Our culture is so fixated on dying and going to heaven when the whole Scripture is about heaven coming to earth.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that religious teachings focus on bringing divine qualities to our earthly existence rather than just aiming for an afterlife.
N. T. Wright's quote suggests that much of religious scripture emphasizes the importance of creating a heavenly experience on Earth, rather than merely looking forward to an afterlife in heaven. It points to a cultural fixation on death and what comes afterward, diverting attention from the transformative power of spirituality that can manifest in daily life, urging individuals to seek and cultivate a sense of heaven in their current existence.
In practice
During a church sermon to inspire a congregation about living purposefully.
The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating thet God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven." "The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.
True worship doesn't put on a show or make a fuss; true worship isn't forced, isn't half-hearted, doesn't keep looking at its watch, doesn't worry what the person in the next pew is doing. True worship is open to God, adoring God, waiting for God, trusting God even in the dark.
Most of the things that really matter require faith. How do I know that my wife loves me? How do I know that Mozarts Jupiter Symphony is sublime and beautiful? There are all sorts of things which come at a more lowly level than that - How do I know that two plus two equals four? There are different layers, different types of knowing.
To get overprotective about particular readings of the Bible is always in danger of idolatry.
Without God's Spirit, there is nothing we can do that will count for God's kingdom. Without God's Spirit, the church simply can't be the church.
I'm not a universalist, and the way I talk about final loss is this: People worship idols - money, whatever. Their humanness gets reshaped around the idol - you become like what you worship. That's one of the basic spiritual laws.
Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth. Our children know and suffer the armed men.
The bite of conscience is indecent.
The danger of psychedelic drugs, the danger of mind-opening, the danger of consciousness expansion, the danger of inner discovery is a danger to the establishment.
Self-awareness is a trait that not only makes us human but also paradoxically makes us want to be more than merely human. As I said in my BBC Reith Lectures, “Science tells us we are merely beasts, but we don’t feel like that. We feel like angels trapped inside the bodies of beasts, forever craving transcendence
Distance lends enchantment to the view.
what is lost because it is most precious what is most precious because it is lost
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