Delivered on September 4, 2005, Melana

answers questions about hell.  This is the tenth in a series

dealing with topics requested by the congregation.

 

What About Hell?                                               Matt. 25:31-46

Today is the last in the summer series we have been doing.  It has been fun, and several times, challenging, to try to answer your questions.

I brought this one on myself.

      The morning we talked about the devil, I realized as we said the Apostles' Creed that we said, "He descended into hell..."  I told you that I had only been asked about the devil, not about hell.  Before I got out of the sanctuary that morning, three people asked me to talk about what hell is.  So, before I start telling you what I think, I want you to tell me what you think.

      This is one of those interactive sermons that Presbyterians don't do so well, but let's try.

What do you think of when you think of hell?

Dante's Inferno, with its many levels of hell and a terrifying devil?

Sartre's No Exit, in which hell is the other people around you?

Or T.S. Eliot's idea that we make our own hell here on earth?

Dostoevsky wrote: "I am convinced that the only Hell which exists is the inability to love."

Now that is an interesting definition of what hell is.

      Most of us think that hell is the place designed by God where people who have done bad things will suffer for eternity for their sins.  Let's think for a minute about this assumption.  I have to begin any look at peripheral issues by looking first at my understanding of who God is and how God acts toward humanity.  I have to evaluate whether what I am thinking fits with my understanding of the essence of God.

So, let's begin right there.

      Through my reading of Scripture and theology, I believe God sent Jesus Christ to earth to redeem us from our sins, because God loved us.  I believe that God has claimed us as God's own children, heirs with Christ.  I believe that God loves us beyond all we can ask or think.  If I begin with this understanding of God, I have to ask myself, can there be a place called hell that is designed to make people suffer for eternity?  When I think about my love for my own children, I recognize that there is nothing they could do to make me say, "I don't ever want to see you again - not only that, I want you to be in pain and suffer for the rest of eternity."

      God's unconditional love is far beyond mine, so I have to begin by thinking that God would not want anyone to suffer fire and brimstone for eternity.  You probably already guessed what I was going to say this morning - that the concept of hell, as we often define it, as a place of eternal suffering, does not fit it with my theology - I can't believe God would want that for anyone.

Now, having said that, I have to make some explanations.

People are far less forgiving than God is - so we like the concept of a place of eternal punishment for people who have done bad things - really bad things - people like Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy.  Some people think punishment is appropriate for even lesser crimes.  While preaching a sermon one day, John Wesley was dismayed to find that several members of his congregation had fallen asleep.  "Fire! Fire!" he suddenly cried, whereupon the guilty parishioners jumped up with alarm. Where?" they demanded, glancing around. "In hell," Wesley replied, "for those who sleep under the preaching of the Word." 

      We like the idea that justice is finally meted out in ways that seem fair to us.  Of course, we haven't done anything so bad that we would deserve that eternal punishment.  But, when we come to think of it, we don't really deserve eternal reward either - so where does that leave us?

      Remember that sermon a few weeks ago about grace - we can't earn it, we don't deserve it - but God loves us anyway!  Now, you might ask - what about the Apostles' Creed, that thing that got us here in the first place - it says, "Jesus descended into hell..."  We come upon a matter of mistranslation and misunderstanding - something that happens far too often because we no longer live in the same culture or time and we don't use the same language.

      Jews believed in a place called Sheol, the place of the dead - it was neither heaven nor hell, but was merely the holding place of the dead.  It was from death that Jesus released people when he descended to hell - to the place of the dead - to bring them to resurrected life.  Many Jews did not believe in any afterlife - there is only the life here on earth.  With no afterlife, there was no good or bad associated with Sheol.  It is difficult for humans to think of non-existence, far easier to think of a holding place for the essence of who we are - but with no judgment involved.  Other cultures did not have a concept of a God who cared for them and loved them.  It was much easier to come up with a place of punishment for sins in this life.

      It was from other cultures that people got the concept of eternal suffering and pain, not from the Old Testament.  There are stories in the Bible that suggest that God is causing people to suffer - the plagues of Egypt, the Babylonian captivity, and others.  Again, we have to look first at our understanding of the essence of God.  If we believe that God is loving and just, then we can understand that God used the plagues to try to help Pharaoh and Egypt understand who the true God is, and come to him.  That failed, because God also gave people free will and Pharaoh continued to think that he was in control, so he suffered.

      I really want to be a universalist - I want to believe that everyone will make it to heaven.  What keeps me from believing that is not my understanding of who God is, but my understanding of what human beings are like.  We have been given free will, the ability to make our own choices and mistakes.  We think we can make it on our own - we are rugged individualists.

      I believe there are people who will one day stand face to face with God - and because of the kind of choices they made throughout their lives, will stand and say, "No, thanks, I don't need you."  They will choose to be in hell - to be absent from God.

      That is, for me, the best definition of what hell is - the absence of God's presence.  There are people who have suggested that New Orleans is hell this week - it has certainly been horrible, but God did not cause this suffering - and God has been present in every moment of pain with those who are there - I am convinced of that.  God has been crying with those who have lost loved ones, crying over the violence and looting, crying over those who have lost hope.

God has been present in every moment of what has occurred on the Gulf Coast this week and will continue to be there. 

When I think of the essence of God, I cannot believe that God ever causes human suffering - here or in the afterlife.  I do believe that God allows us to make our choices - even when they are bad ones.  In those choices, we often cause our own suffering - but God has not caused it.  Humans, throughout the ages, have used hell or like concepts to try to get people to behave admirably in this life.  Mostly, that doesn't seem to work as an adequate deterrent for bad behavior.

      The bottom line for me is that hell is a human concept, not God's place of eternal punishment for people who can't make it - none of us can make it on our own - it's all by grace - Remember?

      The only concession I can make for something other than heaven, would be a place where people choose to go because they choose, themselves, to be absent from God's loving presence.  C.S. Lewis wrote a book called The Great Divorce in which God sends a bus to invite people in hell to come to heaven - everyone chooses to stay where they are.

Now, I can tell you all the things I believe to be true about hell and the devil, based on my reading of Scripture and study of theology, but the truth is that none of us know until it is too late to share with anyone else.

According to the New Catholic Treasury of Wit, Father Andrew Agnellus served as the BBC's adviser on Roman Catholic affairs. One day, he received a letter from a producer asking how he might ascertain the official Roman Catholic view of heaven and hell. Andrew answered him in a memorandum comprising a single word: "Die."     

When we say the Apostles' Creed together this morning, think about what you know about God and decide for yourself what you believe about hell.

It's part of our free will to decide.

 

© Melana Scruggs 2005

 

 

  

     

    

 

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