Sermon: Hell Takes a Dive
Text: Luke 16:19-31, Jer 23:23-32, Mat 7:13-14,21-29, I John 4:7-21
Occasion: Trinity I
Who: Mark Woolsey
Where: Providence Reformed Episcopal Church
When: Sunday, June 14th, 2009
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I. Intro
Hell has gotten a bad rap these days. Dante wrote about its amusement park, but that’s fallen into disrepair. It’s no longer on the list of any popular tourist destinations. No TV sitcom is set there. It does appear in one "reality show", and the food’s pretty good, but the chef is something of a potty mouth. In times medieval it showed up in quite a few paintings, but now it has hit hard times. It’s either banished altogether, or at best ignored in polite company. In fact, there’s only one time in modern society that it’s proper to mention it at all. Here’s an example:
Do you believe in eternal punishment in a burning lake of fire?
Hell, no!
Fortunately for us our modern culture has forbidden God from sending anybody there except perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and either Barak Obama or George Bush, depending upon your party affiliation.
Hell, you might say, has taken a dive, or as the parable we read today has it, Dives.
II. Sine Qua Non
What is the "sine qua non" of theology today? That is, if you strip modern theology down to its essence, when you just can’t take anything more away and still call it theology, what do you have left? God is love. And Jesus is the highest expression of God’s love. Guess who had the most by far to say about Hell in Scripture? Jesus. A significant portion of His teaching touched this subject.
III. Common Theme
There is a common theme of all the scriptures our lectionary gives us today. In the Jeremiah passage God starts off with some questions that are designed to chastise the hearers’ understanding of Himself:
"Am I a God near at hand," says the Lord,
"And not a God afar off?
Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?" says the Lord. (Jer 23:23-24)
God then judges those who mishandle His word:
How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal. (v26-27)
And finally God turns up the heat:
"Is not My word like a fire?" says the Lord,
"And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" (v29)
A fire. A hammer. Ominous indeed.
Well, at least the gospel of Matthew from Morning Prayer will give us some good news:
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Mat 7:13-14)
Not everyone who says to Me, ’Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ’Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ and then I will declare to them, ’I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (v21-23)
Then our Lord continues His discourse, describing the fate of those who build beautiful houses, but on foundations of sand. Their end is destruction:
And great was its fall. (v27)
Good news indeed.
And, of course, it gets even more disturbing when we get to the main gospel passage for the day.
IV. Heaven & Hell’s Occupants
Ok, hell is not a wonderful place, filled with wonder and grace. But the rich guy who’s in there is a pagan at least, right? He’s a Greek, and unbeliever. Someone far removed from us. Well, no. He’s in the church. Note the way he addresses Abraham:
Father Abraham (Luke 16:24)
Abe doesn’t deny the connection, but even affirms it when he calls the rich man, "Son". So here’s someone who was in the church, but now in Hell.
It’s interesting to note the names used in this parable. In all of Jesus’ parables, only one person is ever named. It’s Lazarus, and it’s in this parable. The person Jesus made most real to us by naming him, who in a sense He raised above all others in His stories, was a poor, wretched beggar. Even more interesting is the Latin word for rich. Can you guess what it is? It’s basically "dives", and that’s the name the church has given the rich man. Dives. Hell really has taken a dive, or as I said earlier, Dives.
And for what offense is Dives sent to the eternal barbeque? Breaking the 7th commandment, adultery? No. How about the 6th, murder? Not that. Maybe the 5th, dishonoring father and mother? No. His only offense mentioned in the passage was that he was rich:
Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. (v25)
Nor is this an isolated passage. Remember the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7? What is the first beatitude?
Blessed are the poor in spirit (Mat 5:3)
Did you know there is a similar sermon Jesus gave elsewhere, the Sermon on the Plain? It’s recorded in Luke 6, but this time Luke only records:
Blessed are you poor (Luke 6:20)
Much of Luke is concerned not simply with the poor as if Jesus meant humble, but the real, no-money poor.
