Further Thoughts on N.T. Wright's New Book, "Christians at the Cross": Thinking Eschatologically
I confess that I've been too busy over the last few days to have read any further from Christians at the Cross. But maybe that was providential, inasmuch as there was a theme that occurred early in the book that had been pressing on my heart to share, one that was less explicit than Wright's presentation of the fresh, new paradigm that I spoke of in my first post.
In Chapter 1, The Sermon at the Eucharist on Palm Sunday, Wright says and does something that, I believe, is indicative of one of the central lessons I've learned from grappling with his work in its entirety. Toward the end of the chapter, he says (addressed to the congregation to whom the sermon was originally delivered):
"I want you to write down, over the next two or three days, just a sentence or two, or maybe a word or two, about the particular griefs that this community has had to bear in recent years. And over the course of the week we'll gather them up, we'll put them in a basket here somewhere, and when we get to Good Friday we'll bring them to the cross and we'll leave them there...I have no idea what God will do with them. But I do know that, when you bring things to the foot of the cross, the music of Jesus' death transforms them in ways we can't predict or explain."
Many, many preachers would not have done this at this point in a series of sermons. The taking of the congregations griefs and putting them at the foot of the cross on Good Friday is intended by Wright as the climactic symbolic action of an entire Holy Week's worth of sermons. But he tells the congregation about it at the outset, purposely taking away some of the thunder that might have otherwise been generated if he had held off and waited until Good Friday to guide his congregation into this powerful symbolic action.
But he does so for very good reason. He wants his hearer to grasp the climax of the story, to be aware of it, and to hold on to that awareness throughout the course of the story as it reaches that climax, so that every sermon, every word, on the way to that climax can be understood and appreciated with that vision in mind and with reference to it.
And that, I believe, is an example of one of the most significant points of emphasis in all of Wright's work. He constantly implores his listener to grasp the true "big picture" of the climax of the biblical story, not God snatching up a few people to live with Him in disembodied bliss in a place called heaven somewhere up in the clouds, but God's faithful determination to make new heavens and new earth and giving us new, transformed bodies to enjoy it forever. The climactic goal of the whole biblical narrative, for which Jesus taught us to pray, is for the Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, for creation itself to be set right, to be set free from its bondage to decay.
And once he has hammered in that point of the eschatological big picture, he then goes through and tells the whole story again in light of it. And we see how specific points, specific themes, specific theological understandings, all change when we learn to view them in light of that ultimate climax.
It is that method that is put to practice in Christians on the Cross when Wright informs his listeners of what the end will be, and invites them to hear the words he will speak for the entire week in light of it. And it is that method, I believe, that we must employ when we read the Bible and when we strive, by the Spirit, to live in its accordance. In the end, God will make not "all new things" but "all things new," and we will do ourselves a great service if we can learn to read the entire story, from Genesis to Revelation, and to live our lives, in light of that climax. And see how, when we do so, our lives and our understanding of God will change, in ways we can't predict or explain.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
0 Comments:
Post a Comment