"The Whole Thing Is a Temple" by Rob Bell

alright ladies and gentlemen Rob Bell you that that's you're not even from Texas and I feel welcome it's so great to be with you I thought maybe I talked for a bit and then find out what you want to talk about and we'll go from there does that sound good so well it's gonna be good so just deal with it resistance is futile so in January of 2007 on a Friday morning I'm playing in a soccer game I had a regular habit of playing on a 6:30 a.m. Friday soccer game and partway through the game I'm going for the ball and another gentleman is going for the ball and I get their ass lights millisecond ahead to kick the ball he comes in right after me to kick the ball and instead of kicking the ball the toe of his right foot kicks the outside of my right foot at the moment I think that's uncomfortable but I keep playing the game because you're in the game and you're sweating and their endorphins and adrenaline anybody know what I'm talking about you were fine in the moment and now or later you're like oh that hurts and so I'm playing and I'm finding you're sweating you're hot and you're gonna win the game but my foot is hurting more and more and more I Drive home at 7:30 from the game and then I go out to breakfast with some friends and I'm sitting there and my wife is on my left and my friend Don is on the right and his wife was across the table and we're talking and I realized partway through the breakfast my foot is hurting more I get up to leave the restaurant and I it's like I have to limp out of the restaurant but there's no visible thing wrong with it it's just I can barely walk I go home and it's hurting more and more and more and I call my brother and I say I I can like barely walk can you take me I think I broke something in my foot so my brother comes and gets me and takes me to the hospital we pull up to the emergency room I can't walk out of the car so they bring a wheelchair which hat a wheelchair good for your legs not good for your ego because now you're being wheeled in at the prime age of 37 and I get wheeled in they do a bunch of x-rays and they're like there's nothing broken your you just have a something's out or they're completely unhelpful which is odd because healthcare has been such a smooth sort of situation in our culture wouldn't you say never waited in line never had an issue so I am at home and I can't walk at this point I am on one foot around the place and I remember that my friend Tom do you know that friend who they would have been fantastic in a black market culture do any of you have a friend who's like I got some stuff in a box in my closet in the hallway they've always got something they're like take three of that some Jack Daniels and you'll be fine trust me and it works did anybody have that friend they just they're just good with foreign substances a lot of times the bottle does not have a label it's just something they have my mother passes so he says you need to call Henrik my Polish masseuse how is that sentence not going to take you interesting places and I had known Henrik his polish masseuse because my friend who is a person of considerable means would often have Henrik the Polish masseuse at his house doing various polish masseuse type things and I had at one point seen an actual encounter in which a woman said to Henrik the Polish masseuse I've had a like a wart like a growth on the bottom of my foot I've tried every chemical it won't go away can you help me and he said in front of me one moment you please he walks outside a little bit of Yoda he makes a little Yoda he walks out in the backyard he rummages it he walks around in the backyard he brings in a weed that he found in the backyard duct tapes it to the bottom of her foot three days later wart gone so I had seen Henrik the Polish masseuse and his voodoo Eastern Europe magic up close so I say great give me his number so I call Henrik the Polish masseuse Rob I love your sermons I'm a friend of Tom's a friend of Tom's as a friend of mine how can I help Henrik I can't walk I was kicked on the side of my right foot I cannot walk can you help me yes I know just what to do I will come over to your house right now but when I get there I need you to have certain supplies ready completely true story I need you to have certain supply stories I need you to have a cloth napkin a pen a bowl of egg whites a box of Kleenex and a hairdryer so Kristen and I Locke get these we line these up in our house he comes over he says sit down I'm already sitting down I can't move he takes the napkin and he folds it into a long strip he then places it under my foot and ties a knot on the top of my foot he then sticks the pen through the knot and turns it like a crank he then takes the Kleenex and dips it in the bowl of egg whites and lays it across the top of my foot he then plugs in the hairdryer and dries the Kleenex on top of my foot he then takes the next Kleenex in the Box dips it in the egg whites places it dries it and he gradually takes the box of Kleenex and dries layer after soaked in egg whites layer on top of my foot until I have an egg white cast on top of my foot at that point it's Friday late dinnertime I begin to get cold not cold like is there an open window but like inner core temp starts plummeting fast I start putting on wool sweaters a jacket I lay down on the couch underneath multiple thick blankets because I am so cold like cold somewhere like she was a cold woman kind of cold you know what I'm talking about like not epidermis cold like soul cold and the last thing I remember is laying there shivering body temp plummeting under multiple layers of wool and blankets and I fall asleep it's Friday you need dinner time I wake up Saturday morning swing my legs over stand up and I'm fine so the question is kind of what the hell right