So these are the notes/play by play I took at the Rob Bell thing last night in Orlando at the Hard Rock. It was probably one of the top ten things I have ever been to…
Show opened with the lights shutting off and then a loud type of Lord of the Rings type music. There is a Greek like platform on stage. (which we later found out was meant to be/look like an alter)
Bell walks out and the crowd claps.
Starts out with a story about a cave woman and man. He leaves no room for introductions or anything, he just starts his teaching. Transitioned in how the
cave people realized that the forces they depended on and realized
were constant and they began to name them and over time the began to
name them as their gods and godesses.
“we are at the mercy of the forces.”
“we need these forces to look favorably upon us” - sacrifice - talks
about how this was a flawed system for pleasing the gods because you
always had to offer more. No matter if it was a good season or a bad season you had to offer more… you have more stuff, so you give more stuff, you need stuff, so you give more so you get more…
That was his intro for the story of how the bible fits into history. Bell went into
Gen 12 with Abraham and his intimate conversation with a deity. This
is a new thing. A non-detached god that was involved with his people.
God Told Abraham to leave his “fathers household” which was more than a
place, it was his way of life, his worldview, his religion…
Bell told this great story of Abraham, weather it was oral tradition or written down in some hebrew history book, it was insightful. Apparently when Abraham left his fathers house, the day before he left, he took an axe and massacred all of the his fathers idols except for one. And after his destruction he placed the axe in the hands of the remaining idol as morning came his father saw what was left and asked Abraham what had happened and he said “Well it seems to be quite clear, that god killed the others,” to which his father replied they couldn’t have done that, i made them myself from stone” Abraham simply said, “Then why do you bow down to them?”
Transitions into Abraham and Isaac (first mention of love in the bible is of a fathers love for his son.
Abrahams love for Isaac) Abraham is not shocked at the proposition of
killling his son because that was the norm of the day (making a crazy sacrifice because it is required of you from a god in order to please him). He did it willingly
because he knew it was what the gods did. At the end God showed him
that he was different and then God revealed himself as the God who
provides, which was a revolutionary thing for a god to do.
Talks about Leviticus. Leviticus begins with 5 instructions on how to offer
5 sacrifices. All of Leviticus is so revolutionary in its time. This
levitical system was the way that people knew god.
Moved into Jesus and his storming the temple. He walked on and said
this temple is flawed and I am here to show you the new way. “one
greater than the temple is here”
Jesus dies because he threatened the system. He threatened the
saducces and what they stood for. He made a few very wealthy and
controlling people feel threatened so they killed him. And Jesus never
fought back. “if Jesus would have fought back would he have offerered anything new?”
What does your god need to have on order for it to like you? That was
a common question of the day.
Are we good enough? Do we need acceptance from our gods? How do we
acheive it?
The first Christians were stuck on the fact that Jesus abolished the
levitical system because he was the ultimate sacrafice that did away
with any other sacrafices.
History before was ‘how do I keep these forces on my side’ and jesus
came to be that way of making peace.
(God made the peace with us because he gave us his own sacrifice?)
Repentance is a realization of what has been done for you and taking a
hold of that reconciliation.
The only ritual or thing of that nature Is beneficial is one that
reminds you and brings you back to the point or thought that shows you
the reconciliation of all things at the culmination of the ages.
When you wake and embrace this reconciliation and you act it out and
live it, then you become a living sacrifice (romans). That is the only
sacrifice left to be made.
……so those were my notes… I didn’t really edit them or anything because I am too lazy… I will hopefully be able to post Ryan Huber’s notes when he sends them to me (i was typing on my iPhone, he was typing on his laptop… he had the upper-hand) but trust me, Bell blew my mind… At the end of it Sigur Ros started play and he started to go over a few stories of people helping people and he began to repeat “you don’t have to live like this” over and over as the music grew to be more intense. And then it went silent and he said “Peace be with you” and he walked off stage as everyone applauded. I know this is kind of vague and blah, but it was good. If they sell a DVD, get it. It was basically like “this is what religion was, and then God came and changed all of that.”
EDIT Here are Ryan Huber’s Notes that are way better than mine…
Opera opening
Blue light on stone stage piece
Rob in black pants and shirt, walks out
Cave woman-Plant, provides food-dependent on this plant-ball of fire (too hot or too cold=bad)
Water falls from sky (Too much or not enough=bad)
She is dependent for her survival on forces beyond her control.
Cave husband hunts…some times come back with kill, sometimes nothing.
Stories of the hunt reflect her earlier ideas.
“Spirit of the hunt”
Ball of light in night sky-mutates in cycles, 30 appearances.
Woman’s own cycle also is 30 days.
Romance or sexuality produces life within her.
“Life grows until her body can literally no longer contain it”
In and out of breathing is the most basic rhythm. (unseen)
PLANT HUNT MOON WOMB BREATH (NO control, manipulating, dominating)
Human beings began to name these forces.
Assyrians, Samarians, Babylonians, Greeks…all had Gods (complex systems)
Sumerians had a God of BEER-HER name was nincasi (worship songs for her)
Gods are often projections of human personalities. (explains natural phenomenon)
Humans are at the mercy of the forces…they needed to appease the forces.
“Let’s set some of our crop aside as a symbolic gesture to the Gods”
Offering-Sacrifice-Altar
“Oh, that God…you need to go to His altar and do these things”
Gratitude expressed through sacrifice.
PROBLEM-If things go really well, you need to offer more.
