WEEKLY COMMENTARY: When I Die, Can I Escape Going To Hell?

When I was a college freshman, I was required to take a Humanities course with a challenging reading list.  One of the requirements was to read Dante's Inferno and discuss in class the symbolism and fearful consequences of possibly going to Hell when we die.  The instructor came prepared, with a selection of reproduction pictures of a flaming landscape rendered by famous Renaissance painters.  His portfolio showed in excruciating detail each of the layers of Hell, as Dante visualized them, and to this day I can recall these dreadful scenes.

Many people today seem to think that Hell works like this:  God gives us a life-time, but if we haven't made the right choices by the end of our lives, He casts our souls into Hell for all eternity.  As the poor souls fall through space, they probably cry out for mercy, but God says "Too late!  You had your chance.  Now you will suffer!"

I have thought a lot about this ----- could our loving God actually be a judging God filled with wrath and anger?  If He is truly a loving God, shouldn't He forgive and accept everyone?  Crusading against evil and injustice in this world is one thing, but sending people to Hell is quite another. The Bible speaks of "eternal punishment," but sending people to Hell as popularly envisioned is much more extreme, and it scares me.

Recently, I came upon some of the writings of Rev. Timothy Keller, which have helped me to put the idea of Hell into better perspective.  Rev. Keller is the pastor of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, a church with 6,000 regular attendees total at their five services each Sunday.  As a minister and preacher, Keller says he often finds himself speaking on biblical texts that teach the wrath of God, the final judgement and the doctrine of Hell.  

The biblical picture, according to Keller, is that SIN is defined as our separation from the presence of God.  But, God is the source of all joy and of all love, wisdom and good things of any sort.  Since we were originally created for God's immediate presence, only "before his face" will we thrive, flourish and achieve our highest potential.  If we were to lose God's presence totally, that would be Hell -----thus the loss of our capability for giving or receiving love or joy.

A traditional image of Hell, Keller tells us, is that of fire.  That is really a wonderful metaphor.  Fire disintegrates things.  Even in this life  we can see the soul disintegration that self-centeredness creates.  We know that selfishness and self-absorption lead to bitterness, envy, anxiety, paranoid thoughts, and the mental denials and distortions that accompany them.  

Now, says Keller, ask the question:  "What if when we die our life doesn't end, but the spirituality of our life extends into eternity?"  Hell, then, is the trajectory of a soul, living a self- absorbed, self-centered life, going on and on forever.

Keller concludes that Hell is simply one's freely chosen identity separated from God, on a trajectory that goes on for a billion years.  We see small parallels of this process in addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling and pornography.  First, there is some kind of dependency (but not on God), says Keller, and as time goes on one needs more and more of the addictive substance to get an equal kick, which leads to less and less satisfaction.

Secondly, there is increasing isolation, by one's blame of others and circumstances, in order to justify one's own behavior.  When we build our lives on anything other than God, says Keller, that thing in a sense (for example, wealth) ----- becomes an enslaving addiction, something we must have to be happy.  Keller believes that this personal dependency (which doesn't need God) can go on forever, with increasing isolation, denial, delusion and self-absorption.

People go to Heaven, Keller says, because they love God and want to submit to him.  People go to Hell because they want to get away from God, because they do not want somebody telling them how to live their lives.  They want to be their own savior, their own Lord.  They want to live their lives their own way.  That's Hell.

Keller believes that Hell is eternal, but it is not inevitable.  God gives you what you want.  He says that Heaven and Hell essentially are our freely chosen identities, going on forever.

So, Keller leaves us with this thought:  It is not a question of God "sending" us to Hell.  In each of us there is something growing. which will BECOME Hell unless we nip it in the bud.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this summer at CPC.

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WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Are You Comfortable With Non-Conforming Strangers?

One summer, my family and I rented a house at the Jersey Shore.  Several nights a week we would eat out, so during the day, on our wanderings through town, we would keep our eyes open for interesting restaurants.  One in particular was recommended to us, but it had a window sign saying "NO tank tops for ladies, NO shorts for men."

This window sign was quite clear ---- you knew where you stood.  Most of society is not that honest.  As Pastor Lillian Daniel observes, "Groups of people have those signs in their heads, but outsiders never see them.  You just perceive that there are rules and an order to things that some people seem to know and others don't."

