Each week, after the message is preached and the worship service is over, I go home and think about all the things I could have said, or should have said. As I reflected on the message about Noah’s Ark, I realized that I could have expounded more on new creation. Here are some short thoughts that will hopefully add to the message. (You can listen to the message in the “media” section of this website. Look for the message entitled Noah’s Ark.)
The New Creation (or Kingdom of God) can be a slippery thing to think about. Particularly because we tend to think about it in abstract terms – the invisible kingdom, and because we tend to put in future terms only – “heaven-when-we-die” kind of stuff. We must realize, however, that the new creation is a very real and physical reality. We see new creation breaking in all around us. Each time someone is healed, the hungry are fed, or the naked are clothed. Every time true community is experienced and when we worship God fully – these are all evidence of God’s new creation being lived out right now. We live in a tension, though, because we also see pain, hurting, and hunger. We feel isolated and alone and can’t get a handle on living authentically with others. This tension is often referred to as the “already-not yet.” The new creation is breaking in all around us, but it is not yet revealed in all of its fullness.
As the story of Noah illustrates, when we place our faith in Christ we are made into a new creation. We are changed, made new. But we are not made new just for our own sake, we are called, commissioned to go out and share the Good News. Therefore, what Christians must do is work to make the reality of new creation known to people (through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit). It doesn’t make sense to be made new by putting our faith in Christ and then not work to make new creation possible in all things.
Listen to this quote from N.T. Wright (New Testament Scholar):
When Jesus rose again God’s whole new creation emerged from the tomb, introducing a world full of new potential and possibility. Indeed, precisely because part of that new possibility is for human being themselves to be revived and renewed, the resurrection of Jesus doesn’t leave us as passive, helpless spectators. We find ourselves lifted up, set on our feet, given new breath in our lungs, and commissioned to go and make new creation happen in the world.
That is precisely what I meant when I said that we are changed so that we can go about making change in the world. New creation is here – let’s go fulfill our commission!