New-creation people

Have a look at Tom Wright's Easter article in the Times Online.

I really like Tom Wright's way of putting things. His book "Simply Christian" is a great explanation of what the Christian message is actually about (and if anyone would like to borrow it ask me). It's not about going to church, it's not about being good or even about making sure we go to heaven. It's about this new, Easter hope that he talks about in this article:

"Easter gives Christians a double vocation. They are themselves to be part of that new creation, plunged into Jesus’ death and finding new life in his resurrection. But, second, they are to be agents of that justice and beauty, planting signposts in the Easter soil which point forwards to the renewal of all things. Conversion, symbolized in baptism (which the Church associates with Easter), isn’t just about "me being saved". It’s about all of us being given our various instructions as new-creation people. "

Interesting to look at the comments on the article and see that the person who evidently didn't agree with the article or its message says that this message (new life, new creation, justice, beauty, love) has no content. It's sad to see his opinion is so far from mine. It's sad too to see evidence of how the church has, as Tom Wright hints, lost the plot and not presented Easter in its full glory, and the effect this has had on people's views of it.

But there's no time to blame each other for this- we've got to get on with the real task that we are called to- being "new-creation people."

On another celebratory note, I've just noticed that my blog is a year old. Happy Birthday to it!