I remember my first days at a new high school.  I entered the school cafeteria and froze. Where should I sit?  Will I be welcomed?  Will I be ignored?  I was the outsider, with no welcoming place to sit.

Perhaps the desire to eat at a table with others has been hard-wired into human beings.  But there is a social status element to all of this as well.  It is not just that we do not want to eat alone.  We do not want to be seen as eating alone.  From our earliest nursery school memories of snack time to the seating chart at the retirement dinner, we know that these eating arrangements, formal and informal, mean something about whom we are and where we are placed socially.

If Jesus had been a student at my high school, he probably would have been actively discouraged from eating with the tax collectors and sinners.  But Jesus did eat with tax collectors and sinners, breaking rules that were more rigid than those at my high school.

In Jesus' day, whom you eat  with mattered.  Where you sat was not a casual affair.  You were associated with the people you ate with.  If they were good, upstanding people and they invited you to eat at their table, you were, by association, good and upstanding, too.

But, if the people were sinners, known to the community as such, you definitely didn't want to eat with them.  The only people who ate with sinners were the other sinners, the people who had to share a table because no other table would have them.

At first, when I would sit down at any of those cafeteria social enclaves, I was stared at as if I had made a mistake.  But gradually, I got to know different people, made different friends, and realized that the cliques were not as homogeneous as I had led myself to believe.  There were smart students at the "pretty table", "jocks" at the orchestra table, and interesting stories everywhere.

"NO tank tops for ladies, NO shorts for men."  Most of the world just isn't that direct.  But the unspoken and unwritten rules are often the ones that cause the most pain, and block us from trying to develop relationships with strangers.

Jesus turned the tables on that by sitting at the wrong table.  What makes it the wrong table? The wrong people were sitting at it.  Who are the wrong people?  The ones who are not like us.

At Central Church, we house the homeless during four different weeks of the year.  Many Central Church volunteers come together to make this work, even spending nights with them. Briefly, we have a "community."

Meanwhile, there are grumblings about a homeless man who has been encamped outside for many months at the edge of the church parking lot, with all his possessions gathered in plastic bags.  Sometimes he has homeless visitors.  By camping so permanently where he does, one could say this long-term camper "does not respect the assigned seating arrangements" in our affluent town of Summit.

It is as if, in affluent Summit, there is an unspoken sign that says that if you pay a considerable amount of money for your home, you should not have to walk next to a homeless person ---- you should not even see one.  And this attitude is not unique to Summit, but pervades much of our privileged culture.

To which Jesus would have had a very clear answer, that would not satisfy some people. Jesus' answer might be this:  "In the world, there may be assigned seating, but in the Kingdom of Heaven there is not."  If we believe this, we ought to act on it, and live it out here on earth. For Jesus and his disciples, there were no assigned seats at his table.   All were welcome, particularly in their brokenness.  Indeed, the church was born on the damaged consciences and rotten reputations of tax collectors, sinners and people in need.

We will always be told that the social barriers are there for a reason ---- that the rules are there to keep order, and that if we will keep to our own lunch tables, we will be better off.  But the myth of that story is to think we can keep all the sinners at their own table.  Of course, this is wrong and profoundly self-deceiving.  Because, there are sinners at every table.  There is definitely a sinner at every table where I sit down, because it is me.

Perhaps we should try reading this story as if we were the tax collector.  We are looking over the tables, wondering where to sit down, and who will have us.  We want a way out of our past mistakes and sins.  We want to live better.

Is this too big a job for us to tackle by ourselves?  IF we sit down at a table with an unfamiliar group, and try trusting that the Holy Spirit will work through all of us, we are going to grow to be more like Jesus.  Isn't this how a true community begins?  Isn't our church a fertile garden for planting and nourishing "community"?  Everyone is welcome because church is actually a school for sinners, not a club for saints.

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These thoughts are brought to you by the CPC Adult Spiritual Development Team, seeking some spiritual growth for you this summer.

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WEEKLY  COMMENTARY invites YOUR comments . . .

          Based on this week's story, let's talk!

