From the first chapter of Gerhard Lohfink’s book:

in its first book the Bible not only narrates the story of human sin, but also the beginning of the story of salvation with Abraham. Without looking at that history of salvation and trying to live within it no one can say whether God’s creation is a success or not.

It is only the redeemed who have a clue as to what “success” is. “Success” is life as God intended. This is the only “abundance” worth its weight (and not in “gold”…which most associate with wealth, but the “gold” has its worth because it is “of that city”.

I have a feeling that as I read this book, I will want to (even more) read The City of God

There must be a place, visible, tangible, where the salvation of the world can begin: that is, where the world becomes what it is supposed to be according to God’s plan. Beginning at that place, the new thing can spread abroad, but not through persuasion, not through indoctrination, not through violence. Everyone must have the opportunity to come and see. All must have the chance to behold and test this new thing. Then, if they want to, they can allow themselves to be drawn into the history of salvation that God is creating. Only in that way can their freedom be preserved. What drives them to the new thing cannot be force, not even moral pressure, but only the fascination of a world that is changed.

Clearly this change in the world must begin in human beings, but not at all by their seeking through heroic effort to make themselves the locus of the new, altered world; rather it begins when they listen to God, open themselves to God, and allow God to act.

“allow themselves to be drawn into the history of salvation that God is creating” — this has been what my deepest experiences of church have shown me. Such things happen all too infrequently and in too few places. Not that God has not been active in these places and times. It is a matter of “listening to God”; and depending upon the gathered people for a “gathered” experience of Pentecost where the call of God rides on the winds of Pentecost, and many hear it and share it, and all they can do is respond with their lives.