New Book!

I have just started reading a new book I got for Christmas (thanks Michele!): Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright. Amazing book!

The book is filled with great insight into the hope we should focus on as we consider the resurrection. Are we just going to a better place? Where are we going and when will we get there? What is the impact of the Jesus' resurrection? What was the reaction of the disciples? What should my reaction be? How should it affect my life today, tomorrow?

What we say about death and resurrection gives shape and color to everything else. If we are not careful, we will offer merely a "hope" that is no longer a surprise, no longer able to transform lives and communities in the present, no longer generated by the resurrection of Jesus himself and looking forward to the promised new heaven and new earth.

Therefore Wright says it matters what we do in the present. It is not a future expectation but rather a life lived fully now.

Easter was when Hope in person surprised the world by coming forward into the present.