Review: "How God Became King" by NT Wright

Last spring I purchased NT Wright’s latest book and had the great aspirations of reading it and reviewing it in 2012. I was able to do the former in 2012, but barely. In fact, it was New Year’s Eve, sitting in the Morgantown Starbucks that I was able to pour through the latter two thirds of the book.  In some ways, the reading and review of this book typified 2012. There were goals that just got away from me and so these goals need to be carried into the new year.

That being said, at last, I have been able to sit down and write a brief review of Wright’s book. The book How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels is a highly accessible book for people who have committed their vocations to the teaching of the Bible as well as to those who have committed their lives to being ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.

The book is divided into four sections with the fourth being a response to understanding Jesus birth, life, death, and resurrection as not only in terms of atonement for sin, but as the beginnings of God putting all things to right (including our own relationship with Him).

In the first section of the book, he deals with two extremes that currently exist with regard to the life and teachings of Jesus. One is to so fully focus on His divinity and His birth, death, and resurrection that one misses His life. The other is to so focus on His life, that one misses the meaning and significance of his birth, death, and resurrection. He also gives some proposals as to how this split has happened as well as the incomplete image both offer.

In the second section, Wright speaks of four areas of emphasis within the gospels as four speakers in a sound system that need to be brought into harmony. Two of the speakers are turned up really loud and play distortedly, and in many ways drown out the remaining two speakers. Wright proposes that what needs to happen for us to hear all of the fullness of the message of the gospels is that we need to adjust the balance and volume of these stories.

In the third section, he proposes what happens as the four speakers are properly balanced. A story emerges that is the story of Israel coming to it’s climax as well as the story of Israel’s God becoming king and making his presence with humanity. In this story, everything doesn’t quite look the way one would expect it to look, but part of the reason for this is the linkage with the establishment of God’s Kingdom through suffering, service, and taking up of one’s cross.

Wright further builds a case that in much of our modern readings of the Gospels, we have uncoupled the Kingdom of God from being anything of this world or having any place in this world, and as a result we miss some of the very real and tangible opportunities for learning not only from the life of Jesus, but also seeking to live life as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God in the here and now.

Unfortunately a review this brief simply does not do the book justice, so rather than try to write lots more, I will simply encourage you to purchase a copy and give it a read, along with Wright’s other writings.

And regardless of whether you read the book or not, I invite you to take a moment, and reflect on what life might look like in your neighborhood, in your job, and in this world, if God’s rule was reflected there? And what might it look like for you to be an ambassador of what it would look like?

Just a little food for thought for 2013.

Review: Who Is This Man? By John Ortberg

Recently, my friend Doug Scott, the former creative officer for Nuru International, and the founder of the Chicago based media firm, Advocate Creative told me about a project he was working on. Doug and I became friends through Nuru back in 2008, and thankfully, he and his team are still actively involved in creating incredible videos, and other media for Nuru. Now though, by forming Advocate Creative he and his team are able to work on a more diverse array of projects.

One of his team’s more recent projects is the video embedded in this blog post. It is a short teaser video to promote a new book by a guy named John Ortberg who leads a church in Menlo Park, California. By the way, John and his wife Nancy, are both very talented authors and passionate supporters of Nuru’s work as well. Both John and Nancy have written a number of books, and all are quite good, but this one has become extra special since one of my good friends was involved in the process of promoting the book.

To start, I have to admit that, had my friend Doug not encouraged me to check it out, I probably would not have read this book. There are about 1500 books written each year about the life of Jesus, and very few are saying anything really new. Besides, just like many others, my life is pretty busy, and when I read a book, I want it to be a worthwhile use of my time. I want the book to be something that will be formative, and maybe help me be a better human being.

I ordered a copy of this book, Who Is This Man?, online, and when it arrived, one of the first things I noticed was the litany of blurbs about the book. Many authors and theologians who I deeply respect and appreciate had written a snippet about the value they saw in what Ortberg’s book had to say. People as diverse as Dallas Willard, N. T. Wright, and Shaine Claiborne had good things to say about this book, and remarkably, former US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice wrote the foreword to the book.

But the book didn’t stop being quality at the end of the foreword. In fact, the array of comments had served the author and the book well by building a solid foundation from which to build and move forward.  The book is not an apologetic for Jesus being God. It is not a book that lays out steps to salvation or anything like that. It is more of an examination of the truly unpredictable impact that Jesus has had in the twenty centuries since his life.

Chapter after chapter, Ortberg sets the stage for what was considered normative at the time of Jesus, and how Jesus’ life has shaped for generations from then to now what values we tend to admire, how we treat others, and even how we have arrived at some of the systems we have today, like our education system.

I am really tempted to go into detail regarding some of the key insights of each chapter, but I don’t want to give too much away for you. I will say this. John Ortberg lifts up historical context around many of Jesus’ stories told in the gospels that allow us to see how truly profound his statements and teachings were. He also builds a compelling case that Jesus, through a relatively short period of time in his life was able to exert more influence on the way we live and think today than any person before him and really any person since.

If you enjoy historical biography, or if you want to learn more about the life and legacy of Jesus of Nazareth in a concise format, I highly recommend this book. I found it to be inspiring and life giving as I pursue this life of faith in Jesus the Messiah. It made me want to pour over scriptures with renewed vigor to study the life and example of how Jesus lived his life, and to work more zealously to live this life as He would live it, to live my life in service for others, and to truly love my neighbors.

May you enjoy your reading of this short book that illustrates some of the profound and unpredictable impact of the life of Jesus. I know I certainly did.