Mirage in the Desert
Posted by Isaac Butterworth | Filed under Vision
It was a few summers ago now that I first discovered the work of N. T. Wright. Currently an Anglican bishop, residing in Durham, England, Tom Wright is a New Testament scholar and prolific writer. Since my discovery of Wright, I have read a book or two of his sermons, along with his monographs on Jesus and Paul. I have not completed his larger volumes, but I have started them. I find that I gain not only information but insight as well from reading Wright.
I started with Simply Christian, a book written for those exploring Christian faith perhaps for the first time. When I finished the book, I was hooked. And I think what snagged me was the crystallization of ideas that had previously lain dormant. For example, Wright talks about God’s covenant with Abraham. God’s promise to Abraham — what Wright calls “a rock-solid commitment” — was to bless Abraham and, not only that, but also to bless all the earth through Abraham.
God called Abraham out of Ur, where he lived, and set him on a journey to another land, a “step” that, in some ways, prefigured a renewed earth. So, Abraham left Ur and began his journey. With this in mind, Wright says:
Shimmering like a mirage in the deserts through which Abraham wandered was the vision of a new world, a rescued world, a world blessed blessed by the Creator once more, a world of justice, where God and his people would live in harmony, where human relationships would flourish, where beauty would triumph over ugliness” (Simply Christian, p. 74).
What I discovered in these words was a fresh way of understanding what God is doing in the world, whether through Abraham long ago or through us in our own day. God has a new world in view, a world of justice, peace, and beauty. That is God’s dream, and we are called to participate with God in giving it shape and form.
In my post entitled “Fire and Light,” I wrote about passion, a fire in the heart, and vision, a light in the eye. The restored creation is God’s vision; it is God’s passion. Right now, it may look like a mirage in the desert, but some day God will bring it to pass.
On this day, we are called, like Abraham, to live for that day — and (!) to live as though that day had already arrived. As the Apostle Paul puts it, if we are in Christ, then bam! New creation (2 Cor. 5:16). If we want to see what new creation looks like, then we have but to look at the community that is “in Christ.” More on that in another post.
Photo credit: Hamed Saber
January 2, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Ike,
Fabulous! I love this and am so glad you are taking the time to write this. You have such a wonderful fund of knowledge, you read so extensively, you bring so much to the rest of us – thank you! I look forward to keeping up with your blog and thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Happy New Year!
Marilyn
January 10, 2010 at 10:28 am
Marilyn, thanks. Your kind words are received with gratitude.
December 23, 2010 at 11:21 am
[…] a previous post entitled Mirage in the Desert, I recounted God’s call to Abraham. You may remember that God made a covenant with Abraham […]