Scaring the hell out of Christians

Growing up in an evangelical tradition (though my fundamentalist missionary Baptist friends would cringe that I would even associate them with such liberals), preaching on hell was regular and important to me.  I read the book by Robert Jeffress, now pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, called Hell? Yes! outlining controversial beliefs Christians (should) have and why they are important.  In that book I was encouraged to find out that there was a stalwart of the faith who believed and defended all the right things, just like me.  All other religions were wrong, patriarchy was Biblical then and morally right now, evolution was a myth, gays were perverts, America was a Christian nation, and (the title of the chapter) "God sends good people to hell" (I think that one was about how being morally good isn't enough to save you from hell).

I'm in a much different place spiritually now.  A better place I hope.

As I was so fond of pointing out back in those days of certitude and dogmatic orthodoxy, Jesus talked about hell.  (Never mind, of course, that the pictures Jesus painted of hell don't line up with that dogmatic orthodox picture.)  And while I'm definitely a progressive Christian who doesn't believe we should use even Holy Writ to silence what the voice of Jesus is saying today, I do believe if Jesus talked about it, we should too.  Yes, I'm saying it...we need more talks on hell.  But just like the pictures Scripture draw for us, there are all kinds of hell...in all kinds of places...most of which (all of which?) are not in the afterlife.  So here's my brief blog attempt to talk about those kinds of hell...the kinds that press in around us every day and threaten the kingdom of God among us and within us.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. – Matthew 23:15 (NIV)

We need to preach that if we go out of our way to win souls for heaven by making the Christian life a living hell full of rules and obligations and conformity and uniformity, we are acting like children of hell's tyranny rather than heaven's kingdom.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca, is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. – Matthew 5:22 (NIV)

We need to preach that when we create hells for people with our angry, condemning or thoughtless words that steal, kill, and destroy, we place ourselves in condemnation.  We are created to live in community and that community, those relationships, matter to God.

I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. – Matthew 8:11-13 (ESV)

We need to preach that the people who should be most afraid of the hell that presses in on us in this broken world, are Christians.  The in crowd.  The ones who have already made it.  We need to preach that God is growing God's kingdom through all the wrong people, with all the wrong beliefs, in all the wrong places, out on the margins of what we have decided is acceptable and appropriate.  And if we reject THAT surprising, different, world-changing Kingdom of Heaven...what makes us "sons of the kingdom" think that there's another kingdom especially for us?  We should preach on the lamentable condition of "kingdom people" who prefer to remain in outer darkness so long as the people there are all the "right kind" of people.  And before we progressive Christians get high and mighty about our sweeping  and inclusive love, it should be pointed out that the centurion represented the oppressor...avoiding hell means embracing a heaven full of people who "shouldn't" be there.  Including those who have hurt us.  It means that a vision of heaven that is too small to include Robert Jeffress, who might exclude me from the kingdom himself (I don't know), is a heaven too small for me too...and that's not heaven at all.

Maybe hell are all those times when heaven is absent.  Maybe hell is all those places where strife, and hunger, and abuse, and fear reign rather than peace, and generosity, and healing, and love.  Maybe what many Christians call heaven looks like hell to others.  And maybe it is.  And maybe we ought to talk about all the hells that people are seeing and living and be just as fervent about "saving" people from those hells too.  Maybe there'd be less people going to hell if we would quit sending them there day in and day out.  Maybe if our idea of heaven got bigger and we lived in light of that, maybe then the hells of this life would grow smaller.  Maybe if we preached more about the kinds of hells that Christians ought to avoid, we would live faithfully as disciples of Jesus who are committed to expanding the kingdom of Heaven for others.  Thy kingdom come...