If things go really poorly, we must offer more, last time wasn’t enough.
If things continue to get worse, we have to offer EVEN MORE.
This creates a downward cycle.
You never know where you stand with the Gods.
Fear, guilt, worry, and anxiety, are produced by this system.
Self mutilation and child sacrifice results from this system.
(Kibbalah-Female Goddess-Highest act of worship was self castration)-Sardis
Aztec Temple of Tenochtitlan- Child corpses discovered…
Incan practice of wrapping a live child in burial cloths and letting her suffocate to please the deities.
Molech was detestable because of demand of firstborn in the fire.
The Bible-Much of it comes out of the Mesopotamian and Sumerian cultures
Genesis 12-Abraham…disembodied Divine voice-leave your father, God wants to bless you
This God is different. He acts within history…He is the One God. He isn’t detached…
He tells a Sumerian to leave his father’s household (WORLDVIEW-religion)
A new way to view reality…why do you bow down to them (idols)?
Chapter 20? Take your son, whom you love, and offer him at Mt. Moriah…
(Abraham and Isaac)
“Flannel graph that”
God provides a ram.
1 This is not a new idea
2 He (Abraham) is familiar with how this goes
I AM the God who provides…
Leviticus 1-6 “killing things and dealing with the blood”
5 Specific Sacrifices
1 Come near to God-Bull, lamb, bird…
2 Grain
3 Peace-make a meal, have a meal in the presence of God in the peace of God
4 Sin-If you really screwed up
5 Guilt-
Absolutely brand new ideas in History! This blew people’s minds…
This is how you relate to God.
Solomon’s temple…Herod’s temple…300,000 people made sacrifices during the spring
Some was given to the priests…they became wealthy (Sadducees)
Profit from religious guilt and fear of the masses…hmm…
The system was built on violence…towards animals…bought and sold priesthood…
Strong relationships with Roman occupiers…
You can’t have someone interfere with the system.
Jesus announces “There is One greater than the Temple here”
Jesus insisted there was a new thing happening in and through him that rendered the old system irrelevant.
The Bible is this innovative, enlightened, conscious, pulling the culture along forward…something new…He whips the moneychangers…what dramatic gesture can we make-Jewish symbolism
Jesus condemned the whole system.
John-“Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days”-They didn’t get it…
Jesus identifies himself with the system, but greater than it.
Sadducees don’t like this man.
They kill Jesus…used the Romans as a tool…this was a public statement.
Jesus is being arrested…Peter pulls a sword…Jesus tells him to put it away.
When he could fight back, He didn’t. He was against this system of violence protected by violence. His system was greater, new, and better.
His resurrection raised very provocative questions.
“Does your God want you to kill something so you can be okay with Him?”
Everybody has a God.
Modern people bow to the forces of achievement, validation, accomplishment, acceptance, wealth, power, control, numbness…;’
“The God’s aren’t angry? They are with me!”
-Failure, shame, (Toaster suicide cutting story)
Vincent Donovan-Wrote in 70’s…not modern…tents…Bedouin type people…
Messi people have no way for sinners to come back to relationship…
A man stays on the edge of the camp…he can never come back
So many of us are on the “edge of the village”
Do we have the same primitive Gods and forces, just with new names?
The first Christians wrestled with Jesus subverting the system, being killed by it, and then rising again.
Jesus’ system was something greater for humanity.
Hebrews addresses it…Jesus appeared at the culmination of the ages…He did away with the sacrificial system.
He offered his own blood so nobody would ever have to go down that road again.
Paul in Colossians in chapter 1 says that Go has made peace, reconciled all men and all things to himself-all things.
God has made peace.
(Rwandan priest of family guy at party story)
This guy’s job was to sacrifice animals to appease the gods.
A man came and said “you don’t have to do this, blood has been shed once and for all”
The man told the story of Jesus…he decided to trust…they had animals.
“Jesus saves the goats and the chickens”
Why rituals/sacrifice?
Hebrews-It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.
Leviticus was just a shadow of Reality.
Psalms-From God’s perspective…”If I was hungry, I wouldn’t tell you”
Micah-“You think God is pleased with 1000 rams?”
Hebrews-The blood was for your conscience…
BRILLIANT!
We need rituals to illustrate/incarnate/manifest a deeper reality. This is for closure.
Repentance-Here’s what you need to do so God will make peace-WRONG!
REPENTANCE is what you do when you wake up to what God has already done.
If you are bargaining with God, you are bargaining with the wrong God.
Repentance is the (AHA!) moment. Of course I want to change, to live differently.
Do you go to church to get God off your back?
The only point of a ritual is to help you remember, to refresh you, to tell you again that PEACE HAS ALREADY BEEN MADE.
The only Christ-centered ritual is the one that invites you to reconsider the reconciliation.
There still is a sacrifice that pleases God-a living sacrifice (Romans 12) that serves others…
When you wake up to the peace that has been made and act it out for others, God smiles.
(Stories of kindness and love and generosity)
A man’s wife comes out of surgery…her face is ruined…he kisses her…”I like it”
A woman’s husband leaves her to care for 4 kids…a couple drives her to a house…hands her the keys…”Would you like a tour?”
Rob was burning out…years ago…lunch with a friend-”you don’t have to live like this”.
A lady was having visions of Jesus, and a bishop asked her to ask about his sins.
What sins did the Bishop commit? Jesus said “I don’t remember”.
May you realize that God has already made peace with man through the sacrifice of Jesus…
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