The Last Word

I was listening to a podcast this evening from Mars Hill. Rob Bell was speaking. He began by saying that we get, or should get, a lot of our energy from breathing. I'm neither a doctor nor a scientist and I didn't take notes, but the long and short of it was that we should be breathing around 6 times a minute and many of us are breathing around 21 times per minute, missing out greatly on a lot of energy. Maybe there is something to the practices of deep breathing and meditation.

He went on from there to talk about Philippians 4. He's a smart guy and knows the Greek and had some significant, timely things to say from the truths of just a few verses. There was a sense for me in which so much of what he said, towards the end of his talk, as the congregation prepared to receive communion/the Lord's Supper/ the Eucharist that added more to my latest post in regards to the Garden of Eden.

Now, he no doubt states is more eloquently and succinctly than I could ever hope to, but in my life, my theology, my world, it is all tied together. So I thought I would share it here.

There is a decent chance that I made minor mistakes in transcribing what I did, and I left out a couple of parts as indicated by the "..." and brackets. Finally, before I share it, I will preface with 3 more things:

1. It will help to know that prior to this closing a mother of three, whose 10 year old daughter (the oldest) has autism, shared part of her family's story and struggle.
Later, talking to God, Rob "credits" her for teaching the congregation, "to discern your movement in the midst of circumstances where we would often doubt your existence."

2. This talk is available on podcast from Mars Hill. The talk is called "I will say it again, and again, and again"

3. Throughout the talk Rob talks about celebrating, rejoicing (as Paul wrote in Philippains 4) "even in this." "This" for some is a very specific thing while for others general doubts and questions. He ends it, in speaking about the Eucharist, by saying, "We celebrate Christ's sacrifice. We celebrate the resurrection. And we anticipate the great resurrection when all will be made right..."(Amen!?). He also acknowledges something my heart and speech often relate to that this is "a story that [God is] telling that we are a part of".


Rob Bell says:

It's not about evacuation or escape. It's about the good work that Christ is doing through the resurrection to reclaim and restore and put all of this back together...including autism, and all of the things we say "uh", Christ says, " this too can be redeemed. This too can be restored, can be reclaimed, can be renewed." So it's in his offering of his body and blood and then subsequent resurrection that we find a hope. That we work with justice now. We identify and work for the oppressed now because we have great, great hope that God has plans for the whole cosmos. Our understanding is that everyone of us in invited into this new creation.

...[Through the work of Christ] life has burst onto the scene. The New Testament writers simply called it "New Creation". So new creation is learning to see the good, the true, and the beautiful even in spite of the ways in which it has been distorted and perhaps destroyed. And so everywhere that we find it, we celebrate it. Eucharist, the good gift, is this ritual in which we come together and we celebrate this new creation, this new humanity. We take the ...[bread and this cup]... as a way of reminding each other, reminding ourselves, celebrating, that autism doesn't have the last word. And an economy in trouble doesn't have the last word. And racism doesn't have the last word. And AIDs doesn't have the last word. And divorce doesn't have the last word. God has the last word. And the last word is Hope. And restoration. And new creation. Are you with me? So today, what does it look like for you? God is up to something even in this...