The video (above) has already been seen by over a thousand people on facebook [I wrote that yesterday – it’s about three and a half thousand now – check yourself]. The parish has a facebook page. Does your church/parish have a quality website and facebook page? If not – why not?! Does your church/parish produce videos of this quality – if not: why not?
The Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara, a stunning performance by 21 deaf dancers for state leaders at the APEC summit in Beijing. As the dancers cannot hear, they rely on visual cues from guides stationed at the sides of the stage to remain in time with the music. The precision also requires an acute inner rhythm and sensitivity to the movements of fellow dancers.
Do you have any videos to suggest?
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I had a spare moment to watch a couple of these videos, Bosco, and enjoyed them very much. (The Spanish/Arabic one would be good for my Church History class!) So thanks for continuing to post these from time to time.
Rob Bell’s account of the meaning of “evangelical” was interesting and provocative, as well one might expect. It is clearly crucial to understand the historical context of the proclamation that “Jesus is Lord” (as opposed to Caesar), and also that the “Good News” is not of a Pax Romana. I applaud his attractive presentation of this truth.
He does, however, commit a classic “evangelical” error by making Church history end with, as it were, the death of the last apostle. What meaning does the “evangelium” take on once the emperor himself acknowledges that “Jesus is Lord” and becomes a disciple?
I’ve just come back from a Remembrance Day service, and these matters are much on my mind. History compels us to accord a place for human society and human government in God’s work of salvation. Not a place of finality, but nevertheless a necessary place on this side of eternity. And unless we wish to imagine a “new world order” displacing all local and national societies and governments (which is, I think, the antithesis of the Gospel), then we will also have to allow that even international armed conflict has its role in the providence of God. (Just as we don’t seriously propose that countries or cities should do without police forces — which for all their flaws are more tolerable than the blood feuds and private armies of pre-modern society.)
So my question to Rob Bell would be, “Whose boot is it, and whose neck is it on?” And further, “Is it only good news for everyone if it means that everyone gets to pursue his or her own individual idea of what love and liberation mean?” That sounds to me like its own kind of tyranny.
Thanks, Jesse, for this important reflection. Blessings.