who is at the center?

I realize that I’ve neglected the blog for over a week, but the Lenten observance of daily posting left me somewhat blogged-out.  I’m hoping that from here on out, I’ll be posting on a more than once a week basis.

In addition to the practice of daily posting, I was reading a devotional by N.T. Wright entitled Reflecting the Glory which proved to be immensely helpful in focusing my thoughts in anticipation of Easter.   I recently acquired another book by Wright called Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision.  It is something of a response to John Piper’s critique of Wright’s “New Perspective” on Paul.  While I believe that this particular theological conversation is immensely important, my guess is that most would be bored with the debate.

Boring theology noted, Wright’s makes some observations concerning certain understandings of “the gospel” that are worth repeating here.

God made humans for a purpose: not simply for themselves, not simply so that they could be in relationship with him, but so that through them, as his image-bearers, he could bring his wise, glad, fruitful order to the world.  And the closing scenes of scripture, in the book of Revelation, are not about humans beings going off to heaven to be in a close and intimate relationship with God, but about heaven coming to earth.  The intimate relationship with God which is indeed promised and celebrated in that great scene of the New Jerusalem issues at once in an outflowing, a further healing creativity, the river of the water of life flowing out from the city, and the tree of life springing up, with leaves that are for the healing of the nations … God is rescuing us from the shipwreck 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 purposes, not the other way around.

I should probably read that last sentence once a week day.