I finished Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis the other day. Wow.
I told a friend, this puts my faith (or what I want it to be) into words.
I think I underlined the entire last chapter of the book.
I loved the comparison between Adam in the garden and Jesus after his resurection.
“Thinking he was the gardner, she said…”
“John wants us to see a connection between the garden of Eden and Jesus rising from the dead in the garden. There is a new Adam on the scene and his is reversing the curse of death by conquering it.”
When we think about creation, remember that God calls it “good.”
The word is used throughout the Creation narrative to say that God perceives his creation as “good.”
“The God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so. The next verse is significant: The land produced vegetation. Notice it doesn’t say, ‘God produced vegetation.'”
God empowered creation to do something.
We are empowered with loads of potential. All of creation is.
And this is for all you “tree-huggin-haters” 🙂 (who I admit, I used to be one of you):
“God then makes people whom he puts right in the middle of all this loaded creation, commanding them to care for creation, to manage it, to lovingly use it, to creatively order it… They are in intimate relationship with their enviroment. They are enviromentalists. Being deeply connected with their enviroment is who they are. For them to be anything else or to deny their divine responsibility to care for all that God has made would be to deny something that is at the core of their existence.
That is why litter and polution are spiritual issues.
And until that last sentence makes perfect sense, we haven’t fully grasped what it means to be human and live in God’s world.” DOH!
Bell also talks about the Roman way of life during the early church.
Caesar Agustus believed that he was the son of a god. He inagurated a 12 day celebration called Advent to celebrate his birth. Wait a minute? That sounds familiar.
He used slogans like, “There is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved that that of Caesar.”
“It was at this time, in the world, that the Jesus movement exploded among an ethnic minority in a remote corner of the empire. These people claimed their leader was a rabbi who had announced the arrival of the kingdom of God, had been crucified and had risen from the dead and appeared to his followers. One of their favorite slogans was, ‘Jesus is Lord.'”
“They took political propaganda from the empire and changed the words around to make it about their Lord.”
Another interesting aspect was that the church didn’t try to argue or prove Jesus’ resurrection. For one, most people had seen him resurrected or knew of someone who claimed to have seen him. Another reason, many other people had claimed to rise from the dead at that time. “Julius Caesar himself was reported to have ascended to the right hand of the gods after his death.” Also, the church realized that arguments rarely persuade people, but experiences do. “Living, breathing, flesh and blood experiences of the resurection community. To the outside world, it was less about proving and more about inviting people to experience this community of Jesus’ followers for themselves.” People were changed not by arguments, but by the lives they saw Christians living.
Oh how I wish others would see that in me.
“And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them that there were no needy persons among them. What was the result of the resurrection according to Luke? ‘No needy persons among them.'”
“To be a part of the church was to join a countercultural society that was partnering with God to create a new kind of culture, right undr the nose of the caesers.”
And for the church to continue today, we have to learn to give ourselves away.
“The church is at its best when it gives itself away.”
“The church doesn’t exist for itself; it exists to serve the world. It is not ultimately about the church; its about all the people God wants to bless through the church. When the church loses sight of this, it loses its heart.”
One more great point and then I’ll wrap up (I sound like a teacher or preacher – ha).
“Another truth about the church we’re embracing is that the gospel is good news, especially for those who don’t believe.”
Woah. Where are we going with that.
Bell uses this illustration. Lets say Person X becomes a Christian. She’s surrounded by neighbors of other faiths and backgrounds. Person X should be becoming a better person now that they are a Christian. She is becoming more generous, more compassionate, more forgiving, more loving. Her neighbors should all be thrilled with her new faith.
“The good news of Jesus is good news for Person X. It’s good news for Person X’s neighbors. It’s good news for the whole street. It’s good news for people who don’t believe in Jesus. We have to be clear about this. The good news for Person X is good news for the whole street.
If the gospel isn’t good news for everybody, then it isn’t good news for anybody.”
“And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display.”
I’m going to stop there. I’m anxious to read your comments. Chew on it. I’ve been chewing for a couple days.
