This week we are reflecting on what Resurrection means for how we live our daily lives. Today, a post from the past on what it means to take up our cross.
Tom Wright wasn’t writing on the mission of motherhood, just the mission of Christians and our answer to the popular philosophy of Gnosticism in our culture. I added a few thoughts on how these words speak to moms. What do Wright’s words say to you about kingdom living? If you want to read the entire article by Wright, go tohttp://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Lambeth2008.htm
“… in the Bible you discover ‘who you really are’ only when the living God, the creator, is rescuing you and giving you a new identity, a new status, a new name. The Bible is itself the story of, and the energy to bring about, the redemption of creation, ourselves included, not the discovery within ourselves of a spark which just needs to express itself. Gnosticism hates resurrection, because resurrection speaks of God doing a new thing within and for the material world, putting it right at last, rather than God throwing the material world away and allowing the divine spark to float off free. And it is resurrection – the resurrection of Jesus in the past, and of ourselves in the future – which is the ground of all Christian ethical life in the present. Christian ethics is not a matter of ‘discovering who you truly are’ and then being true to that. It is a matter, as Jesus and Paul insist, of dying to self and coming alive to God, of taking up the cross, of inaugurated eschatology, of becoming in oneself not ‘what one really is’ already but ‘what one is in Christ’, a new creation, a small, walking, breathing anticipation of the promised time when the earth shall be filled with God’s glory as the waters cover the sea.”
N.T. Wright, The Bible and Tomorrow
Wright points out that our culture often tells us to ‘look inside’ to find that ‘inner creativity’ to make an impact in the world. Thank God, a M.O.M.’s (Moms of Mission) core story tells me something different – it’s not from within me but from without that the power for transformation comes and has come. I don’t have to look for the perfect parenting program or school them in the latest educational approach or use the correct disciplinary method to grow children God’s way. It is not entirely up to me to do it right. I can admit that I’m weak, broken, mean and confused. I can do all of this because of the gospel story which tells me that resurrection has changed me and will change me. On dark days, the power for hope comes from remembering resurrection – Christ was raised from the dead, and in that moment, he made me a new creation. And not only that, but it is through Christ’s being raised to life that my kids will be raised – TO LIFE!
As a mom on a mission, I must remember the resurrection, and I must act on this memory. Wright tells us that the resurrection is the ground of “Christian ethics,” but what are “Christian ethics”? Not to worry – it’s just a high-falutin sounding phrase that means simply ‘how we behave as Christians.’ How do we behave as Christian moms? We become in ourselves not just what we really are; no indeed, we become what we really are IN CHRIST, which is a whole different matter. And in doing so we recognize that these little creatures we are trying so desperately to raise, are, like us, new creations. Wright says we are a ‘small, walking, breathing anticipation of the promised time when the earth shall be filled with God’s glory as the waters cover the sea.’
So then, how shall we live as Christian mothers on a mission? Should we use organic, reusable diapers? Maybe, because that might reflect good stewardship of the earth. On the other hand, the washing might weary us so that we would be irritable and ornery subduers of our children, so maybe not. Should we homeschool or public school? Yes. Should we make them learn to play the piano? Maybe. Hopefully, you get the point – because we are imagining a day when all things will be made new, the decisions we make as mothers on a mission should be based on listening very carefully to the story God has written in us and in our children. It should be based on listening for the Spirit’s call to kingdom living and giving. What cultures is my family meant to cultivate? What neighborhood do I live in? What neighborhood can I give in? These questions are far more important than whether to bottle feed or breast feed, though those aren’t irrelevant. Whatever we do, it should reflect the fact that we are living in anticipation of a different day, a day when all things will be made new.
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