there's just a little bit of that as the French would say quoi there's just a little bit of like huh huh so what happened well it turns out that one henrik did is he put the cuboid bone back in place and the egg-whites reduced the swelling do we need to say anything more now that question what happened I just answered with two quiet with two answers and those were answers he put the cuboid bone back in place and the egg whites reduced the swelling but what those two answers did is raise within you questions thirteen more questions what's the cuboid bone and why do a guar adduce swelling well the cuboid bone is one of seven bones on the lateral anterior side of your foot located between the fourth and fifth metatarsal the cuboid bone meaning six sides plantar dorsal anterior medial lateral interior posterior what you already knew just reviewing class for the tests and he put the cuboid bone back in place and then egg whites actually pulled heat from the rest of the body to concentrate the heat in the part of swelling and reduce the swelling which is an answer but actually raises a couple of questions why does the cuboid bone make it so that you can't even walk if it's off and why does the reduction of swelling work that particular way and what is it about egg whites the answer to that is that the cuboid bone sits in between the fourth and fifth metatarsal and if the cuboid bone gets knocked off because there are six sides to it and it's connected dorsal posterior interior lateral medial plantar if it's off slightly then what happens is all the other bones around it have to adjust now a quarter twenty six bones a quarter of all the bones in your body a quarter are in your feet thirty three joints a hundred ligaments tendons and bones so if this one little bone gets knocked just a touch what it gradually does is throw every single one of those 26 bones off not at first it just takes a while so over the next course of hours when the cuboid bone is out gradually every single bone in your foot will become out and you will not be able to walk second answer it turns out that egg whites contain albumin alb you i n an albumin is present in the blood blood is a protein but when albumin levels drop in the blood you experience swelling so there is some sort of transfer through the skin of albumin from egg whites to your blood which is why the swelling is reduced which is an answer but it raises a question why is the foot designed with this one little bone that if it's just tapped by someone in a soccer game can throw it out to the point where you can't even take a step and why does the blood work this way well your ancient ancestors if there was a lion in the bush needed to be able to turn and run quite quickly and so over thousands and thousand thousands of years of adaptation you developed the ability for this foot to not only be able to stand and to be rigid and strong to move things and defend but also to turn and run and you have what 30 trillion red blood cells and 25 billion white blood cells of several 200 billion trillion blood cells which have to work in the case because if you do take off in that lion does chase you and it happens to get one claw and you and you bleed your blood then needs to have the ability within it to heal to rush and take care of bacteria or invaders it needs to be able to scab over and so your blood developed all these fantastic characteristics and even has red blood cells and white blood cells and blood cells that do this and blood cells do that which of course is an answer but raises a few questions why did your body develop this ability to stand to tiptoe to run to jump to run do it all backwards to spin why did your billet body develop well how come you can do this well that's there's an answer to that and how come your blood functions away it is well because your body over time needed to survive why because that's an answer your body learned how to survive in this world correct why because so that you wouldn't die great answer why so that you would still be here great answer why because something within your very biology wants to keep going which is an answer why because there is something within you that keeps moving forward and believes at some level believes is convicted practices something that we should stay here and not die at the first threat great answer love it why because there's something 13.8 billion years ago there was a singularity there was a bang and then there was Taylor Swift great answer why why why because there is something that has been unfolding in an evolution for thirteen billion years that says life is good and ought to keep moving forward in whatever this is great answer why because your dad took your mom to dinner and there was some swimming and some winning and then you have you ever heard an explanation that actually worked in its fullness that didn't actually raise a whole new set of questions I just gave you answers which raised questions you and I were raised in a world with an NCIS understanding of mystery are you from Earth to show NCIS every episode is totally different than the other episodes now how does NCIS mystery work opening scene there's a dead body in the harbor and competent professionals show up in sunglasses and they get from somebody in a navy blue sport coat a few rough details about how they found the body in the harbor correct and then competent professionals as they're putting on rubber gloves say let's take a look and then the act out right before the first commercial is competent professional tip sunglasses down gets down on one knee next to the body looks at the body and says looks like this sailor didn't make it to sea and then what is the rest of the episode the rest of the episode is you learning along with these competent professionals why there's a dead body in the harbor