Rachel Held Evans has a fabulous ‘Ask A’ series on her blog where she allows readers to submit questions that then get asked of a predetermined person. It includes people like Shane Claiborne, a Pentecostal, a Calvinist, a gay Christian, a nun, and more. Her latest is N.T Wright.

Bishop N.T Wright

As always I enjoyed reading what N.T Wright had to say. I especially loved this quote that he gave during an answer to a question about the continuity between the work of justice we pursue now and the renewed heavens and earth promised in scripture – does any of what we do now actually matter and make a difference? This bit stood out to me:

The point of justice and mercy anyway is not ‘they deserve it’ but ‘this is the way God’s world should be’, and we are called to do those things that truly anticipate the way God’s world WILL be.

Wright describes that question of continuity as a mystery but points to a few things that signal it, the best being in the resurrection of Jesus (which is partly why a physical resurrection of Jesus following the c is significant – it grounds a physical future reality). That question aside, it’s the idea of anticipating the way God’s world WILL be that grabbed my attention.

We work in humility, expressing mercy and pursuing justice (making things right) because it’s how things should be, but in doing so we also demonstrate the character of God and show to the world the reality and hope inherent in the world to come. In short we do it because it matters now and also because it signals a beautiful reality to come.

You should check out the rest of the interview. It touches on things like gender in ministry, sexuality and other topics of interest. Rachel did a good job of taking over 300 questions submitted by her readers and cutting it down to 6.