The poor go to heaven and the rich go to hell. At least that’s what it seems to say here. Disturbing at best.
A friend of mine recently said something that I think applies here. He said, "Security is one the greatest enemies of spiritual life and health." I think that’s really true. Consider, for example, the Israelites after they came out of Egypt and the wilderness. They conquered the Promised Land, prospered, and then what? Decadence. False worship. They fell harder than a lead balloon filled with cement and opera singers. When they became secure, they inevitably forgot God. And it seems that’s exactly what our friend Dives did.
VI. No Exit
Now that we’re back with Dives, let’s take a look even closer. What do we see? Eternal pain, flame, a great gulf. Those in heaven who want to cross the gulf to help cannot, and those in hell who want to cross it to escape cannot. Dives shows compassion in Hell itself, but even this is insufficient to extricate him from his predicament. He pleaded for his brothers to be given extra warning, a fantastic miracle to prove to them the reality of judgment after death, anything to keep them from the same fate as Dives himself. But what does Abraham say?
If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead. (Luke 16:31)
Just as in the Jeremiah we have a reference to the word of God. Either it is supplanted by preachers who talk of other "more important" things, or it’s ignored by the parishioners given the responsibility to read it for themselves. If that occurs not even a miracle such as someone rising from dead is sufficient proof for faith. And this not only concerns the context of this story and Lazarus, but also Jesus. If we don’t believe His word, even His resurrection is insufficient.
There is yet one more non-PC fact about heaven and hell. In Heaven, at least in this parable, we have its occupants living in complete serenity, yet they are viewing the horrible torturing of others, even friends and relatives, in the burning pit. How can that be? If you as a father were living in luxury, but your son was being beaten in your sight, how good would that be? Could you enjoy your life? Heaven and hell are just not what they are portrayed in the popular media today. Yet they are a reality, and should be our top concern today.
VII. Closest Relative
So who’s our closest relative in this story? Lazarus? Dives?
Well, who’s rich? You may think you are not rich, but compared to Dives, you are. Yes, I mean compared to Dives. Even in a church like ours that is not by any means wealthy per US standards, we are fabulously well off compared with Dives. He had servants, but so do we. He had people to carry him around; every one of us has a car. He had someone to wash his dishes; we have machines for that. We have just as many servants as he did to make our lives easier.
Well, at least we are poor in spirit, right? But who does Luke put in heaven - the poor in spirit, or the poor?
The poor go to heaven and the rich go to hell. It seems bleak indeed.
Difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matt 7:14)
Then what are we to do? Is there no hope?
VIII. Hope
Well, there is one final passage given to us in the lectionary today. Dare we even look at it? Can we bear yet one more divine stroke?
In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be -what? - the propitiation for our sins. (I John 4:9-10)
By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. (v13)
How is His Spirit given to us? I’ll tell you one way - it’s in our Liturgy. His Spirit is present every time we celebrate His Liturgy in faith.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he is God. ... There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. (v15,17,18)
This confession is what we confess every Sunday: faith in the Trinity, and faith in the Son of God who atoned for our sins.
This propitiation covers the rich and the poor, the sinner and the saint, the one who loves and the one who has no love, the living and the dead. It even covers you and me. Christ died for who? The ungodly. The Dives.
And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, "Who then can be saved?" But Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible." (Mark 10:26-27)
IX. Abraham’s Bosom
One last word, if I may. What was the term for Heaven that Luke used? Abraham’s bosom. What kind of designation is that? Among other things, it refers to dining together in the old Hebrew way, reclining at table. How is St John described as he is eating with our Lord at the Passover? As one
leaning on Jesus’ bosom (John 13:23)
I invite you today who have received of the Spirit in the liturgy and confessed the true faith in the Son of God to lay on His bosom and partake of the meal of heaven. Eat with Him, rich or poor.
This is the word of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Soli Deo Gloria!
