In Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell attempts to paint an alternative perspective of scripture, tradition, and doctrine of Christianity. He does so in a way that has been often challenged by his more "fundamentalist" or "conservative" counterparts, and rightly so. He spends 177 pages arguing passionately against all of the ways certain (and many) Christians have not acted in a Christ-like manner. He is consistent in stating that he is only a contributor to this discussion, and he sequentially explains how he arrived at his conclusions--or rather, his belief in the mystery. Mystery is a huge part of faith and worship for me, and Elvis really struck a chord. It struck many chords. It played Guns n' Roses in my soul. A good friend of mine, Josh, posted this as his Facebook status: Have you ever tried to proclaim a mystery boldly? No wonder Episcopalians have a hard time with evangelism! I think many Christians have a hard time with evangelism not only because of the difficulty to proclaim a mystery boldly, but because of many things Bell analyzes in his book. My palms are burning with anxiety as I contemplate his words and how to best share them.
I'll skip to the end, but know that the whole thing is filled with juice. Buy it here.
In the Gospel of John, Mary encounters Jesus after the resurrection and thinks he is the gardener. "I love that line 'thinking he was the gardener.' It is so loaded. Jewish writers like John did things like this all the time in their writings. They record what seem to be random details, yet in these details we find all sorts of multiple layers of meaning...John tells us that Jesus is buried in a garden tomb. And Jesus is mistaken for a gardener. Something else is going on here. John wants us to see a connection between the garden of Eden and Jesus rising from the dead in a garden. There is a new Adam on the scene, and he is reversing the curse of death by conquering it. As one writer put it, 'It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.' And he's doing it in a garden. He's reclaiming creation. He's entering into it and restoring it and renewing God's plans for the world" (156-157).
When God creates the world, he creates systems for growth, development. "It is all 'good.' Notice what God does with his 'good' creation. 'Then 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 that it doesn't say, 'God produced vegetation.' God empowers the land to do something" (157).
In the same way, God created humankind to change and grow, in many ways, including their understanding of life and God. God does not want us to get stuck in the mud, reverting to cultural norms from thousands of years ago. Jesus is evidence of that. Jesus changed things and challenged norms in a big way. He completely turned upside-down everyone's understanding of scripture. After his teachings, no one came quite as close to Truth (with a capital "T"). When we read these other books, we need to keep in focus Jesus and his focus on two commandments.
1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
This, of course plays into NOT making false idols (because in the two commandments Jesus highlights, all the others are found). False idols (things that people hold of too high of importance) today include things like pornography, drugs, alcohol...etc. They also include things that can be used for good like the internet, sports, and even...gasp...the Bible. Now now, I did say that these things can be good. They often are. Obviously the Bible can be good...it has the "Good News," yes? But when we lose focus and start to idolize the written word more than we pay attention to the living word, we lose focus on God. When we forget our job as human beings, we violate this commandment. Unfortunately, in much of Christianity, this tendency has caused great mistreatment of people, which is clearly against the point. It is in complete contradiction with the second most important commandment.
2) You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
How is it that so much of Christianity is getting caught up in the ancient, culturally-bound rules when a culminating mantra for living is in the Gospel; when "Christ" is in the name of the religion! Without him and his ideas on how we should treat each other with respect and dignity, we become a bunch of snobby, frumpy, legalists. We become intolerable, and I know it isn't what God has in mind. It isn't what the word natural means. We argue our beliefs by claiming to know what is natural. We figure out what is natural by making personal choices about how to interpret the Bible. We get so caught up in OUR belief of what is natural, that we ignore what we're told to do. This happens on the individual level as well as the corporate level.
"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. To do this, the church must stop thinking about everybody primarily in categories of in or out, saved or not, believer or nonbeliever" (167). When we even CONSIDER these as categories, we are violating this most sacred commandment. When people said (or still say) that so-called minorities "can't" or "shouldn't" lead in the Church, be in the church, live in a certain lifestyle...
[You know what I'm talking about.]
...when people say these things, they are offending hoards of their brothers and sisters who are fighting the same fight: to live the life we believe God has for us. How dare anyone say they aren't fighting well enough. How dare anyone say someone is "living in sin." We all sin. Note: we are not sinners. Bell notes that while we sin, nowhere in the Bible does it say we should regard ourselves first and foremost as sinners (139). How can anyone have the nerve to assume they have something figured out when they might not have even struggled with the same issue? Our approach to situations where we disagree with someone on something like...oh...homosexuality, should not be an attempt to change minds.
We shouldn't pray against someone's will.
We shouldn't be egotistical and pretend that we're right.
We shouldn't disrespect that person in any way, shape, or form.
...I don't need to cite that crucial commandment again.
"We are all created in the image of God..."
WE ARE ALL CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD - in case you missed it
"...and we are all sacred, valuable creations of God. Everybody matters. To treat people differently based on who believes what is to fail to respect the image of God in everyone. As the book of James says, 'God shows no favoritism.' So we don't either...Oftentimes the Christian community has sent the message that we love people and build relationships in order to convert them to the Christian faith (to OUR Christian faith). So there is an agenda. And when there is an agenda, it isn't really love, is it?...We have to surrender our agendas" (167).
A friend of mine talked about many church's goal to be a community. He basically said that to be a community, each person has to sacrifice something. Father Tom, at my home parish Good Shepherd put it this way: "Everyone has to leave something at the door." We aren't in true community if we aren't willing to accept that not everyone (maybe not anyone) will agree with us. We have to check our opinions with our coats and handbags and embrace the community. The whole community. Every brother and sister.
I write this entry at a time when I manage personal relationships at home and abroad, explaining my own struggles and dealing with the new ones. It's a time when people within my own religion, denomination, parish, and group of peers are at odds with each other about issues we find fundamental to our identities as people and as communities. It is a great time of frustration for many people, and it is a time when we all need to realize that God is here. God is always in the boat. Jesus made it, and the almighty wind of the Holy Spirit is filling the sails. We must have faith in that, and we must not lose sight of our Lord.
"Jesus taught his disciples to pray, 'May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' There is this place, this realm, heaven, where things are as God desires them to be. As we live this way, heaven comes here. To this place, this world, the one we're living in...For Jesus, the question wasn't, how do I get in there? But how do I bring heaven here?" (147)
What are we doing when we let hot-button issues divide us? Are we fostering a path for heaven to come to earth? Are we respecting human dignity and holding Jesus' requests with the weight that they deserve? We absolutely, without a doubt, have to reanalyze our behavior--and this goes to people on all sides of all issues. Really...it does. As we disagree, let's do something significant and live into these questions while recognizing God in every person.
...oh, and go buy Velvet Elvis.