Shane Claiborne - Jesus, Bombs, and Ice Cream Study Guide: Building a More Peaceful World

Welcome (5 minutes)

Welcome to session one of Jesus, Bombs, and Ice Cream. If this is your first time together as a group, briefly introduce yourselves to each other before you begin.

Introduction (3 minutes)

A verse from the Gospels. I have come to bring peace, but not like the world brings peace.

And another. Jesus wept over Jerusalem because it did not know the things that would make for peace.

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, one of the earliest human interactions outside the Garden of Eden is murder. Cain killed his brother Abel, and weve been killing each other ever since. No doubt Jesus is still weeping over our cities, and over our world.

Many passages in Scripture show tremendous violence, even violence that it appears God sanctions or ordains. There are texts some theologians call texts of terror, such as Judges 19, where a woman is cut into pieces and her body parts are sent out to the twelve tribes of Israel. The Bible is not foreign to our world of violence in fact, it is downright eerie how little has changed in a few thousand years. Nonetheless, one of the reasons we have called this project Jesus, Bombs, and Ice Cream is because Jesus offers an unmistakable and captivating critique of violence.

Ron Sider, an influential voice for Christ-based nonviolence, gave a speech at the Mennonite World Conference in 1984 that was catalytic in starting what has become Christian Peacemaker Teams, an ambitious worldwide movement of nonviolent activists committed to getting in the way of violence. Hear his words:

Unless we are prepared to risk injury and death in nonviolent opposition to the injustice our societies foster, we dont dare even whisper another word about pacifism to our sisters and brothers in those desperate lands. Unless we are ready to die developing new nonviolent attempts to reduce international conflict, we should confess that we never really meant the cross was an alternative to the sword. Unless the majority of our people in nuclear nations are ready as congregations to risk social disapproval and government harassment in a clear call to live without nuclear weapons, we should sadly acknowledge that we have betrayed our peacemaking heritage. Making peace is as costly as waging war. Unless we are prepared to pay the cost of peacemaking, we have no right to claim the label or preach the message.

Jesus shows us what love looks like with skin on. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down ones life for another. Thats where we got this idea that we are to love someone to death even our enemies.

Love looks into the eyes of those who want to hurt us and cries out: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.evil in the face and offer a dazzling alternative to the sword. It has been said that the problem is not that we have tried the cross and it failed us the problem is we havent tried the cross. After all, who wants to die? But that is precisely the call of Jesus. Love does not kill. Love dies.

In the bromance between Ben and Shane, they didnt agree on every theological or political issue, but they did agree that we need a world with fewer bombs and more ice cream and they also agreed that Jesus offers a stunning spiritual example of an alternative to violence.

Video Teaching (14 minutes)

As you watch the session one video segment, use the following outline to take notes on anything that stands out to you.

Notes

All is not well in the world.

[Your Notes]

Our country spends over $30 billion a year on our nuclear arsenal.

[Your Notes]

Here is some great news: the USs most powerful bomb the B53 is being dismantled! This bomb is 600 times the size of the Hiroshima bomb that killed 140,000 people.