chapel, nooma and changing times

The other day in chapel two students introduced us to the topic of forgiveness by using a short film from something called Nooma, created by a preacher named Rob Bell. It was the first I had heard of the series and of this particular preacher. It is definitely aimed at a young adult audience and the students seemed to respond in a positive way to the message. What struck me was the difference in the message from what I heard when I was sitting in chapel a little over 30 years ago.

Titled "Luggage" the film talked about the importance of not carrying grudges and of forgiving those who have done you wrong. The film cuts between Bell speaking and scenes of a young women in an airport. At the end of the film, after the line "you never know when it will be too late to forgive," (or something close to that) the last scene shows the womens car pulling into the path of a speeding semi truck and getting smashed. Think driver's ed films you may have been subjected to in the hopes of making you a safe driver.

The last line and the scene of the smashed car reminded me of the many times I heard in chapel, "get yourself right with God because you never know when you might get run over by a car, hit by a train, bit by a snake, swept away in a rip tide, or die in your sleep." The message seemed to my teenage ears to be "get saved before its too late, you die, and spend eternity in hell." Sometimes we would sing this awful song full of bad theology about the end times. It went something like this "life was filled with guns and war and everyone got trampled on the floor, I wish we'd all been ready." Then there was something about two men walking up a hill and one of them disappearing because the rapture had come and only one of them got taken. You see I sang it enough at youth group I still remember large chunks of the song.

Instead of scaring people into repentance the film seemed to scare people into forgiving. If I interpreted the film correctly the guy was saying, either do your forgiving before you die, or maybe it was forgive the person you need to forgive before they die. While repenting and forgiving are both good I wonder about the technique of frightening people to get them to take action. There are good reasons to do both which have nothing to do with fear. But I suppose fear is seen as getting quicker results, though I would guess they may not be as long lasting.