This particular sermon comes in the wake of a tragic mass murder of 12 lives and 51 others wounded while watching a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie. It too closely co-insides with the topic that is scheduled for today's reflection based on the book by Rob Bell, Love Wins.
Life can be a Garbage Dump!
(Love Win’s series)
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 7-22-2012
Based on Luke 16:19-31 & Love Win’s, by Rob Bell
How does one even begin to attempt to bring a “word” of God to a faith community that gathers in the wake of this past Thursdays act of violence on not just those people who were attending the midnight showing of the newest Batman movie, but violence that also affects the whole community of Aurora? For we all are victims to this evil that was produced by one human being.
This summer we started a sermon series that is examining some of Western Christianities understanding of what Jesus meant when he was using terms such as “eternal life”, “heaven”, and “hell”, as well as continuing the discussion of “who gets into God’s Kingdom”, and “who gets to stay out”, with reflections by Rev Rob Bell, author of Love Win’s. I find it ironic that this week’s scheduled topic is supposed to be on the idea of “hell” which implies evil.
As I was thinking about various titles for this week’s reflect, I thought about our cultures continued fascination with Vampires and Zombies. Both of these creatures historically have represented evil, creatures of the night that seemed only to be able to be combated in the safety of “daylight”. There have always been clear lines between ‘good’ verses ‘evil’ in these story lines. I had not thought about the story lines that focus around batman as an example, until Friday morning when I awoke to the news of a young man dressed as “the joker”, an arch villain of Batman, opened deadly gun fire onto an unsuspecting audience, where twelve people have died and over fifty others wounded.
When we are faced with such acts of evil, it seems almost futile to be discussing concepts as to what did Jesus mean when he spoke about “eternal life?” Or, “Is there a physical place that is called heaven?” Do people actually “go to hell?” We are now being forced to shift from an “intellectual” state of thinking about such matters to a more immediate act of “feeling”; from taking the “offensive” posture, to having to react “defensively.” These topics all of a sudden become “real” and not academic.
One of the victims who received two gunshot wounds to his shoulder was quoted as saying: “I want to forgive ‘him’ for what he has done, but it’s a struggle and being a man of faith, becomes wary at times.” Questions arise as we struggle with our feelings. Questions like:”Is it okay to wish this man to go to hell? Or, “Am I really a very good Christian when I find myself ‘hating’ this man?” “The Apostle Paul says that we as Christians are not suppose to live in fear, but “I’m afraid to go to the movies now”, does this mean that I don’t trust enough in God’s protection?” “If God’s is good, then why does God let these kinds of things happen to innocent people?”
The questions go on and on, and in truth we are not in a position to really be able to understand the “whys” that we are called to face during times of trauma and loss. Is there “evil” in our world? Yes, there is most certainly evil in our world. Sometimes we place ourselves in positions that open us up to encounter evil. But more often, we just happen to be in the way, when evil decides to pass by and we are caught in its wake.
Many of us have been spared in having direct contact (meaning the loss of a family member or immediate friend) with someone who is killed by a violent act. Eleven years ago at age 48, was the first time I was touched by a death through a violent act, when my assistant manager from work was murdered one evening after being abducted in the store parking lot. It was 5 years ago that a man who was very dear to me was murdered in his driveway in New Orleans. With the act of violence of last Thursday, I have experienced many emotions that I had from the first two acts of violence. I would expect this is happening to many of you, as you too are remembering past losses.
When we cry out to God for “justice” in cases where we have been violated such as what we are feeling presently with the Batman Movie killings, we are putting a voice to our pain, fear, and anger. We most likely are drawing on our historical understanding for “justice”, which for the young man who pulled the trigger would mean for him punishment by ‘death’, and because of his apparent disregard for human life, will of course end up in “hell” where he belongs. Again, it is through cultural preconditioning that we have very specific images of ‘hell’, images that ultimately boil down to an “eternity” of suffering in a fiery pit someplace in the bowels of the earth.