          What's YOUR take on this week's subject?

          Input your thoughts below in "Post a Comment."

          Your comments may be read by all viewers of this archive,

                    and they may respond to your comment.

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The June 7, 2016 COMMENTARY discussed FORGIVENESS - - -

         We have received the following reader comment:

           "I would inform the person he was wrong, and ask that he or she come to me to learn               the right message.  Also, the offender can inform all of the error and say he or she is very sorry for being wrong."

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Why Do Churches Seek to Balance Social Action and Evangelism?

On a typical Sunday morning, Central Presbyterian Church offers three different worship services, each containing Scriptural passages and expressions of our commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

At other times of the week, we serve others in the community, either individually or collectively. Some of us do the "hands on" work of feeding and sheltering the homeless, or perhaps just donating our personal funds to social action organizations in the community.

At the same time, Central Church as a corporate entity engages in social action through a generously-endowed Members In Mission Team, and our Hands-On Mission Team. 

In the twentieth century, American Christians seemed divided between the liberal mainline which stressed social justice, and the fundamentalist churches which emphasized personal salvation. The issue was enlarged by national concern about poverty and social injustice.  Should the Christian follow traditional evangelism, which took pains to save peoples' souls, even if it did nothing about the systems locking them into debilitating poverty?  To some, the price of "doing" social justice was thought to be the weakening of sound Scriptural grounding and knowledge, and the lessening of one's zeal for saving souls.  On the other hand, in the world then and now we see so much poverty and pained need, all around us.  Can we really turn a blind eye?  But how can we go in both directions at once?

Some have argued that Christians should only do social justice as a means to the end of evangelism.  That is, we should do mercy and social justice only because it helps us bring people to faith in Christ.  But, this does not seem to fit in with Jesus' charge not to give to needy people only to get something in return  (Luke 6:32 - 35).  "Doing" social justice can indeed lead people to listen to the message of the Gospel, but to consider that deeds of mercy and justice are identical to gospel proclamation is not correct.

So, perhaps there is more than one technique for "evangelizing."  Traditionally, it was done by "preaching" Scripture, paraphrasing Bible stories and otherwise teaching Scripture by word of mouth.

But, sometimes people's ears are "closed" to such words.  Either they do not believe the words or they can't muster the desire to live by them.  Sometimes instead, what really moves and excites people are real-life examples that exemplify the Scripture teachings ---- actions taken in everyday life that are selfless efforts to help other human beings.  Think about the Good Samaritan parable!  We quote that story to this day, even thought not a word of Scriptural doctrine was reported to have been said!

Let's look for a link between evangelism and the example we project as practicing Christians, as mirrored in our actions toward others.

Deeds of mercy and justice should be done out of love, not simply as a means to the end of evangelism.  And yet, there is no better way for Christians to lay a foundation for evangelism than by "doing" social justice.  Evangelism at its best is done through relationship, visitation and friendship.  Similarly, the elements of "doing" social justice effectively are:  repeated approaches by the same person, going repeatedly to the same recipient, and doing it regularly.  Thus we become one's friend for Jesus' sake.  "Word" and "deed" are seamlessly integrated in this ministry.  For example, helping neighbors with their children's educational needs, or with finding a job, or learning English as a second language.  These all go hand-in-hand with verbally sharing the love of our faith by example.

If we wish to share our faith with needy people, and we do nothing about the painful conditions in which they live, we will fail to convey Christ's beauty.   But, we must neither confuse evangelism with "doing" social justice, nor separate these two things from one another.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue personal spiritual growth this summer at CPC.

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WEEKLY  COMMENTARY invites YOUR comments .  .  .
     Based on this week’s story, let’s talk!
     What’s your take on this week’s subject?
     Send your comments to jwnorthrop@gmail.com (on behalf of CPC’s Adult Spiritual 
                         Development Team)                                                                                                                                      
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Last week’s story discussed FORGIVENESS -----
                              We have received two interesting reader comments:

1.) “It is important to forgive as some day we will need forgiveness, too.   I understand                     forgiveness as a sign that we are compassionate people and we are not accepting the hurtful act when we forgive, but releasing ourselves from the act done to us and any attachment to the act and the hurtful person.   I am always questioning and thinking  about the act of forgiveness.”

