Not to Snatch People Away

“Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.”
― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

It is Holy Week. For many of us that means more religious services than normal. I like religious gatherings and that is a good thing. It would suck for Tapestry to have a pastor that never wanted to be at any of the organized religious activities that we did. That would make for fun conversations with guests.

    “So where is your pastor?”
    “Well, he doesn’t really like organized religious gatherings…”
    “So you’re saying your pastor doesn’t come to your church gatherings?”
    “Yep, that’s it exactly.”

I could be wrong but I just don’t think that would fly very well.

With all the religious activity it can become easy to think that these gatherings are what faith is all about. They aren’t. They are just supposed to help us live out our faith. They are reminders and energizers but they aren’t the real deal. The real is living your faith out every where else.

So since it is Holy Week why not do something Christ like and infuse life back into something or someone who is experiencing the pain that comes from death. Find a hurting person and be a part of God bringing healing, faith, hope and love to their lives. After all, the kingdom of God isn’t about Christians escaping the earth. Instead it is about God invading and reclaiming His creation, bringing heaven to earth. Those of us who are followers of Christ are the people who wants to do this through. We work with Christ to see heavenly things happen. So go be heavenly.