So, I take it you’re staying true to Western tradition at the big O and teaching a gnostic dualism hell bent on escaping this God forsaken planet, right?

I’m continually amazed at how much we overlook eschatology in the church considering how formative it is for who we, how we respond to and how we live in this world. It took us an awful long time to end up where we are today with the cheap & easy theology of “your best life now” and reversing that path seems nearly impossible.

I think that Wright’s observation is correct that we are reaping the long embedded influence of Greek thought in our faith. It is so deeply embedded, that most Christians don’t even give it a second thought. This is just the way that most Christians have been trained to think through the years. Just look at a hymnal (if you can find one). I’ve done this exercise recently (in an abreviated way). Go through and look at the songs with an explicit eschatology. What you will find is that the vast majority will promote either escapism or triumphalism. A precious few talk about our promise for resurrection (even if they do happen to mention Jesus’ resurrection), and even fewer talk in any way about a new heaven and earth.

I also think that laziness and a lack of creativity has crept into our theology. It takes creative thinking to identify what the new creation has to do with healthy marriages (which it does). It is easier simply to preach a self-help type of sermon on having a healthy marriage. It is also much easier to talk of some vague, pop-culture image of “heaven” than it is to talk of a new heaven and earth.

Honestly, I haven’t read very much Wright (only 5 of his minor works) but this is by far the best and perhaps the most influential for the church towards not only a positive eschatology but a tangible missiology. He gives a backbone for social justice that hasn’t been there in some time and perhaps that’s why it’s so “revolutionary” in our day and age.

It’s always ‘bothered’ me that we don’t take Easter seriously… even on Easter. I’ve attended churches where the 4th of July and Veterans Day were more heavily celebrated than Easter itself, and that’s never really sat well with me… as I search for a “cause” it seems clear that this happens (in my experience) in the churches that celebrate Communion haphazardly, not in how they celebrate it but in its frequency. Could it be the reason we’ve ventured down this path as a Church is because we have failed to respond to the resurrection on a regular, weekly basis?

There’s something that I think is explicit in Luke’s gospel with the two on the road to Emmaus, they’re eyes weren’t opened to the resurrected Christ until he broke bread with them. Communion/Eucharist is our eye opening experience with resurrection and when we skip out or take it lightly we forget why we gather and what our purpose is.

Thoughts?