and what the director did and at the end and you find out oh because there was a poker game and a mafia hitman and alone on a Mercedes got it and the mystery is in 42 minutes with 21 minutes for commercials you and I were raised in a world and your students were raised in a world of NCIS mystery mystery exists to be solved and we have competent professionals with evidence with searching for patterns with microscopes and cameras to determine now what the director did is the director simply hid from you processes events and actions that had happened prior to you arriving on the scene and then over the course of the show what the director did is just gradually pull back the curtain and show you what happened so at the end you now see what unfolded and you have no questions any more but the problem with NCIS mystery is it's not reflective of how the universe actually is and it assumes that now the mystery is solved but all it does is move the mystery down layer why do human beings for entertainment at the end of a long difficult day of all the things you could do why do you find enjoyment in learning why there's a body in the harbor that mystery is not solved because you watch the whole episode and that's weird why are you already hoping that season 3 redeems true detective come on season one yes season two wrong come on I want to see more dead bodies I want to wonder where you're so excited about the next Bourne Ultimatum movie right Jason Bourne's coming back awesome what's he gonna do he's gonna kick the ass of people with accents that's what's gonna happen like that's what's going to happen did you honestly watch the trailer because you were like oh what will this one be about head injury ninja kick somebody in the FBI office going how did he do that that's all the displaces that's gonna go gospel mystery is when you get an answer and it's an answer but you are honest about the fact that it raises a whole new set of questions now you and I are swimming in a modern sea what 500 403 past 300 years however you catherine talked about the age of reason the age of certainty the enlightenment for several hundred years we have been swimming in the sea of a culture that woke up to the power of the scientific method to learn more about this world that we lived in and it's awesome what six hundred years ago you ask somebody why did a volcano erupt they might have said because she's angry and then along comes Newton he writes his book called Principia there are mechanical laws of physics the volcano didn't RuPt because she's angry there's like lava flow and temperature boiling rates apples fall from trees at regular rates or plate tectonics like there are what this isn't because that goddess had an affair with that God and upset that God now it's raining no no there's like clouds and condensation and evaporation and so you had a magical mythical world view that attributed to the very real forces in the natural world supernatural magical mythical powers abilities and motivations and causes and then you had this explosion of no you can actually study it and you can actually explain it and it's not a great mystery why it happened it happened because a cloud full of water came over our head and then release that water and there's a reason why involving patterns and fronts and highs and lows etc think about if you start in the 1400s and you just make a list of inventions in chronological order which I did 14:27 you have the printing press followed by the steam engine the piano the fire extinguisher the thermometer electricity the flushing toilet the submarine eyeglasses hot air balloon safety lock parachute vaccinations battery tin can photograph cement matches the typewriter sewing machine calculator revolver postage stamp stapler anesthesia safety pin dishwasher gyroscope rayon elevator plastic dynamite barbed wire telephone movies toilet paper enter the first Amen I get is toilet paper clearly an event for youth pastors by the way the toilet is invented several hundred years later you have toilet paper if that doesn't raise questions you're not paying attention movies metal detector fountain pen cash register radar drinking straw air tires escalator zipper contacts engine vacuum cleaner all in the past couple of hundred years this extraordinary explosion of logic reason data evidence rational linear thought built the modern world hospitals airports and 10,000 songs in your pocket and the power of this new explosion in knowledge reason logic discovery evidence is it built so much of the modern world in so many luxuries and so many medicines and so many things that have made our lives better it's as easy to think that that's actually all there is and so what you will find again and again and again is we don't understand it yet we have made all these discoveries but just give us time and we'll have answers but we know about the universe is every explanation merely moves the mystery down a level how did we get here 13.8 billion years ago there was a singularity a bang and then an unfolding cosmos D yeah but how did we get here well it all just came into being awesome why cuz that's just what happened fantastic huh every explanation moves the mystery down a layer I was speaking to Miami the fall of 2014 on a Saturday a woman walks up to me with one of those pouches with a baby in it with the baby up against her chest and she says yesterday my child was diagnosed with MS and she smiled and then she turned and walked away is there an algorithm for that my son and I saw Black Sabbath recently which was awesome and by the way you know the Black Sabbath is unbelievable live and you know what Ozzy Osbourne does after every song some of you are like no I have no idea what are you like he wanted to nod right I get you know he did after every song Ozzy Osbourne walks to the front