Each week, I have worked to establish that biblical hope points toward the restoration and redemption of God’s good creation rather than our souls escaping our bodies for a spiritualized, body-less, existence. In the resurrection, according to 1 Cor 15, our bodies will be raised in the Spirit where the fullness of our existence will be realized. The spiritual and the physical will be brought together in the new heavens and new earth and God’s presence will be with his creation as he always intended for it to be. The images at the end of Revelation are of “New Jerusalem” coming down from heaven and there being no need for a temple to contain God’s presence. The proclamation from the throne is of Christ “making all things new!” and the river of the waters of life flow freely bringing healing to all the nations.
This week we will wrap up this series on Reclaiming Biblical Hope by talking about “The Hope of the Church.” I will not be preaching this week, but I wanted to share some of my reflections to help you study and reflect for this Sunday. I know Nick will to a great job!
What is the purpose of the Church? At different points in my life, I have answered this question differently. What we believe our end goal is determines our answer. When the focus is keeping people out of hell, we lean toward sin management. When we focus on souls going to heaven, we tend toward hard sell tactics for quick conversions and largely ignore other issues going on in their lives. Each of these focuses (while simplified for the sake of my point) has a point in the larger discussion but standing alone the points are too narrow. The church sometimes gets viewed as a kind of holy holding station where God’s people bide their time till we can escape this place. This view of Christianity has brought the often-quoted critique from Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., “Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.”
In Ephesians, Paul paints a picture of God bringing the world to right under Jesus Christ (1:10), and his people being his handywork through what they accomplish in building for the kingdom (2:10). Together, we are the place where God dwells (2:22) and carry his presence into the world. The work we do for God in the world, to bring redemption and reconciliation to God’s creation, is not work that is done in vain because God will harvest every seed in the new creation that we plant now. This is why Paul, in 1 Cor 15:58, says, “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
The world that does not know God is likely more drawn to God when they see concrete examples of Christians taking care of those in need, listening to those who say they are oppressed, dealing with hunger in the world, aiding the poor and sick, and living in peace. They are more so drawn toward God when we live as signposts pointing to what is to come in God’s redeemed creation than if they see us fighting over doctrinal issues or getting tangled up in ugly politics.
The church is the place where God’s good creation is explored and put on display as a taste of what is to come. That involves us doing the dirty work of cultivating genuine relationships with one another when there are stark differences in background and worldview. By contrast to the quote above, I would ask if some Christians are so focused on winning in the cultural battles of this current world that we are little to no good for the kingdom work God has called us to?
The Church is the place where we share the presence of God together as his new temple. His presence allows us to be refined, transformed, and made new for life in Christ. The Church is the place where we explore the depths of God’s love, peace, goodness, compassion, and power to then go and share it with the world. N. T. Wright says, “God is going to take everything in this present world that bears the mark of his love, goodness, power, and loving compassion and use it as the raw material out of which the new world will be made.” What are some of these things God will use to form the new world?