Ascension into the Heart of Love
As some of you may be aware Thursday was Ascension Day Today I would like to explore the ascension story in Acts 1:1-11 and to uncover how that story might offer valuable insights and inspiration to us wherever we might find ourselves on our journey through life. In the story of Acts we read how the risen Jesus meets his disciples one last time and instructs them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, promising them the power to be his witnesses. As they watch, Jesus ascends into heaven, leaving them gazing upward. Two angels then appear, asking why they are still looking at the sky, and affirm that Jesus will return in the same manner he left. 1. As we reflect more deeply on this story, I believe that Firstly, it is a story that provides us with a Symbol of Transformation and Growth The ascension can be interpreted as a metaphor for personal growth and transformation. Just as Jesus ascended to a higher state, so it speaks of our human potential to be elevated through learning, growth and development. This past week Wends and I watched the first episode of the new series of the piano where pianists from the Manchester area were invited to perform in the Manchester station. Seeing a wide variety of people, young and old, expressing themselves on the piano and displaying their musical giftedness was a reminder of the enormous potential that lies in every human being. God has planted seeds of infinite potential in each of us. And just as a pianist needs to devote themselves to practising in order to increase and raise their musicality and piano playing skills our time spent here on earth should surely be more than just about survival and getting through each day. Our time here on earth is surely God’s invitation to each of us to begin to tap into the potential that lies within, raising our life-state. As Bryant McGill writes: Your entire life has unfolded for your heart’s ascension to Love. And in this passage today, this is symbolised by the ascension of Jesus. As Jesus in the story is lifted on a cloud into heaven, so we are invited into a journey of continuous self-discovery as striving, by the grace of God, towards our fullest potential, being raised and lifted up to be bearers of God’s life in the world. 2. Secondly, the story of the ascension invites us to reflect on the importance of Letting Go and Moving Forward: In the story of the ascension, in order to ascend, Jesus must be willing to let go of a former earth bound existence. It is perhaps a reminder that at some point all of us will need to let go of our earthbound existence. As they say, the only two things that you can be sure of in life are death and taxes. When it comes to our taxes, we all need to be willing to let go of a certain portion of our income that it might be used, hopefully with wisdom and care, for the common good. When it comes to death, there will come a point in which each of us will need to let go of our earthly existence. Whether we believe in an afterlife or not, when we release our final breath, it will surely be a profound act of letting go, for in that moment we will need to let go of everything we have owned, every role we have played, every relationship we have valued and nurtured. In that moment of our final breath we will all be forced to let go of everything we have held onto for our security and our sense of identity in this world. The ascension of Jesus is surely a symbol of this. In order to ascend, he needs to let go. He needs to let go of his earthly existence. He needs to let go of all those he has loved and treasured. He needs to let go of his ministry and he has to entrust all of these things into the hands of the Higher Wisdom of God. Will his mission on earth continue? Who knows… he has to let go. The disciples also need to be willing to let go of the one with whom they had shared their lives. The departure of Jesus is a moment of change for them too. From this moment on, their lives will not be the same. It will be for them a moment of growth for they will no longer be able to relate to and rely on Jesus in the same way. And so the act of ascension requires the letting go of the familiar and moving towards the unknown. It is an invitation to all of us in whatever the circumstances of our lives to embrace change, leaving behind old patterns or limitations, and embracing new possibilities. It encourages each of us to courageously step out of our comfort zones and embark on new adventures or challenges into the vast unknown. None of us is able to embrace something new, unless we are ready and willing to let go of the old. 3. Thirdly the story of the ascension is a story that speaks of Legacy and Impact: Jesus' departure and the disciples' commissioning to continue his work can be seen as a reminder of the importance of leaving a positive impact on the world. Regardless of one's beliefs about Jesus, the idea of leaving behind a legacy of kindness, compassion, and service to others is universally meaningful. It prompts reflection on how each of us can contribute to making the world a better place. When it comes time for us to depart, what will it be that each of us will leave behind? Will we like Jesus leave behind a legacy of kindness, compassion and service to others? 