Surprised By Hope

I just finished N.T. Wright’s newest book, Surprised By Hope.  Like all of his books that I’ve read, I was very inspired by the book and you do find a definite hope in the book.  Some of the topics were previously explored in his book Simply Christian but this book looks specifically at the biblical foundation for the resurrection, heaven and what the church should be doing right now.

Most Christians that I know of have this idea of the rapture, going to heaven when we die and this whole purpose of being on earth as “saving souls” (making sure more people can get into heaven).  N.T. Wright takes the time to put the Bible into a historical perspective (what people during that time period actually believed was being said) and breaks down each point individually – including the point that Jesus’ resurrection was a bodily resurrection (transformed body, but still a body) and even during that time people had definite language and understanding for “ghosts” and such to make clear that a “spiritual resurrection” is not what the biblical writers are referring to.

First, I love one of his quotes about the rapture and/or going to heaven:

“When the emperor visited a colony or province, the citizens of the country would go to meet him at some distance from the city.  It would be disrespectful to have him actually arrive at the gates as though his subjects couldn’t be bothered to greet him properly.  When they met him, they wouldn’t then stay out in the open country; they would escort him royally into the city itself.  When Paul speaks of “meeting” the Lord “in the air”, the point is precisely not – as in the popular rapture theology – that the saved believers would then stay up in the air somewhere, away from earth.  The point is that, having gone out to meet their returning Lord, they will escort him royally into his domain, that is, back to the place they have come from…  Being citizens of heaven, as the Philippians would know, doesn’t mean that one is expecting to go back to the mother city but rather means taht one is expecting the emperor to come from the mother city to give the colony its full dignity, to rescue it if need be, to subdue local enemies and put everything to rights.”

That “putting everything to rights” is what Jesus began and what we are inaugurated to continue in his physical absence.  He will put the finishing touches on it and transform/renew everything in “the end” to make a new beginning.  But it won’t be a new creation that lives as disembodied souls “in heaven”, but a transformed creation of earth where heaven [the place where God is] and earth [the place where people are] fully overlaps.

So our mission is not the “saving of souls” so they can go to heaven, but the spreading of the gospel – that Jesus is Lord of this world and he’s coming back to restore and transform everything and we are his emissaries to show the world the transforming power of God.  “Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings and for that matter one’s fellow nonhuman creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world – all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make.”  This is what salvation is about – not the “get to heaven” ticket that is so often preached.