At the end of N.T. Wright’s new book, “The Challenge of Acts: Rediscovering What the Church Was and Is,” he provides the following charge:

By no means all Jesus’ followers today are able to announce Jesus as lord “openly and unhindered,” as Paul was in Rome. We should pray for those who have to do it secretly and under duress. But as long as we in the Western churches are able to, we shouldn’t mess around. The resurrection of Jesus is not only the central datum of our faith. It is the source of the energy we need, which we must claim for our task. We too face challenges of the dark forces that seek to prevent us getting where our calling is pointing, and doing what we believe we should. Like Paul in the boat, we must hang on and be prayerful and patient. And we need to hear again and again the gospel verdict, already in the present, anticipating the time when our own resurrection will be God’s way of saying, “There: I told you all along you were my beloved children.” As we thank God for Luke and his remarkable work [the book of Acts], we thank God that Luke’s story of the gospel, getting to the ends of the earth, is our story as well. And we pray for grace and strength to live and proclaim it with all boldness, and with no one stopping us.

Amen!