Love Wins

Later on this evening in New York, Rob Bell is speaking to launch his new book, 'Love wins: A book about heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived'.

Obviously I have not read the book yet, but I have read reviews and blogs by people who have and quite a few by people who haven't. Being a bit of a Rob Bell fan, and having found two of his previous books challenging and rewarding I am looking forward to this new offering.

What seems of have got so many people hot under the collar is what Rob Bell actually says about hell. The main charge appears to be that in this book Rob Bell has become a universalist - teaching that everyone will go to heaven whatever they believe about Jesus - because fundamentally God is love.

As I say, I haven't read the book - so what am I blogging about it for?

What is of more concern to me at the moment is not so much what Bell says or not - but it is how those who call themselves Christians respond to those they don't agree with.

Jesus said things like, 'love one another...by this everyone will know that you are my disciples' (John 13:34-35), and 'love your enemies' (Matthew 5:44).

USA Today reports that the run up to this book's release has 'provoked weeks of fierce infighting among pastors, theologians and anyone else who scans the Christian blogosphere where critics rage that he's a hipster heretic'. Fierce infighting - strong language.

Rob Bell is no stranger to criticism, and I am sure that there are those among his critics who see this as the final nail in the Rob Bell coffin, hence the Tweet - 'Goodbye Rob Bell'. This is the final proof that Rob Bell is indeed a heretic and that any right minded Christian should have nothing to do with him.

In an address to his church yesterday morning Rob Bell said that his starting point for this book is the belief that God is love.

Whatever we might disagree about, God is love, and God calls us to be loving. If I have learnt anything over the last few years it's lessons about God's grace, about seeing the best in people, about giving people the benefit of the doubt. When I come to read this book (and it won't be right away) I may either agree or disagree with all or parts of Rob Bell's argument - but there is a sense in which that doesn't matter. Whatever his argument I am sure it will be a challenging and thought provoking read.

But Jesus didn't tell us that we will be known as his disciples because we've won the argument - but because of our love for each other. Even if I disagree with the whole book Rob Bell will always be welcome at my house for dinner - if he's ever in the neighbourhood!

Happy Anniversary

Today we celebrated our church's 74th anniversary - remembering God's faithfulness and thanking Him for all that He has done. And as we remember the past we have confidence to go into the future, because God will continue to prove Himself faithful. But what are the challenges for the coming years?

We continue our series in Luke, looking at 6:37-49, with the challenge to be those who don't judge or condemn others, but to be those who are generous givers and forgivers. This follows close on the heals of the call to love our enemies, to treat others as we wish to be treated and to be merciful. The motivation to live this way has to stem from the knowledge that this is the way that God has already treated us - He loved us when we were His enemies ...

So what might this mean for us in the coming year?

Being a multicultural congregation we recognise that we can easily offend each other- without even realising it, because different things have different meanings in different cultures. But we choose not to be offended, we choose to always think the best of each other, to forgive again and again.

In our community we look for ways in which we can love and serve - not to stand at a distance and wag our fingers at all the things we see that are wrong, but rather to embrace all that we see as right and to celebrate and promote those things. And we recognise that that may mean working alongside those of a different faith to us. Yet we choose to embrace these opportunities to love and serve.

What will you do tomorrow?

What are your plans for the next 24 hours? Take a minute to think about what you plan on doing between now and this time tomorrow. Now imagine that these would be your last 24 hours. How would that affect your priorities? Would you still do the things you planned or would there be other things that were suddenly more important? Would there be things that you would want to put right? Relationships that need to be repaired? Put things right with God? Put things right with others?

In Matthew 25 Jesus tells some parables that warn us of the importance of being ready for the end of world as we know it. Whilst we are not told many of the details about the 'end times', we are told that it will happen and therefore we need to be ready. And because we don't know the when, we should seek to live as if we really believed it could be tomorrow - or sooner.