4. Fourthly, the story of the ascension invites us to reflect on the values of Community and Connection: The disciples' gathering together around Jesus at the moment of his ascension highlights the power of community and human connection. And after Jesus has left them, we see them continuing to do so, continuing to meet together. It underscores the significance of supporting one another, sharing experiences, and finding strength in unity and in community. It reminds each of us of the importance of building meaningful relationships, fostering empathy, and creating a sense of belonging in our communities. 5. Fifthly, the story of the Ascension is a story of Hope and Possibility: Near the end of the narrative, after Jesus has ascended two angels appear saying: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand there looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” The promise of Jesus' return can symbolize hope and optimism for the future. It reminds us that even in the face of uncertainty or challenges, there is always the potential for renewal, growth, and positive change. Just as the resurrection reminds us that the cross is not the end of the story, so the promise of Christ’s return, however one conceives of that, reminds us that cruelty, hatred, inhumanity and despair are not how the story of life ends. It encourages individuals to maintain a sense of hopefulness and resilience, believing in the possibility of a brighter tomorrow even in the darkest days. And because of this, like the disciples who are asked why they are looking up into the sky, so we are encouraged not to be so heavenly minded that we become no earthly good. If there is hope and possibility for the future, if Jesus is ‘to come again’, at the very least it will surely also be through each of us as we continue in this world watering the seeds of love, kindness, compassion and joy, as we pour our energies into not only our own growth and transformation, but as we do the same for others, helping, inspiring, lifting others up to become people of the ascension, ascending to new heights of possibility in their own lives as the seeds of Divine potential that God has placed within them and us are able to grow like a plant in spring growing up towards the sun, preparing to bear fruit in the world. “People of Galilee, why do you stand there looking into the sky?” As Elizabeth Gilbert writes - “There’s always another level up. There’s always another ascension. More grace, more light, more generosity, more compassion, more to shed, more to grow”. Amen.
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Seeking and Finding God’s Love
Michael Curry writes: Sometimes it’s hard to feel God’s Love in our everyday lives, especially when life gets turned upside down. In these times we can’t always feel the Divine Presence and we don’t always have a chorus of angels playing background music when chaos descends. But there is good news says Michael Curry. There is a simple way to connect to the Divine anytime you need to. If God is love and love is an action, he says you’ve only got to get out there and do it. He adds, you’ve also got to get out there and receive it. And the easiest way to do that he says is to become part of a community of people whose aim and purpose is to give and receive love. In fact, every day says Michael Curry provides an opportunity to give and receive love as long as you’re not living in isolation. But if you’ve got a loving community, it becomes that little bit easier to be in touch with God’s Love. Bishop Curry writes that community has been an important way in which he has come to know and experience God’s Love. His early experience of that love came first when his mom became sick and then when she finally died. It happened in stages, firstly when she had a stroke and ended up in a coma. They couldn’t visit her because children weren’t allowed in the hospital. But in the midst of that time, a community of people came around their family to begin to support them. He writes that his mother never did wake up from her coma. For years they visited her. Sometimes she would open her eyes, and it would seem like she was still with them, especially in the earlier years. But eventually her body began to shut down. He says that the memory of her death is vague, but he has a vivid memory of the cemetery on the day she was buried. It was the moment when he finally realised his Mom wasn’t coming back. The day was icy cold, and as they lowered her body into the ground he started crying. He was standing next to Mrs Bullock who pulled him in to herself as she rocked him back and forward. He remembers rubbing his cheek on the soft scratchy hairs of her wool coat as she rocked him. He writes that the way Mrs Bullock pulled him in, her coat becoming a soft landing for a boy’s suffering – this was how he and his family lived through the whole period of his mom’s sickness and her death, resting in the loving hands of their church community, which by extension were in fact God’s hands. After his mom was buried they gathered at someone’s house for a meal. And he remembers his grandmother looking around the room at the Bullocks, Josie Robbins (who I spoke about last week) and all the rest who were gathered there, and in her Baptist way, she said: “You know where the Spirit of the Lord is when you see people love”. And she shook her head and smiled. God’s Love is indeed experienced in loving community. In our Gospel passage today, Jesus reminds us of the importance of this… In chapter 15:9 he begins: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. One of the ways we can abide in God’s Love is through loving community. And this is what Jesus is pointing to in verse 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you”. He is encouraging his disciples to nurture the