pray such as this on Sunday?

"...Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and leading the proud to be old without knowledge; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking: you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you repent without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find; yet you have never lost. Never in any need, you rejoice in your gains; you are never avaricious, yet you require interest. We pay you more than you require so as to make you our debtor, yet who has anything which does not belong to you? You pay off debts, though owing nothing to anyone; you cancel debts and incur no loss. But in these words what have I said, my God, my life, my holy sweetness? What has anyone achieved in words when he speaks about you? Yet woe to those who are silent about you because, though loquacious with verbosity, they have nothing to say" (Confessions, IV. [4]).

All us evangelical preachers should likely being hanging our heads at this point. May we press on to find language such us this to praise and cry out in love to our Most Holy God, always remembering that when we speak about God, we really have nothing to say.