Community, Cross and New Creation

Images help bring clarity to our life. In fact, our culture communicates primarily through images. If any of you have ever used The Facebook you realize how much we depend on pictures and icons to help us tell the story of our lives. Christian images too help provide focus for our faith journeys. In his book, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, Rev. Richard Hays selects three focal images from the New Testament to tell the Christian story. He selects the images of community, cross and new creation.
The community aspect of Christianity is evident throughout the New Testament. Paul writes to churches and reminds them they make up the body of Christ together. God has called this community to live differently than the world around it. The Christian people are “to be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:3). As we consider our worshipping community, we recall how Christ has given us an opportunity to share in his life through our worship of God and our love for each other.
The cross stands as the central model for discipleship as we are reminded of our Lord Jesus Christ whose suffering and sacrifice expressed God’s incredible love for his people. The cross calls us to share in Christ’s suffering and to obey Jesus’ command to take up our cross and follow him. If we are truly Christians, we cannot avoid the cross. There is simply no way around it.
The new creation expresses how God is busy bringing about a new age. As Paul writes, “The whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now,” (Romans 8:2-23). The powers of the old world are passing away and God is creating a new way of living. Yet, we have not seen this new creation in its fullness. The best is yet to come. Christians realize God is transforming us and all his creation into something new. Indeed, the best is yet to come.
I hope these images will help provide us some clarity about our God and his relationship to us. God has given us a community. God has called us to carry the cross. God will create his people and world into something completely new.