bonds of loving community – to create a community built around the loving way of Jesus. And that is the value of going to church. I have often heard it said by people that they don’t go to church because you can find God in other places, and especially in nature. And in a way they are absolutely right. God can indeed be found in nature. Psalm 98 echoes this: Make a joyful noise all the earth; break forth into joyous songs… let the sea roar and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it… Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy. We should all be making time to find God in nature… if you look, indeed You will find God there. But sometimes you also need to feel God through flesh and blood, through a warm smile and a hug, and that is why church community can be so valuable. Bishop Curry writes that God may be the source of Love, but people are often the vessels of that Love. When we create a community of love for ourselves and others, he says God shows up, and we find ourselves resting in God, experiencing God’s Love. Not all church communities manage to create communities of love. Sometimes churches fail miserably. There is no perfect church community. I am quite sure there have been times when this church community have failed to be places of love and care, where some members may not have experienced love and care and as a result they have drifted away. It takes effort to nurture a community of love and not simply become a private inward looking club. It is also not to say that you can’t find loving community outside of a church, of course you can, but there is something about a faith community that stand in a unique position, because faith communities are places in which we can find rituals of comfort that connect us with a deeper, wider and more universal Love, the Love of God. The Church has been practising this for centuries, providing rituals of faith and rituals of comfort when normal words are inadequate. Michael Curry writes that While his mother was sick, his family never stopped living the rituals of faith, whether they felt like it or not. His father never missed a church service, and not simply because it was his job as an episcopal priest. Michael Curry writes: I think that is why we prayed good and long each time they visited his Mom – because they didn’t know what else to do. He writes: Those words – Oh help us heavenly father – carried us when we couldn’t carry ourselves. We rested in God’s hands. Community is love, he writes, and intentional spiritual practice provide the scaffolding that makes it even stronger. And having experienced this kind of community especially when his mom was in a coma and later when she died, he says that he did not conclude that the world was a broken bitter and ruthless place, for despite the pain and the grief, he found that he was not abandoned… he was in fact loved. And if he wasn’t abandoned, then neither was his mother, for she was also resting in God’s hands. In Luke’s Gospel, the last thing that Jesus says, is not “My God my God why have your forsaken me” as we read in Mark’s Gospel. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus last words are, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”. They are words from Psalm 31 that Jesus would have known well from growing up with the psalms being read regularly in synagogue. In his dying moments, in agony, Michael curry writes that Jesus leans on the spiritual tradition that had nurtured him. Those words bubble up and carry him through. He rested in God’s hands. And he felt that this was true also for his Mom. She was also resting in God’s hands. None of us know how it all works he says. We don’t know everything. But from being connected with a faith community, this we do know: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Bishop Curry writes that Resting in God’s hands through being part of a community of love is more than just going to a place of worship. It does require active participation – being willing to be involved, to ask for help and being open to receive it when it is offered. You can go there he says, but you still have to do love, putting yourself out there with all the vulnerability that it requires. And indeed, you don’t have to be in a faith community to do these things – You can do these things anywhere, but as Michael Curry says: It takes a lot more courage outside of a community of faith. There are not a lot of places of community in this world where people can find love and support. A few years ago I was speaking to a father whose son was under-going cancer treatment. And he became part of a whats-app group of other parents who were experiencing the same thing. What struck him was that for most of the people on the group, this was the only place where they were receiving love and support. Most of them didn’t belong to a faith community and therefore didn’t have the love and support of such a community. He realised in that experience what a gift his own faith community was. There is a real danger that Churches are dying and many may go extinct. There continue to be records numbers of churches in England that are closing there doors and having to sell their properties. The phrase comes to mind: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” We should not take our faith communities for granted. If we nurture our faith communities as communities of love, they will be places in which we can rest in God’s hands. Thank you for being part of this faith community, even if your only contact with us is online. What is Love?