2.) “Forgiveness is not for the other person’s sake --- it is for our sake.  Most of the time the             person whom we forgive doesn’t even care, has forgotten the issue, and isn’t even bothered by what they may have done to cause us hurt.  Forgiveness alleviates our resentment and the bitterness that builds up inside us.”
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WEEKLY COMMENTARY: To Forgive, or Not?

My niece Caroline has just finished her Freshman year at college.  She worked hard and earned good grades.  She made some new friends from other parts of the country.  She told me that as she looks back on her high school years, she can see that she is more self-confident and more socially skilled.

"But one thing still bothers me," she said, as we recently met for lunch.  "Someone in my dormitory put out on the internet some stories about me that were not true, and they were very embarrassing.  Before I realized it, everyone had heard these false stories."

"I persuaded several friends to put out messages of rebuttal, but not everyone on campus believed the rebuttals.  It was very hurtful.  It caused me much pain and social isolation.  I became quite bitter and thought about revenge."

"Then I discovered who was the author of these falsehoods," Caroline said.  

Some of Caroline's friends now have encouraged her to confront this person.  Caroline says she is faced with a dilemma: "Do I forgive the perpetrator, or seek revenge?!!

As Caroline's "wise, old uncle,"  I thought I was being asked for advice.  Here is what I told Caroline.

"Let's look at the two sides of your dilemma," I suggested. "What message does that word FORGIVE convey? I think Webster's tells us it means ceasing to feel resentment against an offender." 

"But, there is a lot to be said for not forgiving  people who have done us wrong.  Why should people who have upset our lives, leaving us bleeding in their wake, expect us to forgive everything and act as if nothing went wrong?  We are not talking about the petty slights that we all inevitably suffer.  We are talking about forgiving people who have wronged us deeply and unfairly.  If forgiving leaves the victim exposed and encourages the wrongdoer to hurt again, why forgive?"

"If you hurt me and I retaliate in kind, I may think I have given you only what you deserve, no more.  But you will feel it as a hurt that is too great to accept.  Your passion for fairness will force you to retaliate against me, harder this time.  Then it will be my turn.  And will it ever stop?  This is how family feuds progress, and go on and on until everyone is dead ---- or gets too old and too tired to fight."

"Now, let's look at forgiveness.  It is not the alternative to revenge, just because forgiveness is soft and gentle.   It is the best alternative because it is the only creative route to less unfairness.  Hard as forgiveness seems at the time, forgiveness has creative power to move us from a past moment of pain, block us from an endless chain of pain-giving reactions, and to create a new situation in which both the wrongdoer and the wronged can begin in a new way.  There is no guarantee, but forgiving is the only door open to new possibilities."

"So, how do we forgive?  Forgiveness means accepting others ---- and ourselves ---- as human and not divine.  Forgiveness means resisting a defensive response when we are hurt ---- a response that would mean cutting off the other person. Forgiveness means risking the pain of living, and holding to a hope that disappointments and hurt do not have to be the final word."

I continued, "Forgiveness is a process ---- a journey.  As much as we might like forgiveness to be a "forgive and forget" moment, lives do not work that way.  Old hurts have a way of resurfacing so we are led to examine a new facet of a wound we had hoped had healed. Forgiveness is a commitment to face life with a posture that takes risks rather than protects, while struggling with the fact that there are times when protection is the wise choice.

"Finally," I said, "forgiveness is not passivity.  It is an active response to brokenness.  While refusing to return evil for evil, forgiveness  can also be an act of resistance, refusing to let evil continue.  Martin Luther King, Jr.'s tactic of nonviolent resistance is an example of forgiveness that refuses to let evil continue.  By resisting segregation, civil rights workers were saying no to racism, but by being nonviolent they were inviting the enemy to join the community.  Forgiveness loves the sinner while saying clearly that the sin is unacceptable."

About then the waiter brought our check, and Caroline remembered she had a babysitting assignment.  "If I'm late, I am not sure they will forgive me," Caroline said with a chuckle.

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These thoughts are brought to you by the Adult Spiritual Development Team at CPC, hoping to encourage your personal spiritual growth this summer.

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