of stage and he says to the crowd god bless you God and they all wear crosses because they believe the power of Christ on the cross the power of Christ protects you from all evil especially wearing public trying to help people literally read their autobiographies it's that straightforward that's why we all wear crosses at the end of every song he says to the crowd god bless you thank you so much for coming and by the way his singing is unreal it's there like 17,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl clear as a bell like he's all I was from right fascinating he walks out on stage god bless you thank you for coming and then not one bad note for two hours I've never seen anything like it god bless you literally by the fourth song they're finishing the four song and I'm like thinking to myself I hope he does the god bless you thing cuz I'm like kind of waiting for it you know I'm talking about like I'll take it I'll take all that I can get at the end Preston and I are walking out and there's a young man standing on the walkway I'm there like these walkways under these trees to get down to the street and there's a young man standing there as the crowd is tied there are people like selling like like the black market t-shirts and they're selling stuff and food but there's a guy standing there he has a bucket like he's trying to get money like homeless but he's wearing like a polo and hair like cut and it's like when I first glanced at him I was like wait does not look like somebody who's holding like a please give me money sign and as I walk by him I look down I swear to you his feet are this long and his shoes are made of like like straps and almost like duct tape he has some condition where his feet are literally like that long what are you gonna Google search for that give me the TED talk I'm that my friend hunter ended his life a couple of weeks ago I've spent for the past couple years I don't know how many days a week in the water surfing with this kid he's 21 this beautiful kid who had all sorts of struggles his mom died when he was young and a couple weeks ago I got a text from my beloved friend Dave after spending three years in the water with this kid almost every day surfing I get a text from Dave hunter killed himself last night you have evidence or a scientific method for that answers merely moved the mystery down a level because life is not lived in a lab are you with me and so we have that had this extraordinary explosion of science and reason and logic and evidence and explanations but when you're an actual human being actually living in the world some things don't fit under a formula they exist in other categories are you with me Kristen and I were at Costco a couple years ago have you been there where you walk out going good I have deodorant till the year 3000 I don't even go there anymore because of how often I would walk out of there thinking I did not need that walking in and I did not need that for a family of 17 Kristen and I are at Costco and we are having a discussion about fish in the fish aisle you know those large freezers where you could store a body if you had to you know I'm talking about and we are having this discussion the two of us about frozen fish and we look down the aisle we have three kids a 17 year old boy a 15 year old boy and a 6 year old girl and we look down the aisle and at the end of the frozen fish aisle is where they display the patio furniture because there's a clear harmony between those products I think and they had this round outdoor furniture display with like a fake fire pit in the middle and the two of us are having this discussion about which kind of fish to get and we look at down the aisle and on the outdoor patio furniture are our three kids and they're all like leaning back on the patio furniture with their feet up like hands behind their head having a discussion you know like so I says to him you don't even having one of those like like they're actually in their living room and we have one of these moments like everything is okay with the universe even if it isn't anybody know what I'm talking about moments of such Shalom was the ancient Hebrew word for it I have this neighbor named Alfie she's like a German post hippie she's probably 67 she wears these long knitted sweaters and what she does in the morning is she tears up her yard so that it's dirt and it takes her several months and the mornings I walk my dog and for years we lived across the street from Alfie up until last year and I would walk by in the morning and she would be either in the two month process of tearing up her yard so it was just dirt or replanting it and right when she got it all perfect we planted you'd know that tomorrow she'll be tearing it up again so like this two or three month tear and plant cycle and I had stopped over the years to talk to her and every time I would talk to her the conversation I couldn't get any mojo flow with Alfie I would say something to her like Alfie is so good to see I love what you're doing to your yard and she would just or she'd just start talking about how it might rain later and I feel like I can talk to a lot of people I enjoy talking people but I was just always I'd be like healthy goodness there's a there might be a and she would started into something else I'd be like okay well I I kind of think that too but then there's a dog around the corner and I'd be I'd be like I feel like I'm getting bits of a conversation that's happening somewhere else that she's listening into that I'm not two years of what and I would walk back the house like what I have know Alfie mojo what is the problem I cannot get through to this woman two years of walking my dog by elfies house one morning she walks right up to me and she says I can't hear anything anybody is saying it all sounds fine when I