The story if the rich man and Lazarus seem to re-enforce this image. When I clicked onto various film clips that have been produced about this story, one thing in common was the imagery of the rich man being isolated on a plot of ground with flames surrounding him, while Lazarus is in a pasture full of sunshine, grass and flowers. Yet is there really a location for “hell?”
Last week we spoke about whether there is a physical location for “heaven” and we explored the three types of references to “heaven” that Jesus used. To review, Jesus spoke of “heaven” as a place where God’s will and only God’s will is done, a place that is physical and with substance, but is in a time to come, and Jesus spoke about “heaven” also as here and now.
So what about “hell”, is it also a place of substance, a place in a time to come, is “hell” here and now? Let me start off by clarifying the difference between the words “Hades” and “Hell.” We tend to see the word “Hades” more in the Hebrew scripture. The understanding that the Hebrew had when the word “Hades” was used, is that of being below ground. It was not the images that twentieth century humanity has of a place of torment, but rather a place of darkness where people went when they died.
Secondly, the Hebrew understanding of “life” and “death” is different that our understanding. We think of “life” and “death as fixed states or destinations, as you are either alive or death. Hebrew’s often thought of “life” in one sense, as being in a vital connection with the living God, in which they experience more and more peace and wholeness. The other kind of life is less and less connected with God and contains more and more despair and destruction. Pg 66, Love Wins
In the New Testament, the word “hell” is used twelve times and mostly by Jesus. There was an actual location south and west of the city of Jerusalem, a valley called Hinnom, which was the city garbage dump, where there was an eternal fire, a place where wild animals came and ate what they could find. Love Wins, pg67 In the Second Jewish Book of Why, it describes an actual location where in ancient times, children were sacrificed to the god Moloch, the same location of the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem that Jesus referred to. This valley had been deemed unclean and was the expression for all that is evil and sinful. Pg 209 of book of Why
When I was a teenager, I often pestered my father (who was a confirmed Atheist) about issues of “salvation”, about his not going to “heaven” and his journey toward “hell.” His response to my concern was, “Steven, there is no ‘hell’ after death, because I am living in hell as we speak.” It took many years before I started to understand what he was trying to tell me.
Rob Bell states: God gives us what we want, and if that’s hell, we can have it. What is being said is, we as human’s have the capacity to chose to have life – this connection with God and God’s desires for the creation that had been intended and which will ultimately come to fruition, or we have the option to create conditions that go against God’s will, which translate into a physical life that we can call “hell”. Thursday night, a young man decided to create a world of “hell” for 71 people directly and for the larger community of Aurora.
As is with any act of terror, be it by a group or by an individual, we all become victims. As victims, we cry out to God for justice. Yet the question of justice is what becomes muddled for us, I think. How do we understand “justice?” We as Christians cry out for social justice all the time, but when it becomes intermingled with “evil” and “violence” that we are directly affected by, how are we able to balance out this vision? As the one victim says, “I want to forgive this young man who shot me, but as a Christian, it becomes wary.” This is an honest question that comes from his heart.
Is there a physical “hell?” Yes there is, it isn’t just a concept, a place where someone who has been bad goes when they die, it is also here and now, existing alongside the “heaven”, the kingdom on earth that Jesus often called us to live in and to work to continue to build.
Intellectually we can fall short in understanding its existence. But through our feelings, we understand it when we hurt, or fear, or live in anger. Hell is truly real, it’s real because “evil” is real. As Christians do we forgive as part of our seeking “justice?” Yes, but how does that forgiving play out? These are the real questions that we struggle with this morning. These are the questions that we as a faith community need to share with one another, and with God as we work toward our continue goal of bringing about God’s kingdom here on earth. These are questions that we can bring to one another, as we support each other in the healing process. “When you have done this for the least of these my sisters and brothers, you have done it to me.” This is how we combat the acts of evil and continue to bring about God’s kingdom. Amen
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