For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Class with Dan Wilt

This week seemed to be a really thick week.  This morning, I thought the term, swimming through theological jello, to be very appropriate.  In addition to the e*b class, I am also taking a Rockbridge Seminary NT Survey class.  As that class stepped through its text, Encountering the New Testament (1), the historical first century for the New Testament and then specifically for the Gospels, it was amazing how much both classes overlapped.  In the second part of N.T. Wright’s Simply Christian, much of the reading toured us through a story from God’s walk through the first century.  The two texts lined up in especially one of Jesus’ parables, the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13.  N.T. Wright connects this parable to ancient prophets speaking of God replanting Israel (2)  and to Jesus’ meaning to the nation of Israel.  Not only does it line up with the course texts but also to another post and a message I taught from last summer.  See my previous post on Good Dirt on this blog.

The big revelation of the week, for me, was about the Temple.  The Temple was the place where the Jews considered heaven and earth to touch (3).  One of the Messianic signs was a restoration of the Temple.  In Simply Christian, Wright speaks of God/Jesus judging the Temple, something the Jews never considered in their Messianic hopes, and declaring it corrupt 4 (Luke 19:45) and then cleansing it. Multiple times, people attributed to Jesus that He said he would destroy the temple and then rebuild it in three days  (Matt 26-61).  Jesus in His crucifixion and resurrection accomplished this.  Then, by cross, He redeems and restores the temple to us, in us.  The Holy Spirit indwelling the believer, the believer is now the temple where heaven and earth touch.    This touchpoint is the place where God’s future invades the present (5).  The new creation or Kingdom of God, the restoration of Eden, is coming through us as we are “commisioned to go and make new creation happen in the world” (6).    

Applied to worship, I will never look at a worship gathering the same way.  If the temple is the ‘thin place’ between heaven and earth, and the temple (where the presence of God dwells) is the believer, when believers gather to worship, we should expect to hear the Kingdom of God crackling in the air like a high-voltage power line.  Our hopes of Eden-restored, the New Creation restored and the very real source of the echoes N.T. Wright talks about are just a thin veil away.  My friends, let’s push the veil aside….. 

Blessings!

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(1) Walter A. Euwell, Robert W. Yarbrough, Encountering the New Testament Second Edition, (Baker Academic 2005)

(2) N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, (HarperOne 2006) p.102

(3) N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, (HarperOne 2006) p.81

(4) N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, (HarperOne 2006) p 109

(5) N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, (HarperOne 2006) p.116

(6) N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, (HarperOne 2006) p.116