Chapters 7 & 8

SIMPLY CHRISTIAN
Chapter 7 – Jesus and the Coming of God’s Kingdom
“This is a persistent mistake, based on the medieval notion that the point of all religion – the rule of the game, if you like – was to make sure you ended up at the right side of the stage at the end of the mystery play (that is in heaven rather than hell)” (p 92)
That is probably true of a lot of our persistent religious mistakes – that they are based on medieval or past notions. The medieval notions would keep us focused on what we do and even more what we cannot do. That is we cannot conquer sin. No, we need a Savior to set us free.
We humans like to do things ourselves. It’s all about me! I can hear Joyce Meyer squawking across the stage “What about me? – What about me? – What about me?” Really, what about you? Why do you believe in Jesus? Why did you submit your will to Him? Were you afraid of going to hell or did you see your brokenness and truly seek Him as your only possible Savior? The Savior, who can break the chains, can set us free and can make us truly whole. “We are offered freedom: freedom to experience God’s rescue for ourselves” (p 92) – what an invitation!
Wright would have us see Jesus as the bridge between Heaven and earth, between human and God, between this world and God’s kingdom, between our past and our future. Look into his writing about Israel and insert yourself. (Hey, maybe this is about you!) Jesus came to show us a different way, a revolutionary way to live. The Israelites wanted a King to set them free, bring back the good old days and fulfill the prophecies. Jesus brought them the stories and healings, the message to lead them to the freedom they sought. Two thousand years later are we truly hearing the message or are we still making the same persistent mistake of looking for what we want?
Questions to ponder on and discuss:
1. Why do you think it has gone “out of fashion”, if you would, to speak about hell in our churches? Do you believe in heaven and hell?
2. Do you believe Jesus was a revolutionary? How would you describe Him if you had to write “about the Jesus of our present experience” (p 95)?
3. A new world is described in this chapter, what do you imagine when your read that we are to “work at bringing it to birth on earth as in heaven.”(p 92)?

SIMPLY CHRISTIAN
Chapter 8 – Jesus: Rescue and Renewal
The truth … the way … here someone has written the story so succinctly.
What an interesting insight into Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophecies: “Jesus seems to have combined the two interpretations in a creative, indeed explosive, way. The Servant would be both royal and a sufferer.” (p 107) The Jews wanted a king, a hero, not a martyr. How sad that day at Golgotha that it was the centurion, harden to death and suffering from his many years of killing, was one of the few who really heard and considered “maybe this man was God’s Son after all.” (p 111) Yet, here we are two thousand years later and we do believe, but still our own terms. God calls the Israelites stiff-necked and tells Moses to talk to them, least He might destroy them (reference Exodus 33:5). Have our necks relaxed any or are we still so sure of ourselves and our own ways today? ‘I am the truth.’
Thinking in terms of how Jesus thought and studied is an interesting take. Even further is the thought that Jesus was not aware of His destiny, but that through His studies He was able “to shape his sense of what he had to do.”(p 108) This gives a whole new mosaic to the pattern of call. Why would a human take on such a plan? Where would any human obtain such audacity to believe they were capable of such a task? What faith is this? The modern day questions of WWJD falls so short it seems comical by comparison of this pattern for living. ‘I am the way.’
In Wright’s context he uses this insight to help us understand why the disciples and followers of Jesus believed He was divine. This becomes so much deeper when you look at the martyrs of the following centuries; dying because they knew Christ was “the unique embodiment of the one God of Israel” (p 117).
The thought that all our sins were carried by Christ on the hours upon the cross overwhelms me. That is every sin from Eden to Babylon, to Auschwitz, to Hiroshima, to 9/11, to beyond eternity was placed within this pure sinless mind and God looked away. In all this, Christ cried out for the pain of God’s separation only. Then, He asked for our forgiveness.
How can we make sense of this? I believe it comes down to love, just as Wright says in the final two paragraphs and just as Jesus gave in His new commandment. God calls each of us to be “one of those partners in love” (p 119).
1. Can you see any parallels between the Israelites expectations for the Temple of Jerusalem and the modern expectations upon the Church of today?
2. Wright gives God’s plan to rescue the world from evil on page 108. Does this fit with your beliefs?
3. In his Option Three, Wright sees heaven and earth as interlocked. How does that look to you?

Chapters 5 & 6

Chapter 5 – “God”

In the first four chapters of “Simply Christian,” Wright presents the picture of how God creates four “echoes” that resonate in each of us –

• The Longing for Justice
• The Quest for Spirituality
• The Hunger for Relationship
• The Delight in Beauty

In Chapter 5, he examines how God intersects with humans. He looks at how God’s space (heaven) and our space (earth) interact with one another. He presents three possibilities for this:

• Pantheism – The two worlds (heaven and earth) are basically the same. God is everywhere and everything. One manifestation of pantheism is multi-goded paganism such as the Greeks having a god for just about everything. This philosophy though has no room for evil -- if God is everywhere and everything, how can evil exist?
• Separation (Deism) – God is out there but completely separate from us. He has no desire for connection with us. This does not explain God’s working around us and it also leaves man devoid of hope.
• Interlocking (Theism) – The third possibility Wright expounds on is the one he supports – that God and man (heaven and earth) overlap and interlock with one another.

Here are words from page 65:
“This sense of overlap between heaven and earth, and the sense of God thereby being present on earth without having to leave heaven, lies at the heart of Jewish and early Christian theology. … for the ancient Israelite and early Christian, the creation of the world was the free outpouring of God’s powerful love. The one true God made a world that was other than himself, because that is what love delights to do. And, having made such a world, he has remained in a close, dynamic, and intimate relationship with it”

REFLECTION –
• What is there to your “story” – your faith journey – that has allowed you to see and embrace the concept of a God who strives to intersect in intimate relationship with His people?
• How does your belief in this area affect how you live? How do you carry your story out to the world?


Chapter 6 – “Israel”

From page 71 – “It is fundamental to the Christian worldview in its truest form that what happened in Jesus of Nazareth was the very climax of the long story of Israel.”

Throughout the story of Exodus, there was this going back and forth of God’s people. They would try to follow God but then they would get in the way of themselves. Self-importance would separate them from God. Their history involved moments of exile and homecoming with the Temple – the place where they saw the intersection of God and man as occurring.

God assured His people – all people – of His faithfulness to them and of final restoration of His Kingdom. But how was God going to reunite with His creation – what He loved most? He sent Jesus to intersect with us, be among us, and fix us from within by paving a way for redemption and grace. Wright attests that Jesus’ arrival was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel.

REFLECTION --
• How does the story of Israel relate to your own faith journey?
• How is Jesus in your life a fulfillment of God’s promise of faithfulness to you?
• What calling does God’s faithfulness to you place on your life?