Good Read

I love to read. I only wish that I was one of those people that can read a book in an hour or two. Actually prolly a good thing I can't.

At some point I'd like to set up this blog with a link to books I have read complete with reviews but I have no idea how. I am willing to learn though. (hint)

I just finished reading Rob Bell's latest entitled, "Jesus Wants to Save Christians". The name alone makes it worth the time.

Once again Rob pulls from his knowledge of Hebrew history and culture and does a fine job opening the scriptures in a fresh way as he takes a look at Israel in the time of King Solomon to help explain the problem with empires and empire thinking. He goes on to draw some sobering parallels to Western Christianity, ask some gut level questions, and then finishes by exhorting the church to truly be the body of Christ.

Each chapter builds on the previous and this particular quote comes from the last chapter:

A church is not a center for religious goods and services, where people pay a fee and receive a product in return. A church is not an organization that surveys its demographic to find out what the market is demanding at this particular moment and then adjusts its strategy to meet that consumer niche.

The way of Jesus is the path of descent. It's about our death. It's our willingness to join the world in its suffering, it's our participation in the new humanity, it's our weakness calling out to others in their weakness.

To turn that into a product blasphemes the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is what happens when the question is asked, What does it look like for us to be a Eucharist for these people, here and now?

What does it look like for us to break ourselves open and pour ourselves out for the healing of these people in this time and place?

His style is easy and reads more like a blog post than a literary work. He does an excellent job of siting scripture and sources in his endnotes (he has 34 pages worth for this rather short read).

Rob has more than his share of critics most of whom I have found quote him out of context and then label him a heretic.

BTW in this day and age I am not sure it is a bad thing to be labeled a heretic by mainstream religion.

If you happen to have already read this book and want more along the same lines I recommend 2 by Nouwen; "Life of the Beloved" and "In the Name of Jesus" or
you might just try
the Gospels,
Acts,
the letters of Paul,
the letters of John,
the letters of Peter...