Wednesday, April 23, 2014

A Door Set Open, By Peter Seinke

A Door Set Open
Chapter 6 – Joining God’s New Creation

1.  Steinke’s introduction to this chapter is both humorous and quite serious…contrasting the wide gap between biblical and confessional understanding of resurrection with that of often-misguided popular religion.  Steinke wisely draws upon the guidance of N.T. Wright in such matters.

What does “the resurrection of the body” mean for us individually, as well as for creation itself?  How does a “soulectomy” completely miss the boat?

2.  By using Plato’s cave allegory, Steinke stresses that we’re in for a huge surprise…namely, that “the biblical final destination is…not merely heaven.  It is a new heaven and a new earth.  All creation has a future.”

What does this mean, not only for the ways we might experience new life in the future, but also for the ways we might experience new life right now?  How does such hope change and shape our present attitudes and agendas?

3.  Review & discuss the implications of these statements:

- With the resurrection of Jesus, everything changes.

- Easter’s grand promise is a newly embodied person in a renewed world.

- Easter is about God’s new creation and the calling of believers to be agents of the kingdom.  Christians are called to embody the hope that the God of promise offers.

- The Christian physicist John Polkinghorne remarked that hope is not a mood but a commitment to action.  Its character implies that whatever we hope for we will be prepared to work for, thus bringing it about as we are able.

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