This last weekend, I taught on one of the three anchor points of our new vision, Reproduce At Every Level. During the message, I provided a quick fly over of the coupling of the Creation narrative in Genesis with the New Creation narrative in the Gospels. You can check that out here, just forward to about 1/3rd the way into the service. In both narratives, God is inviting us to partner with Him. In the Creation narrative, we are invited to make babies, fill the earth, and take dominion. Dominion is our opportunity to join God in loving stewardship of creation. In the New Creation narrative, we are invited to make disciples, fill the earth, and manifest the Kingdom. God is inviting us to partner with Him restoring shalom, bringing the future of the New Heaven and New Earth into the present. We can do this with our every day lives. This high calling can be realized in every area of life – work, recreation, family, friends, finances, intellectual pursuits, artistic expression, our words, and more. This high calling can be realized in every domain of society – family, business, healthcare, justice, education, arts, education, and more.
When I read this passage last night, it just leapt up off the page. I hope you find a similar joy and inspiration in Dr. Wright’s words.
The four living creatures are singing “Holy, holy, holy” and the elders are casting their crowns before the throne; but the one who sits on the throne holds a scroll…sealed with seven seals, and nobody can be found worthy to open it and break its seals. The way to God’s unfolding purposes to put the world to rights, to complete the whole project of creation, appears to be blocked, since God made a world in such a way that it must be looked after by human stewards, and no human being is capable of taking God’s plan forward. This is Revelation’s statement of the problem of evil: God has a plan for the world; but unless He is to unmake creation itself, which is designed to function through the stewardship of God’s image-bearing creatures—the human race—it looks as though the plan cannot come to fruition. And that is Revelation’s statement of the answer: the lamb has conquered, has defeated the powers of evil. And now (Revelation5:9-10) the Lamb has ransomed people from every nation in order to make them a royal priesthood, serving God and reigning on the earth.
This theme, so frequent in the New Testament and so widely ignored in Christian theology, is part of the solution to the problem (of evil). It isn’t that the cross won the victory, so there’s nothing more to be done. Rather, the cross has won the victory as a result of which there are now redeemed human beings getting ready to act as God’s wise agents, His stewards, constantly worshiping their Creator and constantly being equipped to reflect His image into His creation, to bring His wise and healing order to the world, putting the world to rights under His just and gentle rule. A truly biblical ecclesiology…the church is the community of those who, being redeemed through the cross, are now to be a kingdom and priests to serve God and to reign on the earth. Our fear of triumphalism on the one hand and on the other hand our flattening out our final destiny into talk merely of “going to heaven,” have combined to rob us of this central biblical theme. Evil and the Justice of God, N.T. Wright
When we see the size of the problems in this world and in our lives, it is incredibly frustrating and even debilitating. We wonder, “Is God silent? Why doesn’t He act?”
The answer to that question is realized in a two letter word: we.
At the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus asked his disciples this profound question in John 6:5, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”
God’s response to the world is always connected to this word “we.” God is not silent in response to the brokenness of this world. He is leaning towards us and asking, “What are WE going to do about this?” The lack of immediate action on God’s part is often perceived as a lack of care or concern. In fact, the opposite is true. God cares so much about what we were created to be – His co-creators and partners – that His plan to heal and redeem the world is contingent upon the WE. Ordinary folks like us invited into the most extraordinary plan to redeem all things. Wow. That’s the best invitation ever.
Jesus already knows what He is going to do in response to this broken world. But, He wants to know, “What are WE going to do?”
