Exodus

Today, Scot McKnight has a post about Rob Bell's newest book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians. Worth reading, as always, and it sparked some thoughts in me, as well.

The first thing that really caught my eye was Scot's discussion of Exodus - God's liberation of the oppressed. I think this is a very natural way of looking at the Bible's message. It's found in the concerns of the Social Gospel, in James 2:15-16 (TM), in the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:35 (TM) and Luke 3:11 (TM) - just all over the place.

Here's how it strikes me: oppression occurs in your place, and you cry out to God. After some amount of time, when He finds it appropriate, He comes and takes you to the promised land.

• The promised land might be somewhere else, or it might somehow be right here.
• He might vanquish whatever is oppressing you, like Jesus did for the Gadarene man (TM), possessed by a legion of demons.
• He might reveal something of Himself that changes everything, like it did for the woman at the well (TM).
• He might do an Exodus (TM) on you.
  

Doesn't this strike you like a Shane Claiborne thing? You know, seek out the oppressed and then try to help them. There are multiple instances of Black Moses.

I mean, doesn't this remind you of presence ministry (TM)? We seek out the oppressed, offer them relief, and invoke the presence of Jesus. This is very cool.

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