On our trip to Phoenix, I completed N.T. Wright's book "The Challenge of Jesus." I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It was immensely helpful in gaining a better understanding of Jesus' mission, particularly as it relates to the salvation of Israel. Here are some representative quotes:
"His kingdom-agenda for Israel demanded that Israel leave off her frantic and paranoid self-defense, reinforced as it was now by the ancestral codes, and embrace instead the vocation of being light of the world, the salt of the earth..." (sound familiar?)
"Jesus, at the very center of his vocation , believed himself called to do and be in relation to Israel what, in Scripture and Jewish belief, the Temple was and did."
"We must therefore get used to a mission that includes living the true Christian praxis. Christian praxis consists in the love of God in Christ being poured out in us and through us. If this is truly happening, it is not damaged by the post-modern critique, the hermeneutic of suspicion. We must get used to telling the story of God, , Israel, Jesus and the world as the true metanarrative, the story of healing and self-giving love. We must get used to living as those who have truly died and and risen with Christ so that our self, having been thoroughly deconstructed, can be put back together, not by the agendas that the world presses upon us but by God's spirit."
"Your task is to find the symoblic ways of doing things differently, planting flags in hostile soil, setting up signposts that say there is a different way to be human. And when people are puzzled at what you are doing, find ways - fresh ways of telling the story of the return of the human race from its exile, and use these stories as your explanation."