talk in my head but I can't understand I can't hear a word anybody is saying I walk home like Alfie can't hear that would have been helpful to know she's one detail Alvey help me help us what do you do with that what do you do with that what do you do with pain loss suffering betrayal bankruptcy parents getting divorced cutting what do you do with larger existential questions about what any of it means what do you do with depression what do you do when their parents move to your town because of moms job and the kid is just trying to make their way in a new school what do you do with the actual things that actually happen in life what is your answer for you for you what is you answer for those moments when everything is fine even if it isn't what is your answer for fear doubt worry insecurity grandma dying dad getting cancer what is the explanation for that mystery for thousands of years human beings have had poems stories rituals practices scriptures and prayers to help them put language and expression to those experiences in which the lab doesn't help are you with me and you as youth pastors you get to create spaces where people can sit in the great mysteries of life this is not because you are avoiding the realities of science reason intellect and logic it is because you have moved to a trans rational understanding where some things can't be explained with reason and logic and where are the spaces in our culture as science continues to do some things where are the spaces who will create the spaces where when somebody kills themself with a gun all of the people who knew them and loved them can gather and somebody will create the space where they can grieve lament celebrate their life who will give them the language who will give them the rituals who will give them the space to be human Jesus comes in his full humanity to lead us into our full humanity and that means doubt and that means joy and that means anger and that means longing and that means shaking your tiny fists at the heavens like antennas and that means every experience in between where will the space be where your kids are free to simply be human beings who's creating those spaces when somebody starts talking about the real I don't know if the whole thing is relevant what world are you living in that people don't need somebody to sit with them in the great mysteries how completely out of the game are you that you're wondering I don't know if we have anything to offer people really anybody here know anybody who is experiencing pain yes pretty much all you yeah yeah yeah and what do we need we need somebody to stand in that with us joy celebration who will lead the dance who will bring in the DJ who will do that Google gonna do that really really is an app gonna do that come on come on and what has happened in the modern world is the dominance of all these luxuries and extraordinary advances has almost seduced people into thinking that that's all there is to the human experience and for thousands of years what he beans have understood is that we are healthiest and happiest when we have spaces where we can let off and express and release the valve and simply be human together now I want to give you an image I want to give you a truth and I want to give you a question to sort of practically put some legs on this so first an image for thousands of years human beings have built temples mosques Tabernacles sheds teepees Tabernacles temples spaces sacred spaces and the reason why they have done that is out of an intuitive awareness that all things are in some way connected to all other things and that things don't exist in isolation what reductionist materialism says to you essentially is the meaning that you have you just made that up it just exists in isolation what the great traditions have said for thousands of years is that Oh in the Jewish tradition the Lord is one that that experience of joy you had is some sort of echo of a larger sound this makes sense your story is part of a larger story your students many of them have been marinated in a world that at a very subtle level taught them nothing is actually ultimately rated to everything else but for thousands of years human beings have had this intuitive awareness that there is a oneness to things and so in building a temple the power of building a temple is that help people conceive of that which is holy and sacred so you build a temple you have a religious gathering you have a faith community that has a physical space where it meets as a way of helping people conceive of that which is sacred and holy that which is connected to the larger thing now this is absolutely important but Deek helps people understand the idea of something that is holy and sacred and belonging to something bigger than itself but the problem if the temple stays up is what can begin to happen in people's minds is they begin to believe that some ace is sacred and holy and other space isn't so you have to build a temple in order to understand this but then you got to tear that mother down does that make sense so what you see with Jesus is Jesus I don't know you'd understand the divine isn't confined to a box all the way back to the ark this is the fundamental tension all the way through the Scriptures which is is the divine confined to space-time a box or a statue is the holy and sacred which is why Moses is told by the divine the divine has no boundaries or edges brand-new idea in human history that which cannot be confined in actual space and time so what you find right away are things like the psalmist saying the earth Psalm 24 is the Lord's and everything in it what's the psalmist saying come on now what the psalmist is saying is the whole thing is a temple the whole thing is a temple your job is to teach your kids that the whole thing is a temple the physics lab the