The Gods Aren't Angry

I drove to Indianapolis this evening to hear Rob Bell speak on his “The God’s Aren’t Angry” tour. I took with me my lovely wife and three senior high students from church. Rob was speaking at the Murat Theater in Indianapolis, a wonderful venue for a speaking engagement. I listen to the Mars Hill podcast on a regular basis and often utilize the Nooma videos in my messages at 707 (our Sun night youth program). Needless to say, I was very excited to hear Rob in person and not via MP3 or DVD format.

I found myself engaging with Rob on two levels. The first was with the actual spirit and intention of his message. Rob walked (ran) us through a literal history of of the world as it relates to man and our aspirations to connect with divinity, for mostly selfish reasons. He began by outlining the myriad pagan faiths that dominated early man’s attempts at that quest. He then examined God’s first moment of reaching out to man when He initiated communication with Abram. Rob pointed out that this was the first time that Man didn’t make the first effort to appease a god, but that God spoke out of a desire to bless Man.

He took a close look at the story of God asking Abram to sacrifice his son Isaac, a story that I admittedly have trouble dealing with or even comprehending. Noting the historical context of the time that made it extremely predictable for a god to demand the sacrifice of one’s son, Rob showed how it may not have been such a leap of faith for Abram to be willing to sacrifice Isaac. Everybody was doing it. Why not this new god as well? The thing that set this new divinity apart was the ram that He provided. This was a first; that He would stop Abram before he took the life of his son and provide another sacrifice for him. This was new. And it was huge. This could only come from a God that wasn’t about blood as much as love.

I could try to go on and further condense Rob’s epic re-telling of a story I thought I knew all to well. I won’t though out of the reality that I would only butcher in a few minutes what no doubt took months to research and prepare. My recommendation; buy the DVD whenever it comes out. Extremely worth it. More than a sermon, lecture or lesson. Perhaps all three and then some.

The second way that I felt myself engage with Rob tonight was through his skills as a communicator. Simply, wow. I can’t think of many people that can control such a large, nearly empty stage as he did. His gestures were large and expansive. His movement was natural and fluid. Not to mention the fact that he spoke for close to two hours at a breakneck pace without even a note card of an outline. Impressive to say the least. I found myself drawn in by his stage presence and presentation and hoped that I would someday be a fraction of the communicator that he was tonight.

All in all, “The God’s Aren’t Angry” was "epic" (thank you Adam Wren, whom I was fortunate enough to run into at the theater). I highly encourage anyone to pickup the dvd when it is released.