{"id":10265,"date":"2024-09-23T14:40:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T21:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10265"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:40:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T21:40:43","slug":"what-do-we-say-about-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10265","title":{"rendered":"What do we say about hell?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark 9:38-50<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gospel text for today mentions hell three times. Moreover, a footnote points out that two verses are omitted because they say the same thing. So, it could be said that this text it talks about hell five times. The word used here is \u201cGehenna<\/em>,\u201d which is what we normally mean by \u201chell.\u201d It isn\u2019t the word, \u201cHades,\u201d which can mean \u201cdeath.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among us today it is widely considered bad taste to talk about hell. You just don\u2019t mention it unless in cursing or telling jokes. It\u2019s impolite. If you do talk about hell, people will think: \u201cYou\u2019re a fundamentalist. You\u2019re backward. You\u2019re superstitious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this social taboo about hell, we pretend that hell, like death, is not something we have to bother with. We try not to think about it. We think that if we don\u2019t think about it, then it magically is not a problem, which is one way we deny the problem and fool ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know there are depictions of hell in literature and the arts. Back in the Fourteenth Century, Dante wrote his epic poem, The Divine Comedy. <\/em>In the first part, Inferno<\/em>, hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment going down to the center of the earth. One must go through hell in order to recognize and reject sin. Hell is about purging sin from oneself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know other religions talk about hell-like conditions. In Hinduism life is about rewards and punishments. If you are good, you go up the ladder. If you are bad, you go down the ladder. Karma will settle the score if you hurt others. The human task is to do more good than harm, even if that takes more than four hundred million years to escape Karma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are even depictions of hell in pop culture. For example, in the 1993 movie, Groundhog Day<\/em>, weatherman Phil must live the same day, Groundhog Day, over and over until he makes the right choices. He had to go through hell, so to speak. Hell is living the same nightmare day over and over again until you get it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, all those outside of their kingdom, are annihilated. For Mormons there is no hell, just degrees of heaven. It ends up that there is no real hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone has even said that if there is a hell, no one is in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That captures the spirit of our day; tolerance is everything. It\u2019s like the tongue-in-cheek sign on the seminary professor\u2019s door: \u201cGod is nice, we\u2019re nice, isn\u2019t that nice?\u201d Today we could transpose this into saying: God is tolerant, we are tolerant, and tolerance is the ultimate good and a sign of our virtue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consequence of this kind of thinking is that if everything is tolerated, there is no meaning. Anything goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this view the Christ event is merely a show or demonstration of God\u2019s love. Of course, this idea isn\u2019t new. Back in the Middle Ages, Abelard, the great Christian thinker said the cross itself is an illustration of God\u2019s love. What the cross did, and that includes all that happened leading up to it and after it, is God that is showing: \u201cYou thought I was against you, but I really love you.\u201d It\u2019s just a show demonstrating his love rather than his wrath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To say that everything is a show exposes two huge questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first question is: What about justice? Where do we sort out all the real injustices? Do we just say that nothing matters? That doesn\u2019t work because then there is no meaning whatsoever. As Karl Popper, the famous mathematician and scientist, said: \u201cIf everything is true, nothing is true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second question: What about forever?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic problem is that we think<\/strong> we<\/strong> decide.<\/strong> We think that we are smart and able to choose from the cafeteria of options the world presents to us. But that is breaking the first commandment, and that is original sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re not so different from the ancient Greek sophists. \u201cSophism\u201d means \u201cI am wise.\u201d We think that, too: \u201cWe are wise.\u201d One of the ancient Greek sophists, Protagoras, said: \u201cMan is the measure of all things.\u201d Whatever individuals deem to be true for them is \u201cTruth.\u201d Plato, of course, rejected Protagoras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we say to all this? You will not be surprised to hear: The cross is the answer. Sin, death, and the devil are all one. Romans 6:23: \u201cFor the wages of sin is death.\u201d Hebrews 2:14: \u201c. . . he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death is not a trifle. Sin and evil are not trifles. The cross and resurrection is not a show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I John 4:10: \u201cIn this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to give his life as a sacrifice for us (to be the expiation for our sins).\u201d That\u2019s very serious. Or Luke 10:18 says: \u201cI saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven.\u201d On the cross Satan is defeated, conquered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13 about the temptation of Jesus by the devil: Jesus conquers him. Jesus overcomes him. There is a real battle going on. That\u2019s what is happening also in all those times when he heals those possessed by demons. There is a real battle; this is not a charade or a show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same is true for us. We think it\u2019s our job to interpret the cross, but, as Gerhard Forde points out: The cross interprets us. What does it say? Three things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the cross says that the problem of evil, sin, and death is so serious that the only way it could be handled is by God himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, this is the way he handled it, and it\u2019s not something that we can manage, or get around, or interpret away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, it\u2019s handled. As John 19:30 says: \u201cIt is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we, Lutherans in the Twenty-First Century, say about hell? We say that for those who are in Christ Jesus, hell is taken care of. The power of the evil one, like sin and death, has been taken care of. Christ did it for us. That is the great message and comfort of the Gospel, the Good News, that in him we have release, freedom, and life. We are in him forever, and that equals heaven. Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n

The gospel text for today mentions hell three times. Moreover, a footnote points out that two verses are omitted because they say the same thing. So, it could be said that this text it talks about hell five times. The word used here is \u201cGehenna,\u201d which is what we normally mean by \u201chell.\u201d It isn\u2019t the word, \u201cHades,\u201d which can mean \u201cdeath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among us today it is widely considered bad taste to talk about hell. You just don\u2019t mention it unless in cursing or telling jokes. It\u2019s impolite. If you do talk about hell, people will think: \u201cYou\u2019re a fundamentalist. You\u2019re backward. You\u2019re superstitious.\u201d
\nSelect here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10265"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10270,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10265\/revisions\/10270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}