Today I would like to begin a new preaching series based on a Book by the Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry called “Love is the Way”. The book is a really thought provoking exploration on the meaning of love and the potential for love to truly transform the world. The first chapter begins in an obvious place as it asks the question “What is Love?”, “What is this thing called Love?” In answering that question, Bishop Curry introduces us to a woman who made an enormous impact on his life, a women by the name of Josie Robbins. At the time of writing the book, Josie Robbins was still alive and in her 85th year. The moment that precipitated Josie Robbins coming into his life was in fact the death of his own mother when he and his sister were still children. She wasn’t a member of their church. She wasn’t even a family friend at the time. She was just a lady who stopped by at his own church to drop off her neighbours child before going on to her own Baptist Church. But when she heard about their family situation and asked: ‘How can I help?’ soon thereafter, his father invited her into their home, leading her to the spare bedroom where a pile of clothes needed to be ironed. A little later the same day he rang to say that he was running late at work and could she give his kids lunch? And from that day, as she responded to further requests from his dad for help, Josie Robbins would eventually become a surrogate mother to him and his sister. He writes that “Moved by love, Josie jumped in with both arms and never let go.” She became the one who made the hurt go away as she did many of the things that their mother used to do for them. And over the years she was present at all their family events and big days – from high school, to university and to his seminary graduations, to weddings, ordinations, births and baptisms and on and on and on. For Michael Curry Josie Robbins became a living example of what love looks like, the kind of love that is the only way we can save the planet. Many languages have several words to encompass different kinds and dimensions of love. Three of the most frequently used words in New Testament Greek are eros, philia and agape. Eros refers to romantic and sexual love and is what Valentines Day is about. Philia is fraternal, brotherly or sisterly love. Also the bonds of love and affection experienced between friends. Finally, Agape is love for the other – a sacrificial love that seeks the good and well-being of others, of society and of the world. Michael Curry writes that Agape is the kind of love that looks outward. It is the kind of love that he experienced through Josie Robbins. It is the kind of love that Jesus seemed to be most interested in. Love in this sense is the firm commitment to act for the well-being of someone other than yourself opening up the goodness and sweetness of life to them. And Michael Curry writes that it can be personal, or political, individual or communal, intimate or public. Love can never be segregated to the private or personal dimensions of life, but extends to and affects all aspects of life. What Michael Curry didn’t know as a child was that Josie Robbin’s love shared so generously with his own family had changed many other lives also. She was the principal of St Augustine’s school, a high school for pregnant and parenting teens. In the 1960’s, while most of the rest of society were ready to disown and abandon pregnant teens, she poured her life energy into giving them a chance at a better future for themselves and their children, helping thousands of them to complete their high schooling with the opportunity to go on to study further or get a decent paying job. Michael Curry writes that an oft quoted passage in the New testament says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only son”. The Greek word for love used in the passage is agape, while the Greek word for ‘world’ is kosmos. But what it really means he says is “everything” – “everything that is”. Isn’t that wonderful…For God so loved the kosmos, God so loved everything that is, everything that God had created, that God gave… God did not take. God gave. As Michael Curry says: “That’s agape. That’s love. It is the way to a new world that looks something more like God’s dream for us and for all creation, what Dante spoke of as “the love that moves the sun and the stars”. Today’s reading is from 1 Cor 13, the apostle Paul’s inspiring ‘ode to love’. It is a passage that tragically is seldom read in churches except at weddings. But as Michael Curry says, when the apostle Paul wrote those words he wasn’t at a wedding. He wasn’t giving advice to young couples on how to make their marriage work. Paul’s words were in fact written for a dysfunctional church community in Corinth in which its members had forgotten all of the values of Jesus of Nazareth that had first brought them together and they were in fact ripping themselves apart. They were a community splitting into factions according to who had baptised them. Members suing each other in the secular courts. Some were sleeping with other members spouses. The rich and well-to-do were demanding that they receive communion first and others getting drunk at communion. And in the midst of all of this a community arguing about who was more spiritual than who. Bishop Curry says it is behaviour that has a decidedly contemporary ring about it reflecting much of the of behaviour and attitudes expressed so often on social media platforms today: Arrogant, rude, insisting on its own way, irritable, resentful, rejoicing in wrong doing. And so Paul reminds the Church in Corinth of the kind of love that they should be nurturing as a church community built around the values of Jesus – the only kind of love that can save a divided community. Bishop Curry writes that you might think that the opposite of love is hate. But if Love looks outward, to the good of the other, then it’s opposite is not hate. Rather it’s opposite is in fact selfishness. A life completely centred on the self. He goes on to say that intuitively, we all understand that nothing good ever came from selfishness and greed. In contrast to love, selfishness