coding coders coding set a like coding Center the coding nerds there I got it coding nerds the whole thing is a temple because a lot of people when they get a paycheck from the temple get confused and think their job is to keep the temple propped up I don't know is that Christian music oh does it suck probably see what that is does it exist in the temple well we wait whole thing is a temple the whole thing is a temple and if you're a Christian the Christian tradition takes us way farther because what is Eucharist this bread and wine is holy because all bread and wine is holy we do not come in out of the big bad world to meet with God we gather to take the bread and wine to remind us that the Christ is in the common and the divine is in all of life you're not trying to teach your kids to come to a place where they meet God you're trying to create a space where their eyes are opened and their senses are heightened to the divine sacred holy nature of all of life you're a scientist you want to study history you want to study biology you want to code computers you want to be a public schoolteacher you want to be an artist you want to start businesses and make lots of money awesome the whole thing is a temple go go go go enjoy it this is your sacred gift to the world that kid needs to know from day one there is no division here because the division has killed everybody and it doesn't even exist and now you have quantum physicists saying actually everything's made of atoms and atoms are made of particles and particles are relationships of energy Time magazine Jeffery Krueger three years ago the higgs boson discovery is spiritual actually by the way here's how here's how I picture it for a generation people have understood this weird thing that somehow science and faith aren't along the dance partners they've always been and what they've pictured almost is like science going this way and faith going this way but if you and I face each other and then we turn and walk away from each other because we aren't together and we walk long enough we will go around the world and we will walk into each other I think what's actually happening right now is they've been pushed so far apart that they just they just did that and they just kept going and they walked around the earth and now they're walking up to each other again and that's what's happening that's what's happening so anybody is like oh well how can you be faith inside how out of the game are you that you're actually living with those old nasty categories are you kidding me come on come on come on the whole thing's a temple the whole thing's a temple the whole things that whatever they discover next awesome the greatest theologians the greatest scientists are all saying the exact same thing which is our mega technical here whoa literally Lisa Randall Lisa Randall knocking on heaven's door her new book about dinosaurs and physics and like considered by many like one of the greatest living scientist I saw her their night in Santa Monica and literally half the questions she had these brilliant answers about gravitational force and quantum physics and and then she would say I got at some point it got to be so beautiful because it was like a like almost like a liturgy she would give this technical brilliant answer and then she would say beyond that don't really know so beautiful it was so fantastic it was so like yes yes all of it all of it the whole thing is a temple what do you and then people will use this phrase which I love the hot and I'm just I'm just into God's truth but the like there's some other kind see these categories are so ridiculous true period is it true fantastic which leads from an image to a truth in the first century Corinthian church you have this fascinating thing and hang with me here this to be a little weird but just hang with you in try to imagine there were different Christian leaders and people followed the different leaders and didn't follow the others and there were like rivalries between the different groups of followers I know I know makes you believe in original sin you know I'm saying or as my most influential preaching mentor as he is 'red says original sin like I poked my eye out with a badger oh good that's original now what's fascinating is the Apostle Paul charges into the situation with a letter like you do he's like he's like basically you knuckleheads original Greek some of you say you follow Peter some of you say you follow Paul some of you say you fall upon but what what what basically a sense of them if it's true it's yours so we sort of confronts this weird sort of rivalry they have with wait why wouldn't you open yourself up to the truth from whoever it comes fair game well played but then he continued to run on sentence not his first he does not stop there though whether it's of Peter Apollo's Cephas or the world or life or death what did he say or the present or the future so he starts with the scope of a few rivalries among teachers but then just for fun because you know he's just going to Apple rainbow death wheel them you don't I mean like like this is gonna make your your frame freeze up oh all things are yours if Paul says it it's yours and it's beautiful if Apollo says it's yours oh and if Peter says it it's yours okay got it oh and the world which i think is a slightly more expansive category would you agree there's a little leap between the third and the fourth thing in his list would you agree it's like Paul Apollo Cephas oh the world and then if you're like oh okay the world got it fairly wider category Oh life bit wider death pretty much think we got it covered there what did you say present future it's almost he's like things unseen oh and by the way all the stuff that I haven't included I'm including your maybe and what does he say all things are yours all