Jesus Wants to Save Christians

So. I finally got to reading the new Rob Bell book. I was super-excited when I first picked it up, because it seemed like something I'd really be interested in. The back of the book puts it like this: "There's a church in our area that recently added an addition to their building which cost more than $20 million dollars. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers."

Very appealing summary! This issue that he brings up is a very real issue, one that most people are blind to (whether they choose to be or are simply uneducated). What really sucks is that the first half of the book doesn't even touch on this subject. I picked it up with high hopes and was swiftly let down by the boredom I received in the first half. I kept having to tell myself, "Just read the next chapter, it'll pick up" which I hate doing in a book. But don't get me wrong, he made a couple of good points throughout that portion, I just wasn't all that interested.

The first half was a narrative about the Bible. From the story of creation to John's final revelation, Bell goes through and adds his own opinions on what was happening and includes several little background facts about what was going on at the time. Some noteworthy ideas were things like how God's real goal when rescuing and dealing with the Israelite people was that he was looking for a 'body'. God was "inviting these people to be priests, to show the world what this God is like through their lives." This idea of a God who demonstrates his image instead of something visual extends from the times of the exodus, all the way to the time of... well, now.

He also gets into the idea of exile when we finally get to Solomon and after. Exile is state of being that many groups of people fall into - and he takes no issue with being specific. "Exile is when you forget your story. Exile isn't just about location; exile is about the state of your soul (and I think he's talking about more than just distance from God, but hell also). Exile is when you fail to convert your blessings into blessings for others (an idea from Claiborne's book, if I'm not mistaken). Exile is when you find yourself a stranger to the purposes of God." He applies this idea of exile by segueing into the idea of oppression in an empire and Amos' writings.

Bell argues that with Solomon as king, the nation of Israel became an empire (because of various reasons I won't get into). We see how oppression takes its hold and what the prophet Amos says God thinks about it. "When God is on a mission, what is God to do with a religion that legitimizes indifference and worship that inspires indulgence? What is God to do when the time, money and energy of his people are spent on ceremonies and institutions that neglect the needy? God calls their church services 'evil assemblies'; God hates their religious gatherings"

Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. but let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!... You who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land... buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.
-Amos

The result? His people go into exile. Again. The solution? God's plan? Jesus, of course, but not in the way we expect.
___
"If evil always takes some form of violence, then more violence isn't going to solve anything. On the night Jesus was betrayed, a group of soldiers come with swords and clubs to arrest him, which is, of course, absurd. but this is how it is with those addicted to the myth of redemptive violence. They come with swords and clubs because it's the only language they know how to speak. Jesus' disciples are outraged, and one of them takes out his sword and starts swinging. Jesus tells him to put away his sword, 'for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.' - Of course, we're seend enough of that in human history.

"Jesus then reminds his disciple that he could call on his Father, who would give him whatever military assistance he needs, 'but how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?' It's as if Jesus says, 'If I do it like everybody has done it since the beginning of time, how would that change anything?' He understands how easily it can go the wrong way, and then we're back in the same old rut, clinging to the notion that violence can bring peace."
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After trudging through the book of Acts, we finally get to what's interesting. Bell makes the blatent equality that America is and empire in the same way that Solomon's nation was. Empires naturally deal arms, build 'terraces', and stockpile 'gold'. But then he unleashes a page and a half of statistics that not only solidify his point, but would absolutely shut up anyone about to disagree with him. I'm going to literally type all these out (for my own sake, I'm not really expecting any one to read my posts).

"-America controls nearly 20% of the world's wealth, and consists of 5% of its population.
-One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses four hundred to six hundred liters of water a day.
-Every seven seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age five dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14% of the food we purchase.
-Nearly one billion people in the world live on less than one American dollar a day.
-Another 2.5 billion people in the world live on less than two American dollars a day.
-More than half of the world lives on less than two dollars a day, while the average American teenager spends nearly $150 a week.
-Forty percent of people in the world lack basic sanitation, while 49 million diapers are used and thrown away in America every day.
-1.6 billion people in the world have no electricity.
-Nearly one billion people in the world cannot read or sign their name.
-Nearly one hundred million children are denied basic education.
-By far, most of the people in the world do not own a car.
-1/3 of American families own three cars.
-One in seven children worldwide (158 million) has to go to work every day just to survive.
-Four out of five American adults are high school graduates.
-Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half of the world does on all goods.
-The top three oil consumers - China consumes 5.6 million barrels of oil a day, Japan consumer 5.5, and the US consumes 20 million barrels of oil per day.
-The number of Americans taking antidepressants has tripled in the past decade. If all of this was supposed to make us happy, why are so many of us so sad?

Human history has never witnessed the abundance that we consider normal. America is the wealthiest nation in the history of humanity. We have more resources than any group of people anywhere at any time has ever had. Ever.

God bless America? God has. And we should be very, very grateful."

Goodness. These figures scare me, because you know what? The implications of these statistics are very very bad. The people of Israel were cast into exile because they became indifferent to the needy and poor people of their land. They became proud, felt entitlement, and forgot the LORD their God. When you forget God, you forget what God cares about - the refugee, the widow, the orphan, and those in need (which he speaks about continually). We become indifferent to them. "In an empire of indifference, as it becomes harder and harder to understand the perspective of others, it becomes easier and easier to confuse blessing with entitlement. Entitlement leads to immunity to the suffering of others, because 'I got what I deserve', and so, apparently, did they.

I'll skip the part where Bell bashes "Left Behind" Christians, because I already talked about it a little and move right into his conclusion. Jesus' Gospel is a new way of humanity. He compares this new humanity to what the Catholics overemphasized in the literal - the Eucharist. He runs with this Eucharist idea and presents several excellent points about the church today. Like how the church today is in an exile of irrelevance, where the only way to return from exile is to once again concern ourselves with the needy and unspokens. Take on issues that matter. This, in my mind, is an excellent conclusion to a book that devotes half its chapters to talking about Israel in exile.