“Hell….The Other Promise?”

                                                  Pastor Dan Wilkie

                            First Congregational United Church of Christ

                                           Grand Junction, Colorado

                                                 October 23, 2011

 

                                               Scriptures:   Various

 

 

            For those of you who have not been here for one or both of the last two Sundays, the sermon today is the third in a series about the “Afterlife”.  This sermon series came about as a result of the request Pastor Sharyl made asking the congregation to make suggestions about things they would like to hear preached about.  Surprisingly, this topic was first on the list.  So October 9 Pastor Sharyl did an overview of the concept of the afterlife, last Sunday, October 16 she gave you Heaven, so today I will be giving you Hell.

          Not the fire and brimstone kind you might associate with such a sermon topic, yet I hope the kind that may stretch you, cause you pause, may make you wonder and question, and if you have very set beliefs about hell, it may make you feel as if you want to walk away.  If you begin to feel these feelings, I encourage you to stay and listen for you are not alone, because for over 2200 years good people just like you and I, including countless theologians, mystics, philosophers and others have been questioning, exploring and trying to understand and define the concept of hell1.

          To begin, I feel that it is important to go back to our historical Hebrew roots.  The earliest Hebrews had a rather nuanced view of death and no real concept of afterlife2.  In their world when a person died, death was the final act, it was different part of life and the dead went to a place called “Sheol” or place of the dead; which was neither a good place, nor a bad place.  Then in 200-300 BCE as the Greeks conquered much of this part of the world, their teachings, religious understandings, and philosophies began to have incredible influences in the religious lives and thoughts of many groups of people. The Greek “Hades” a place of the dead divided into two parts, the good place and the bad place based on their understandings of reward and punishment expanded the Hebrew concept of Sheol.  They also brought forth the understandings of human kind as having the physical body, and the spiritual “soul” where at death the soul would leave the body and live forever more.  Further, they also believed if a person followed God faithfully all of their lives the soul would be rewarded with a place in the good part of Hades, and if not, would be condemned to the bad part of Hades. 

          By the time Jesus came into existence, there were three very distinct understandings of death and the afterlife; there was the original Hebrew teaching that death was the final but a different part of life, there was the older Greek understanding of the separation of the Body and the Soul, and then the newer understanding that at death, both the body and soul were resurrected. Jesus being Jesus took the latter two and formed them into the concept of everlasting life.  As Jesus taught and preached he would also be credited with the use of fire in images of hell.  It was Jesus after all who, while preaching as many of us might today used an image he knew people would understand and connect with and not only in image, but also in their thoughts as a reward for obedience or a negative for failing in obedience. In one his earliest sermons, according to biblical Historians, Jesus used the word Gehenna from which the English translation of hell is derived.  Ge is a Greek word for valley, and henna being the area of Hinnon, which means valley of Hinnon, a real location to the South and West of Jerusalem, and also the location of the city dump3.  If you have ever had the privilege of working for any length of time around a land fill you would understand immediately that it was not some place anyone would want to be for eternity.  The smells were horrific, rotting food, garbage and dead animals decomposing in the hot sun.  There was also a fire burning constantly to help consume the garbage, and the constant growling, snarling, squawking and fighting of the wild animals of all types came to feast upon the food and other garbage left there. 

          After Jesus’ death there was an understanding among the Disciples as they began to go out to other areas to preach and teach it was thought Jesus’ return, or the second coming would be immediate, a feeling which greatly influenced later Gospel writers like Luke and John, figuring prominently in John’s writing the book of Revelation.  It was John’s theology guided by Paul’s teachings along with teachings from the book of Daniel in the Torah, from much of Revelation is derived, and from which the teachings about the end of time, and Christ’s second coming were to be like, and from which much of Rapture theology is derived4.

          With the Protestant reformation and the dividing and changing of many religious understandings over time, many groups came to take this teaching literally.  In turn, members of these groups would convert more members to their groups all believing the way they did.  As schisms and divisions happened within differing religious traditions many of views changed and eventually became what many of us understand today, as the more evangelical and conservative understanding of hell. One of the greatest teachings of this type of theology came from 19^th century evangelist John Nelson Darby who cobbled together different scripture passages into what became known as the premillinarian dispensationalism movement; which became the basis of the “Rapture” movement that so many Evangelical groups adhere to. And despite the criticism and questioning of his teachings, calling into question the fact that the word Rapture never appears in Scripture these teachings have found their way into our modern consciousness.  Sadly, not only have they found their way into many Conservative Christian movements, they have found their way into public policy and entire generations of Conservative Political issues such as anti homosexuality and Mid East Policy5. 

          The bad part about this theology, while I am sure the intentions were good, was that the earlier teachings, like those found in our scripture passages today that taught about God’s grace, and that redemption was almost always possible, were lost., with the result being that only those Christians who identified with these thoughts were seen as being the correct worshippers, while the others were condemned to hell for eternity.  

          The tragedy of this us, and them mentality, is that the teachings of Christ about our daily living in the world and caring for one another out of a sense of love was lost, and it became instead about being “saved” and seeking the reward of heaven and avoiding the punishment of hell. 

          Fortunately a number of modern day Theologians like Rob Bell, John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, and Lisa Miller are challenging these beliefs and conservative arguments with sound theology, scholarly insight, and strong principals of love and faith. Their work has begun to bring greater understandings of redemption, love, and the teachings of Christ to life in the 21^st Century. 

          So while I struggle with the one nature of hell, I do think it does exist and is right here among us here on earth.  It is found in the families struggling with finances after being laid off due to the inappropriate and illegal actions of corporate executives.  I think hell exists for the women and children affected by the war and destruction of Somalia.  I think hell exists for those affected by drug and alcohol abuse who want to stop but can’t easily overcome their addictions.  I think hell exists in places in this country like Pine Ridge South Dakota where unemployment is high and the affects of poverty affect almost every single family.

          I also think as people of faith, the message is as clear as it can be, Christ did not call us to look at some future event, some second coming, but instead calls us to take action today. Christ didn’t say that we should follow God, or believe because we wanted to go to a heavenly place or avoid a fiery place, instead Christ was clear in his commandments from Matthew’s gospel, “love God with your heart, soul, and spirit, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself, on these hang all the laws and the prophets.”

          So we have a choice, we can love Christ, care for each other so that all feel loved and accepted as beloved children of God on this earth today and not worry about trying to live as if we are always looking elsewhere for our happiness, or we can live with one foot always somewhere else giving our heart, and our efforts because we simply are trying to find some sort of reward or avoid some sort of punishment. 

          I am not sure exactly what that might say about us if and when judgment happens, but I think I’ll err on the side of love, what about you?

 

Amen.