COP30 - 15 November 2025
Weekend break: God's grand glory
COP30 - 15 November 2025
Weekend break: God's grand glory
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Weekend break: God's grand glory
In order for us to play our role effectively, we need to understand our character - who we are, the unique passions and values God has given us - and the wider story within which we are caught up.
(Rich Gower and Rachel Walker in The Hopeful Activist)
Today we step back from reflecting on Our Voices Matter to consider God's Grand Story, a drama in which we play a pivotal part, but not always in a starring role. In their book, The Hopeful Activist, Rich Gower and Rachel Walker look at the wider story of the Bible, dividing it into six acts from creation to the new creation. We found their divisions and accompanying descriptions helpful as we consider our role in God's creation, so we've summarised them below.
The six acts
The six acts
Act 1: Creation
Act 1: Creation
When God had finished making the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars and all living things, including us, he declared it to be very good.
Act 2 : The Fall
Act 2 : The Fall
Men and women disobeyed God and spoilt their relationship with God, with each other and with creation. We now have the knowledge of both good and evil, and consequently we experience both in this world.
Act 3: God’s people
Act 3: God’s people
God started to rebuild his relationship with people, at first with specific people such as Noah and Abraham, to whom he made promises. Then he called Israel to be his own people. He called them out of slavery in Egypt to live in a land he gave them. God gave them commandments that they might be holy and be a blessing to the nations. God’s law helped people to know how they should live, but it couldn’t change the human heart or defeat death.
Act 4: Jesus
Act 4: Jesus
God’s solution was to send Jesus. Jesus was God living among us as a human; the Creator living in his creation. He healed people, provided food, taught and reached across cultural divides, and he challenged those who oppressed others. This led to his crucifixion. But then he rose from the dead, breaking the power of death.
Act 5: The Church
Act 5: The Church
As Jesus’ followers we are filled with the Spirit to do the things Jesus did; healing ill people, sharing their lives with one another, caring for the poor and spreading the message of the good news. We are to seek good relationships with those around us and with creation. We live out the prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven”
Act 6 : New Heaven and New Earth
Act 6 : New Heaven and New Earth
This is God’s full restoration of his good creation. The holy city will come down from heaven to populate the new earth, where God will be with his people again. Death and suffering will be no more and creation will not longer be in bondage to decay.
Where we are now?
Where we are now?
We are living in Act 5 now, with the knowledge of what has happened in Acts 1-4 and in anticipation of what is to come in Act 6. What we do now resonates into eternity - our efforts can be part of God's restoration project. Members of the Northumbria Community are fond of the simple question: How then shall I live?
Taken from chapter 2 of The Hopeful Activist by Rich Gower and Rachel Walker, published by SPCK Publishing, 2024Page updated
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