I just finished “Simply Christian” by N.T. Wright.  While I wouldn’t want to “spoil the ending for you”, I’m going to show you the final paragraph of the book.

Say “Christianity” to ten folks, and you’ll likely have ten images flash across ten minds: Life after death, morals and ethics, heaven, opponents to secular society, average citizens who attend church regularly, decent folks who try to be nice, and on it goes.

But I’d have to agree with Wright that those aren’t what the Bible is speaking about when it speaks of Jesus and what he invites us into.

Here’s that last paragraph…

Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection.  Made for joy, we settle for pleasure.  Made for justice, we clamor for vengeance.  Made for relationship, we insist on our own way.  Made for beauty, we are satisfied with sentiment. 

But new creation has already begun.  The sun has begun to rise.  Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world. 

It is time, in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role, as agents, heralds, and stewards of the new day that is dawning. 

That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian: To follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God’s new world, which he has thrown open before us.

Now go get into some of that!