One of the things I find depressing about some of the upper echelons of Anglicanism on both sides of the Atlantic is that it's sort of taken for granted that we all basically know what's in the Bible, and so we just glance at a few verses for devotional purposes and then get on to the real business.
N. T. WrightWe can glimpse it in the book of Acts: the method of the kingdom will match the message of the kingdom. The kingdomโฆgoes out into the world vulnerable, suffering, praising, praying, misunderstood, misjudged, vindicated, celebrating: always โ as Paul puts it in one of his letters โ bearing in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed.
N. T. WrightOne of the reasons we do history, in fact, is because it acts as a brake, a control, on our otherwise unbridled enthusiasm for our own ideas.
N. T. WrightJesus himself, as the gospel story goes on to its dramatic conclusion, lives out the same message of the Sermon on the Mount: he is the light of the world, he is the salt of the earth, he loves his enemies and gives his life for them, he is lifted up on a hill so that the world can see.
N. T. Wright