things yours and your of the Christ the Christ consciousness the energy that animates all things what is he saying Colossians he holds all things together so when he speaks of Jesus he does not speak of a solution to a problem that was inserted late in the game it wasn't like God was like oh man they're naked and running around what am I gonna do you need a job go down there this is actually the thing that the New Testament writers seem to be addressing most clearly and bluntly which is the Christ is not a solution to a problem kicked up at the last minute through him all things were made he holds all things together there is an energy that searches surges through all of creation the cross is not something new it is the revelation of that which has been true all along Jesus hasn't cooked up at the last minute even Jesus the Christ isn't Jesus the last name it's Jesus the revelation of the divine energy surging through all of creation from the very beginning so when your students stumble across something and think this this is life what does that have to do with Jesus other than everything if you're back in the temple your job is to tear the temple down your job is to chat do you have anybody who comes every time there's a church meeting and there's something within you it with like oh that's great they're really committed but now you're seven minutes seven seven years in and you're like I don't think they're getting it anybody know what I'm talking about they're actually too into this thing I actually wonder if they're here because they don't have a life can we be honest about this can we just be honest about this they're really really in this I don't think they need another church service I think they need a cause in the world with real people to give themselves to and they keep coming to church and singing songs about Jesus as a way to avoid the very real responsibility they've been given by the Jesus who says you will do greater things than me are we preaching yet the temple can become a place where people hide out from the very real calling we have to do something with this world and so your job is in some strange way to build it and create it and to name the space and to frame it and let it be what it is and so that they have a place to gather to have senses heightened but then you also at the same moment in some strange way are tearing it down yeah now we're talking you're both building it and subverting it at the same time this is why how often what you're really saying a lot of those sermons is you're saying I'm so glad that we've gathered here but this isn't the point you very know what I'm talking about but obviously when the paycheck is tied in to that it's easy to be like we're so glad you gathered this in the point but we're so glad you gathered please come back because I'd love to send my kids to college yes just like politics follow the money you're building the temple and you're tearing it down because you want these kids to understand that the whole thing is a temple you want to study literature you want to study comparative religions you want to go drill wells you want to stand up you want to organize for Bernie you go do it because the whole thing is a temple and all things are yours now that's a tattoo your barbed wire do all things are yours do something with some balls you know I'm saying the world all things are yours I think Paul knew exactly what he's doing it's like you have this little petty weird rivalry about who's right and who's wrong claim that don't just affirm it claim it he's not just saying every new quantum physics discovery go wow that's pretty cool don't just affirm it claim it and own it because you are of Christ and crisis of God celebrate it lead the celebration no way I was at a party and I was introduced to the man who's in charge of everything that we put in space at JPL like one of the most famous scientists in the world and my friend was so excited for the two of us to meet because he was like oh this is gonna be so much fun and the first thing he says is he says to me I'm in my 70s he says I've been doing this a long time and he says we are going to find life on other planets not in my lifetime but in yours he says to Christa and I that's like one of his opening lines I'm like this is one of like the greatest living scientist if I said your name you'd be like whoa and that's that's like one of his opening lines is like total woo whoo stuff which make all suddenly I'm like really cool and he says and when we do you're a pastor it's gonna completely destroy your whole story because God sending Jesus to save people what if there's other planets and I said oh no no you've completely mistaken for me it'll just make the story even better I'll just make the story even better if your faith is going to crumble if they find life on other planets then just get a new one now and if your faith is in trouble because the earth is older than 6,000 years get a new one now just just quickly like literally go out to the car in the glove compartment take it out put it on wear the shirt because and if your students aren't handed a joyous limber open celebratory understanding of this beautiful strange mysterious exotic world they're in trouble they're in trouble building a temple you're tearing it down all things are yours one last thought friend of mine the comedian brilliant comedian travels all over is as funny as they get he recently and doesn't come anywhere near Church and he's over our house all the time he's just a like a brother to me he recently interacted with a Christian pastor are you familiar with Christian pastors and he says I just had this interaction I was traveling and I interacted with this Christian pastor and he's like I started asking him questions and he said it was so weird because he kept talking about