"...homework's a-callin' my name...doo doo doo doo dah doo dah..."

...but I'm making up this silly song instead and trying to figure out why God is SO good to me. I'm pretty sure that's a futile effort on my part... it does make me doggone grateful though.

If you'd like to know, Paul is the homework I've been neglecting for the past 24 hours--very NOT honorable of me! ;) But I can make up for it and explain why this is taking me so long...
Because in this book, N.T. Wright is basically talking about how GOOD God is (which, if you note above, is what I keep thinking about and getting really overwhelmed by. It's no excuse. I know. But God IS, really, overwhelming good). Wright is using Paul's perspective on things like the Creation, the Covenant, the Messiah, the Apocalyptic, the Gospel and the Roman Empire... and he's showing us the Grand Narrative of a God who loves, elects, calls, forgives, calls again (and forgives again), bestows favor, extends mercy, POURS OUT grace as if it were the ocean trying to be contained in creeks... and when Paul writes about these things in his letters, he recognizes the timeless common thread of Christ. Christ who is both the thread and the knot, both the root and stem, both the Object and the Subject of Truth revealed to the world... the God-Person, the Son, Who was always there... In the Beginning...

...and Who was always there in the line of Israel
...in the answer to the problem of rebellious humanity
...in the anticipation of the Torah and its inviting covenant
...in the death of the chains of failure
...in the defeat of the laws of 'perfection'
...in the defiance of the grip of sin
...in the RAISING of redefinitions
...redefining the 'people of God'
...redefining the 'righteous'
...redefining what it IS to be the 'faithful'
...and what it is to be full of faith by the faithfulness of our Messiah.
He is always there
...in His Body of Believers--the church--on earth
...in His Spirit of Guidance and Comfort and Fire... and LIFE
...in His ascended body, in His returning reign
...in His Kingdom, His Lordship, and His embracing but jealous Love.


Oh how I love Christ, this Beginning and End. How I love Him, my beginning and end. He is the beginning of true life for me, and will someday be the end of a life in paradox.

On Christ's cross, I see the crucifying of being justified by works--and I can both see and be seen 'righteous' now by the light of His new Truth.
In His resurrection, I see the hope of living by this Truth, that has, truly, set me free. I rise this morning in the light of Christ, Who rises again every day that we might join His new life...

As Paul recognized: He was always the beginning of life for God's people...and His revelation marked the end of life determined by law. Of course, The Law of God's Love is embodied in Christ... but His redefinitions of what that means has changed everything!

Christ changes everything...


So....... I'm still not sure I want to do my homework... but it's not really homework that's calling my name anymore...
I am going to go read Paul now, because I can almost hear a voice calling out changes in my life from the pages...

Whoa.