A Glorious New Creation! After Things Get Really, Really Bad #LectioCast

The promise of new creation bursts through with images of wholeness, shalom, restoration, and God’s relentless passion for God’s beloved people. And when a bystander tries to get Jesus to say that the time has finally come for it, Jesus says, “Actually, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.” Isaiah 65:17-25 New creation looks… Read more about  A Glorious New Creation! After Things Get Really, Really Bad #LectioCast

The promise of new creation bursts through with images of wholeness, shalom, restoration, and God’s relentless passion for God’s beloved people. And when a bystander tries to get Jesus to say that the time has finally come for it, Jesus says, “Actually, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.”

Isaiah 65:17-25 New creation looks like a holistic picture of human thriving and flourishing. It’s shalom. It’s the dignity of meaningful work. It’s God delighting in each of us.

Isaiah 12 We celebrate a God whose identity is tied to our own. We celebrate a God who only “is” in relation to us, who “becomes” in relationship to the doings God promised to do.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Get to work. That is all.

Luke 21:5-19 No, that new creation thing isn’t on the cusp of happening. In fact, things have to get a whole lot worse, first. But take courage–God can save your whole self even if you lose your life. 

 Daniel Kirk is a writer, speaker, and blogger who lives in San Francisco, CA where he is currently Pastoral Director for the Newbigin House of Studies. His third book A Man Attested by God: the Human Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels, is hot off the presses. Daniel holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from Duke University and is the author of, Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God and Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul? He blogs regularly at StoriedTheology.com  (http://patheos.com/blogs/storiedtheology). You can follow him on Twitter @jrdkirk and on Facebook at Facebook.com/jrdkirk.