Is Christianity about creation or restoration?

The story of Christianity is the story worlds dying and worlds coming to life.

The Christian era starts with people asking Jesus of Nazareth: “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Book of Acts 1:6).

God answered: “See, I am making all things new” (Book of Revelation 21:5).

Jesus got in trouble because he didn’t grant the people’s wish to go back to the way things used to be; he tried to lead them someplace they never went before–even in their dreams.

Those who chose to follow the Spirit of the Christ could barely believe the new world in which they came to live. Jews and Gentiles found themselves living together as family. They ate things they never imagined they would eat. They went places they never imagined they would go. They worshiped in ways they never imagined they would worship.

Even Saul of Tarsus, a Jew’s Jew educated and trained to spend his life teaching Jewish religion in Jerusalem, ended up preaching the Gospel of the Christ to Gentiles in places like Athens and Rome.

Even Cornelius, a Roman’s Roman, trained to brutally enforce the Pax Romana on the Jewish people became a follower of the Jewish Messiah.

When you choose to follow the Spirit of the Christ, don’t expect to go back to the “good old days,” back to “the way things used to be.”

The Spirit of the Christ is not here to restore your idea of the kingdom, your idea of the perfect world.

The Spirit of the Christ is here to make all things new, including you.

That means a life in the Spirit of the Christ is a life of plunging ahead into the unexpected, the unfamiliar, the unknown.

It is a life of faith that the world the Spirit of the Christ will show you is better than the one you are leaving behind.

Let’s not go back. Let’s follow the Spirit of the Christ to the people we fear and the places we are afraid to go. Let us follow the Spirit of the Christ to the new world God is making.

This is the Way.

Grace and peace.