NT Wright on Following Jesus

Some of you might have noticed I didn't provide any reflections about last Sunday's worship services. I didn't preach so I didn't have a sermon to upload. Both services went well and there were highlights, I just didn't have a chance on Monday to post them. Sorry about that.

Here's is some spiritual meat though if you need it.

I recently finished reading NT Wright's book "Following Jesus".

I read it on my Kindle. One of the great things about reading a book on Kindle is that when something strikes me I can easily share it because I've highlighted key passages and they are in electronic form. Here are some highlights from the first couple of chapters.

On the book of Hebrews NT Wright brings out a few points I thought were huge...

* Not only was Jesus totally and truly human, he still is.

* Sacrifice is part of what it means to be truly human.

* Sacrifice (as the anthropologists and psychiatrists  have been telling us for some time) lies deep within the human  awareness that things which are wrong have to be put right; and  the way in which they are put right involves the conscience and  the whole life of those involved.

* Force; power; climate; entities bigger than the sum total of the human beings involved. A set of situations that nobody wants but nobody can do anything about. The only significant difference  between us and our pagan ancestors appears to be that they  recognized the situation and gave the forces vivid names, while we hide them behind the grey obscurity of vague words, in order  to go on flattering ourselves that, as the Mastercard advertisement  says, `You've Got the Whole World in Your Hands.' Which is, of  course, what the serpent promised Eve: you will be like gods….

He also made some really amazing comments based on Colossians

* All things were made in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. All things - including the  (evil) powers'! The world is not ultimately divided into bits that are irreducibly good and bits that are irreducibly bad.

* What went wrong, then? Why are the powers so threatening?  What went wrong was that human beings gave up their responsibility for God's world, and handed their power over to the powers. When humans refuse to use God's gift of sexuality responsibly, they are handing over their power to Aphrodite, and she will take control. When humans refuse to use God's gift of money responsibly, they are handing over their power to Mammon, and he will take control. And so on. And when the powers take over, human beings get crushed.

* Why was Jesus crucified? …Jesus took on the principalities and powers.

* The powers…have been reconciled to Christ. Having been defeated, they are not annihilated. God is in Christ making a new world….

* How can we celebrate and put into practice this victory (Christ over the ‘powers’) today? How can we follow this Jesus into genuine victory? It is surprisingly simple. Every time you kneel down to pray…you are saying that Jesus is Lord and that the `powers' aren't. Every time you say grace at a meal you are saying that Jesus is Lord, and that the world and all it offers is his, and has no independent authority. And every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ in a way which, by the power of its symbolic action, resonates out, into the city, into the country, into the world, into our homes, into our marriages, into our bank accounts - resonates out with the powerful message that God is God, that Jesus is his visible image, and that  this God has defeated the powers of evil that still enslave and crush human beings today.

Comments like these on these two wonderful Bible books make me want to re-read them to more deeply understand Wright's points. Perhaps this post makes you want to read Wright's book. You could do much worse. He's one of the best Christian writers and thinkers alive today.