The Flip of the Coin

The afterglow of the Super Bowl for most is either a sorrow or joy for the victorious I’m going to Disneyland triumphant or a residual chuckle over the ever hyped commercials. I’m still enamored with the toss of the coin. Not just the possible advantage of winning the toss but who is it that determines which is heads and which is tales. That is, why is the trophy heads and the stadium tails? Maybe they toss a coin to determine which is which? My real point here is that… yes, there are two sides to a coin.
Recently, I listened to N.T. Wright’s lecture at Bristol entitled, “Putting the Gospels Back Together: How We've All misread Our Central Story.” Bishop Tom Wright’s point in this lecture is that we have missed much in the gospels by not connecting kingdom and cross. That is, we have either interpreted the kingdom through the cross or the cross through the kingdom and have not seen that they are two sides of the same coin. Such an interpretation or better yet, understanding of the completed promises of God allows God’s people to embrace the connection of God’s reign on earth as it is in heaven through the resurrected Jesus and the implications of redemption revealed in a cross that anchors a radically new creation in the recipients of eternal life. I would not for a moment pretend to interpret N.T. Wright for any and all but would highly encourage you to go to his web site (http://www.ntwrightpage.com) and listen to the rich and challenging discussion of the connection of cross and kingdom in the gospels.
The food for thought that brother Wright left in my spiritual bread basket forms into the question, “What would the church look like if we embraced both kingdom and cross as two sides of the same coin?” That is, what would the church look like if we talked as much about kingdom citizenship and responsibilities as we do about salvation and accompanying holiness? I think at least one change would be that we spend less time debating what happens in corporate worship and more time contemplating how the kingdom of God can break into a world that is lost! I think we would be more focused on who Jesus must be for the world than who he must be for us. And I think if not moved to action we would at least have our conscience prodding us to be salt to the earth. But possibly the most important change would be that instead of seeing ourselves as guardians of orthodoxy we would truly be more than conquerors through him who loved us! -DAN