Ready, Set, Action!

So I went to my first book club this morning, and I really enjoyed it even though I didn't say a word during the conversation. To be honest I feel somewhat intimidated by the brains that are in that circle. But I really enjoyed it and I really am going to try to make this a weekly event, if work will allow this. So they're reading through the book Simply Christian by N.T. Wright and its my first Wright book and I really like what he has to say.

Just a few quoates from the book that really got me thinking.

"Not all Jews of this period believed in or wanted a coming Messiah. But those who did, an they were many, cherished a frequently repeated set of expectations as to what the anointed one would do when he arrived. He would fight the battle against Israel's enemies-specifically, the Romans. He would rebuild, or at least cleanse and restore, the Temple (a task that, as noted earlier, the Herod family had undertaken, to press their claim to be the true royal house)."

"Nobody was expecting anyone, least of all al Messiah, to rise from the dead. A crucified Messiah was a failed Messiah."

"Nothing in Jewish literature or imagination had prepared people for a portrait like this. If the gospel writers had something up to fit a preconceived notion the one thing they would certainly had done is describe the risen Jesus shining like a star. Accoding to Daniel 12:3 (a very influential passage in Jewish thought at the time), this was how the righteous would appear at the resurrection. But Jesus didn't."

"The death of Jesus of Nazareth as the king of the Jews, the bearer of Israel's destiny, the fulfillment of God's promises to his people of old, is either the most stupid, senseless wast and misunderstanding the world has ever seen, or it is the fulcrum around which world history turns."

"The music he wrote must now be performed. The early disciples saw this, and got on with it."

The last two quotes are the two that really got me thinking and the feeling I got from reading this last chapter is that its time to stop talking about Jesus and talking about the church and talking about how we are Christians and it's time to start living that out,it's time to stop doing church and start being the church, it's time to we allow Jesus to effect us in day to day life, in our every thought, every action.

It's time we the musicians start to play this music that has been written for us.