is the most destructive force in the cosmos and hate is only a symptom. Selfishness destroys families. It destroys communities. It destroys societies, nations and global communities, and he says, it will destroy the human race by laying waste to our planet it we let it. By contrast, he says that Love is the only thing that has ever changed the world for the better, seen in people who have dedicated themselves to the growth and flourishing of others, their communities and of the world. This includes, parents and teachers dedicated to the flourishing of the children under their care. In fact it includes anyone and everyone who in their neighbourhoods, and places of work dedicate themselves to living not just for themselves, but for the greater good. People like Josie Robbins, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, William Wilberforce, the great abolitionist, Malala Yousafzai the activist for girls' education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban and continues to advocate for education and equality. As Michael Curry writes: Love is a firefighter running into a burning building, risking his or her life for someone he doesn’t even know. Love is that first responder hurtling toward an emergency, a catastrophe, a disaster. Love is also someone protesting anything that hurts or harms the children of God. As Jesus says hours before his crucifixion in John’s Gospel: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s own life for one’s friends.” Where selfishness excludes, love makes room and includes. Where selfishness puts down, love lifts up. Where selfishness hurts and harms, love helps and heals. Where selfishness enslaves, love sets free and liberates. And finally, Michael Curry says that Love is God’s GPS for living. Getting back to Paul and the dysfunctional Christian community in Corinth, he concludes his exhortation to them to love with these words: “And now faith hope and love abide… and the greatest of these is love.” Michael Curry writes that Faith is another word for trust. Without trust society falls apart. Every society depends on trust. Without trust, government is useless and relationships are impossible. Without trust it’s every human for him or herself – and that is just a mess he says. And so faith is a radical act of trust in reality. It is to dare to live and act as though the moral arc of the universe is long but bent towards justice, even if you can’t see its end. Nothing short of faith can stay the course. It dares us to believe that in the end, even if we can’t see it, love will win. Then comes hope, which Michael Curry says puts wind in our sails of faith, for it is the energy that keeps us going when life gets tough. It was Dante who imagined the gates of hell with a signpost above it: “Abandon hope, all who enter here”. Without hope Bishop Curry says that life becomes mere survival, but with hope he says you can march through hell for a heavenly cause. But while faith and hope are necessary for a full life, Bishop Curry says that they are not a guide for life. They don’t tell you what to do. That he says is the purpose of love. It is love that tells you how to direct the energy of faith and hope. He says that if faith and hope are the wind and the sails, then love is life’s rudder. It is God’s GPS or SatNav for the way of love will show us the right thing to do every single time. He writes: “It is a moral and spiritual grounding – and a place of rest – amid the chaos that is often part of life. It’s how we stay decent in indecent times.” And although the way of love is not easy, he reminds us that it is the only thing that has ever made a positive difference in this world. What is love to you? What are the places in your life where you are needing love’s care? What are the places in your life where love is calling you to reach out beyond yourself to make a difference in the world? Today, as I have a Sunday off from preaching, I have prepared a brief online reflection based on three of the lectionary passages set for today. The passages are:
Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18; In Psalm 23, we are invited into the imagery of the shepherd and his flock. The well-known and familiar imagery can get lost in our familiarity with them, but the Psalm remains rich with poetic imagery that can inspire us and plant seeds of hope within us for the Psalmist speaks to the fundamental human need and longing for guidance, protection, and sustenance. In the vast expanse of life's journey, we find comfort in the idea of a shepherd who leads us to green pastures and still waters, providing us with the nourishment and rest we need to thrive. The imagery of the shepherd caring for his sheep in speaking to the universal longing for protection and nurturing I invites us to contemplate the possibility that there is a Higher Wisdom at work that we refer to with the word God, that seeks our highest good. It reminds us too of the importance of compassion and care for one another, regardless of our religious beliefs. In the first letter of John verses 16-24, the themes of Psalm 23 are carried through as we encounter a powerful message about the nature of love. Love, as described here, is not merely a sentiment but a radical way of living. 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. And so the passage suggests that Love is demonstrated through tangible acts of compassion, generosity, and solidarity with those in need. This love transcends religious boundaries and speaks to the universal longing for connection and belonging. As Non-Subscribing Christians, we embrace this call to love one another, recognizing that it is through our actions that we affirm our shared humanity and through our practical acts of love that we demonstrate our Christian commitment. Lastly, in the Gospel according to John 10:11-18, Jesus presents himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. Vs 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” It is a passage that carries a profound message of selflessness and sacrifice. The Good Shepherd is willing to put the needs of others before his own, demonstrating a deep sense of empathy and compassion. This is contrasted with the hired hand, who only looks after his own interests and runs away when trouble comes. In a world often marked by division and self-interest, this portrayal of leadership serves as a powerful reminder of the values we should hold dear as followers of Christ. As we reflect on these passages, they are an invitation to recommit ourselves to embodying the spirit of compassion and love in our daily lives. May we be like the good shepherd who cares for his flock, extending a helping hand to those who are vulnerable or in need. May we practice a love that knows no boundaries, reaching out to our fellow human beings with empathy and understanding. And may our actions reflect the deep-seated belief that we are all interconnected, bound together by our shared humanity and held by a Wisdom that is greater than our own. Amen. Judgement – Seeing Ourselves in the Light of Love
