As I mentioned in my two previous blogs I am currently reading “ Surprised By Hope” by N T Wright and it continues to make me think deeply about my perspectives on our future hope. Right from the outset Dr Wright suggests that our thinking about what he calls “life after life after death” has, over time, become deeply flawed. The theology reflected in many of our hymns and songs, (for example the one I used in title of this article) does not reflect the teaching of scripture or the preaching of the early church. He says

Frankly what we have at the moment isn’t, as old liturgies used to say” the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead” but a vague and fuzzy optimism that somehow things will work out in the end… If we are not careful, we will offer 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 heavens and new earth”

Wright suggests that scripture indicates that this world will indeed be our home for eternity. It will be a restored, renewed, and redeemed but that Gods commitment to the world He created and “saw that it was good” is unwavering and his plan culminates in its restoration not its destruction.

Why is this important? Because it adjusts our focus in everything we do.  Everything we do becomes working for the kingdom that will come right here on earth.  Our care of the planet, the art and music we produce, the people we reach out to, the kingdom starts now in a very real sense for those who follow Jesus. Wright puts it like this

“ The work we do at present, then, gains its full significance from the eventual design in which it was meant to belong. Applied to the mission of the church, this means that we must work in the present for the advance signs of that eventual state of affairs when God is “all in all”, when His kingdom has come and His will is “done on earth as it is in heaven.” This will of course be radically different form the kind of work we would engage in if our sole task was to save souls for a disembodied heaven or simply help people enjoy a fulfilling relationship with God as though it was the end of the matter”

I have become convinced that my thinking on our future hope has become what Wright describes as “vague and fuzzy”. As a consequence I run the risk of devaluing the significance to God’s Kingdom of every action we take here on earth. It becomes more and more apparent to me that to live and preach whole life transformation is imperative. Then and only then, as God transforms us, can we play a full part in intentionally accomplishing things that are significant for the kingdom that will come.