0171 Wright asks, “What is Adam’s vocation?”

Wright’s answer plays on the image of God mentioned in the Creation Story.

He writes (more or less, “Adam’s vocation is to be an angled mirror, reflecting God’s wise order into the world and reflecting the praises of all creation back to the Creator.” (See page 175.)

0172 Ironically, this is what Jesus does, in ways that no one anticipated.  Substitute the word, “truth”, for “praises”.

0173 Indeed, this is a vocation for all Christians, as they are drawn into conflicts with those who are convinced that they have solutions to the challenges of order and reality.

The challenges, from the viewpoint of the hypothesis of the first singularity, come from the proposed solutions.  Speech-alone words (the declared reality) are used to create the artifacts (the order) that validate the speech-alone words (the declared reality).

Initially, everyone is on board with the declared reality and the artifacts that validate them.  Then, some start gaming the system by manipulating the order.  Others justify the manipulations by redefining the technical meanings of the declared reality.  They fudge the truth.  Afterwards, artifacts validate a distorted order that depends on experts configuring technical meanings.  Then, an event similar to the end of the Tower of Babel occurs.

0174 One of vocations of Israel is to rescue the human race and get God’s creational project back on track. (See pages 176-177.)

0175 The problem?

Who is going to mirror the heavenly order down to earth?  Who is going to mirror the mundane truth up to heaven?  The prophets try.  The prophets are met with resistance, by an establishment interested in manipulating order and reality.  The establishment is full of mirrors.  Oh, I should not forget the smoke.  Smoke and mirrors.

0176 This is where Jesus comes into the picture.  Man is created in the image of God.  Jesus calls himself, “The Son of Man.”

If Adam is supposed to reflect the divine order to earth and reflect the mundane truth to God, then he fails.  Jesus succeeds where Adam falls.

In this, Paul calls us to redemption in Christ.