Nooma:thoughts

Until today I had only seen one of Rob Bell's Nooma films. At the time, for various reasons, one of which was pride, I didn't fully appreciate it (sorry to the friend that showed it to me!). I read Velvet Elvis several months ago and bought six of the Nooma films this summer in order to jump in once more. I just watched two of them and wrote down a few thoughts I had in response. Overall, I really like them. I like the concept, the topics; the production is top-quality (not that I would really know, but it seems well done); Rob is a great communicator; and, they are multi-lingual (with subtitles)! Also, I didn't realized until I bought some that they come with a booklet with some quotes, scripture, pictures from the film, and reflection questions which would be great for small group discussion. So, I definitely recommend them as ways to open up or further dialogue on the topics presented and relevant passages of Scripture. They're great for those that follow Jesus and for those that are still looking. Following are a few thoughts and questions that I had as I was watching them today.

Nooma:Rhythm
Rob evaluates what it means to be in relationship with God in terms of the process of relating and following instead of the in/out terms common in conversion language. Near the end he says "you ARE in relationship with God," and on the back of the DVD package it says "maybe it's through trusting Jesus and living the kind of life he taught us to live...that we have a relationship with God." Is this "discipleship to converted discipleship"? What does it look like for someone to walk the path of Jesus before they are counted "in Christ", reconciled to God in Him?
In the notes, the question is asked, "Which is more important to Jesus: what we believe or what we do?" I think I understand what he's getting at, but to me, really, it's neither, because what we do betrays what we really believe, and what we really believe is inevitably worked out in what we do. Jesus repeatedly told people to "believe" in Him, and there was no gap in His mind between believing and doing. To believe is to do and to do is to believe. It is trust. So the question is really "Who or what do you trust?" because life and reality is personal, relational, or at least it was meant to be.
So, maybe at some point those that begin to walk the path of Jesus and listen to the words of Jesus begin relate to him and finally come to say, "You have the words of eternal life. I have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God."
And this is renewed, just as the grounds of our baptism is remembered in the Eucharist week by week, so at points we are reminded of our confession when we find Jesus asking us, "Do you love me more than these? ... Then feed my sheep." And so it continues until we die, finally, with Him.

Nooma:You
Rob made a lot of assertions about many of the New Testament concepts being firmly in relation to and in opposition to the 1st century religious and political context, concepts and expressions like "No under name by which men must be saved" and "Jesus is Lord" and "Gospel" and "Ekklesia (or church)" and even the resurrection of the savior-god. I'm familiar with a few of these points of contact and conflict, but I wonder if the emphasis is too heavily placed on the 1st century context on not enough on the language and tradition of the several thousand years before as revealed in the hopes and experience of the nation of Israel. He brought it through a little bit in talking about the hope of the Messiah, the brokenness of the world, and the hope of God's program to fix it.
Some good questions to ask would be: "What are the sources and context for some of the sayings like "No other name..." and "Caesar is Lord" and "Gospel" and "Ekklesia"? Are there roots in Israel and the OT for these concepts and assertions as well (e.g. the Lord as YHWH, salvation in the name of YHWH, the gospel or good news of Isaiah 52, the congregation of Israel as ekklesia)? Where's the overlap? Where's the conflict? How were the Jewish concepts translated into the Greco-Roman? What influenced the Jewish concepts? What influenced the Greco-Roman? Any other influences? What were the apostles and 1st century church aware of? And Jesus?
I think the most powerful part of the film was near the end when Rob said, "There's a deeply personal dimension to this. Jesus is saving me, he's saving me from my sins, from my mistakes, from my pride, from my indifference to the suffering of the world around me. From my cynicism and despair, the brokenness I see in the world around me is true of my own soul."
As some of have observed in response to the popular recent discussions about evil and those on the side of evil, "If we look close enough we will see that the line dividing good and evil runs right through the middle of each one of us."

Anyone seen these, thought about this stuff? Thoughts?