welcome to the story.

So I was listening to this conversation that N.T. Wright was giving at last years Emergent Gathering today. And he kind of touched on an idea and then didn't really develop it fully, so it got me thinking. It kind of fits in with this whole narrative approach to Scripture that I've been discovering over the last year. And I'm not going to really be able to give this full justice and give a full explanation because I'm lazy when it comes to writing a bunch of stuff out. But essentially he teased the idea that much of our problem when it comes to our understanding of "heaven", is a gross misinterpretation of the words of Jesus as well as a misinterpretation of Pauline and Old Testament prophetic language. In a nut shell, and again I can't and don't really won't to spend more than a couple of sentences on this, heaven is not so much the whole clouds in the sky imagery that we've grown up with. Heaven is essentially the restoration of the Genesis project. That ultimately all of life is about restoring what was lost at the Fall. Stay with me. God created Paradise. And created humanity. Created this place. His intentions for this are beyond me. Pleasure, boredom, an outburst of creativity. I don't know. My first thoughts would be that the Genesis story may not even be Chapter One of the story. But God creating humanity and earth could be midway through the narrative. Perhaps I�ll develop that thought at a later date. But basically, God created paradise. At the Fall, what God intended to be . . . was lost. Broken. Disconnected. Fragmented. Therefore, all of history is moving and advancing towards the restoration of paradise. The recreation of humanity and earth. The whole talk of heaven as clouds in the sky, kind of seems trivial in my mind. Because if �heaven� was the main goal all along, then why did God create earth in the first place. To do so wouldn�t really make sense if all he was trying to do was get us to heaven, but creating earth as a transition or stopping point along the way. It almost makes earth seem like God�s playground. Like he is just messing around with us now until he gets bored and serious and wants to go ahead with heaven. That doesn�t really work for me. Instead, within the framework of a narrative, with the Genesis project as a bookend (God creating paradise, earth, and humanity) and God creating a �new heaven and a new earth� (last chapter of Revelation as a bookend), things begin to make more sense for me. Everything in between begins to make sense in that light. Humanity was lost. Creation was lost. Paradise was lost. So all of history is now about restoring and recreating everything that was indeed lost. In this light, prophecy takes on a whole new light. That is a highly subtle comment that I am making and will leave alone for you to tease out any meaning. In this light, Jesus and his miracles take on a new light. As well as the teachings of Jesus. As well as the point of salvation. Salvation no longer becomes about �heaven when you die� but about �the kingdom of God� as you live (this living is both present and future). This is what the kingdom of God is actually referring to as Jesus goes along speaking to it and giving examples of. In this framework, the present becomes about anticipating the future. What will happen in the future (healing, grace, love, forgiveness, life, peace, the list could go on and on) . . . becomes something to be lived for now, yet only partially realized. We become foretastes of this kingdom. Foretastes of the future in the present. So the emphasis shifts from the future and into the present. A subtle shift in words and emphasis no doubt. But one that has very large implications depending on where that emphasis is put. And here�s where it comes to a point for me. We must look to the two bookends of the past and future, the Genesis project (Gen. 1+2) and the new creation and new earth (Rev. 21-22) to understand and make light of our present. I think currently, in most theologies and interpretations, we are looking out of our present to interpret the past and future. We are creating a heaven based on our own �needs� (again a very important thought that I hope to develop later on as well) such as wanting to feel safe, a type of escapism, a way of justifying our lack of concern for environmental and social concerns, and the list could go on and on. What we need to do is look to those bookends, of what God did in the beginning and what God wants to do in the end, to understand our present. Salvation then becomes not about going to heaven when you die, but becoming God�s agents of mission as we join his community to recreate. As well, this changes the intention of �salvation�. Salvation was not about justifying, sanctifying, and all those words. The theology to those are found embedded in the story. But the story is the dog. And the tail can not wag the dog. But God didn't start with a theology and then attempt to figure out a story that would make that theology work. He created a story, characters and plot, and let a theology emerge out of the story and inevitably out of his divine nature and our fallen nature. Salvation is about putting the world right. Putting the broken pieces back together. Reweaving the fragmented cloth. In this context, everything, evangelism, missions, ecclesiology, eschatology, gets recast against a different backdrop. Primarily, the narrative of God fixing what was lost in the Garden of Eden. Not the systematic explanation of the cross and resurrection and so forth and so on. Which is basically what the Bible has turned into for a great deal of Christianity. And that's about all I have for now. Hopefully, I'll come back to some more of this over the next few days. If you would like to download and listen to N.T. Wright�s thoughts on this subject and this whole concept of the Genesis project and recreation, etc. Go to the following link. There are four conversations. Each well over an hour long. But good. And if you�re really bored and interested, I thought I would include the link. Plus he's English and a bishop and in the House of Lords which makes it sound much more important. Like you're talking about God at Oxford with smart people. N.T. Wright Lectures at the Emergent Convention Go down to the middle of the page and you see his name and the links.