basically I just kept asking him more refined questions just trying to get at like what are you doing like what's the thing that drives because my friend is really like because a comedian goes for the Chum in the water like why do you do what you do why is that offensive why don't you say certain things why don't you there's like a radar for that which no one wants to talk about so he just does it in real life like he'll say something like yeah that was kind of weird to be like why because he's looking for material but he's also like there's this radar as soon as I think it's polite he's like oh no way I'm not doing the formal polite thing I'm going to fine why everybody all sudden stiffened up and he says the pastor he basically is like I just kept asking questions and eventually he was like walks I gotta we got to get people in got a key we gotta get people in the building we gotta get them converted we got to get them part of the church and my friend was like obviously like but you get you get paid when they come in so it seems like there's a couple things going on there and he's like ghibli and my friend says to me after a while I realized it's like he's playing with scared money he's like it's like he's playing with scared money oh are you playing with scared money is your community playing with scared money who they're reading that whew the moment your kid starts finding out about some idea or some new expression or they go to that the moment you tense up the moment you become mm-hmm you have just taught that kid something about the thing that you represent which is we don't quite know what to do with that instead of yeah keep going what else did you learn what else did you find yeah that that I actually don't do that for those reasons yeah that actually in my experience has is quite just you can be as honest as possible but they'll probably be much more interested in your opinion if at the outset you are like yeah what's in that is there anything good in that it's there isn't okay interesting they're probably much more interested in you're very straightforward I never take part in X because all I've ever done and seeing is it brings destruction they're probably much more interested in you're very clear denials and warnings of things when they understand that your spirit is all things are ours are you playing with scared money are you playing with scared money when it comes to science are you playing with scared money because all things are yours and you are of Christ and Christ is of God your job is to tear temples down because all things are yours you don't need to play with scared money you don't need to play with scared money come on come on who will stand with kids in the sacred spaces of loss joy euphoria suffering death cancer cutting despair celebration music good food who create those sacred spaces because we need them more than ever the thing that you do the world needs more than ever it's some of you are actually paid to do this and you're like oh I don't know if I don't know if I want to do what do you what what you get to do you get paid to do this are you kidding me how fantastic is that but the world come on I have no idea what time it is I had no idea how much oh yeah okay can I do one more thing let me finish with one story one minute and then we're really done then we're done for the whole thing okay okay so a couple of years ago I wrote a book called Love Wins which was unique in the history of publishing because everybody who read it really liked it and so I did all this media and I was on in New York back and forth doing and I was doing Good Morning America and they said we're so glad that you're on today because the other guest is Sammy Hagar who can't drive 55 and you all know you all know Sammy Hagar right sing okay good and they were like this is so great so he comes in and we're hanging out and Acer real life became slightly surreal er if that's a word and they said we're so glad that we have you and Sammy would you guys do a photo shoot together because at Good Morning America we love moments like this and I'm loving moments like this and I'm loving the fact that my wife and his wife are chatting it's all just like if you ever have a moment when you're like if you would have showed me this video clip from this period of my life I would've been like no way so they take us on the set and he and I do these photos together and then everybody leaves they go back to the green room they go over to the other set because they're coming out of our commercial and he and I are sitting side-by-side and he's like healings always like so man like what do you do and I had one of those like I'm sitting with Sammy Hagar and he just asked me what I do I was like well but this is fascinating so I said well I I believe we're all in this together and there's good news like there's an empty - like we're gonna be okay and what I get to do with my work cuz I get to go around and create space I get to create space where people can be human and they can find out that all the stuff they have Jam down in there it's okay because I believe there's something that's moving in the dark and the light in the good and the bad so I get to create these spaces where people can be free to be fully human they can find out that all that stuff and darkness that might even be something new happening there I get to go around and do that in announce good news and he listens and he goes man you could change the world with that so my brothers and sisters of progressive youth ministry may grace and peace be with you and may you change the world with that

Channel: Crucible Creative

Views: 66,189

Keywords: Rob Bell, youth ministry, faith and science, religion and science

Id: I4LJWg4zr1A

Length: 60min 52sec (3652 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 03 2016