In around 1995 I was in the early stages of becoming a lay preacher. I was just getting on my feet as a preacher after a wobbly start when I had thought a few times of just giving it up. On one particular Sunday I preached a sermon on a topic I can’t remember, but somewhere in the sermon I had made some kind of illustration by making a rather derogatory remark about time-share salesmen. I don’t know how the timeshare industry is regulated or operated here, but in South Africa, the time-share industry had a reputation of creating contracts that were easy to sign but very difficult if not impossible to get out of. After the service one of the more senior members of the church came past to shake my hand at the door. All he said to me was: Brian, I am a time share salesman. To be quite honest, I don’t think he was a time-share salesman, but was putting himself in the shoes of a time-share salesman I order to make a point. And in that moment I suddenly realised what I had done. It was for me a moment of searing pain in which I instantaneously recognised not only how sweeping and prejudiced a statement I had made from the pulpit, but the potential hurt and shame I may have caused for anyone in the congregation who was a time share salesman or perhaps had a family member who was one. I felt ashamed that the words had come out of my mouth so glibly without having considered what they could mean for some who were listening. One could say that it was a moment of judgement. A very painful moment, that in fact lasted like a dreadful shadow for hours afterwards, and in fact probably for quite a number of days. But it was also a moment of growth. One could say even a moment of salvation from that moment for myself and for anyone who would listen to my preaching from that moment onwards. I would from that moment onwards be far more mindful of how I spoke from the pulpit and hopefully never again make derisive, sweeping and prejudiced comments from the pulpit again. I hope I have never done so again. It is entirely possible that I have, because we all have blind-spots, things we are not fully aware of unless someone points them out to us. Today I would like to reflect on the concept of judgement. What is judgement? What does judgement look like and feel like. In a way, this is an epilogue to the sermon series we have just completed. The idea of the Last Judgement is one that is deeply etched into our Western Psyche. Some of the greatest artworks of Western Civilization are depictions of the last judgement. And I think especially of the scene of the Last Judgement painted by Michelangelo on the Altar Wall of the Sistine Chapel between 1536 and 1541. Interestingly, in Michelangelo’s depiction of the Last Judgement, almost all the human figures in the painting are depicted naked. One might simply put that down to the fact that it is a renaissance painting in which it had become more and more common to depict the naked human form. But in doing so, it appears that he was actually trying to communicate something of the deeper meaning of judgement: The sense that the process or experience of judgement is an experience in which our ability to cover up is removed. Judgement is the experience of no longer being able to hide ourselves from the light of truth, the truth of who we are and what we have done. One gets a sense of that in the Genesis story. When Adam and Eve in the story disobey the Divine command, they feel exposed and vulnerable and so try and cover up their nakedness by hiding in the garden and sewing together fig leaves. It is a story that is true not because it happened, but because it happens to all of us. It conveys an archetypal truth. It is surely symbolic of our human tendency to become defensive in trying to cover over our flaws and faults. None of us enjoy being criticized and having our faults and weaknesses identified, even when we know that the criticism might be true. In fact often it is when the criticism is true that we become the most defensive because we feel so vulnerable. We don’t like to be exposed and so we try to cover over our faults, because we don’t want others to see us as we really are. And more often because we don’t want to see ourselves as we really are. We are afraid of the light, because in it we feel exposed and vulnerable. And so we prefer to hide our flaws and faults in the dark so that we can avoid looking at them in the hope that others won’t see them as well. And this brings us to our passage from John’s Gospel today in which the writer shares his perspective on what judgement is: John 3:19-20 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. (And we should note that the Greek word for evil in this passage comes from the root Greek word ponos meaning hurtful. Our tendency to cause hurt and harm. It is not saying we are inherently evil.) I wonder if that gives us a clue as to what the so-called final judgement is about: Is it perhaps that the metaphor of the final judgement refers to that moment when the Light of Truth will shine upon us in such a way that we can no longer hide the truth of who we are and what we have done. It is a searing and painful moment, because we don’t like what we see it and we especially don’t like others to see it as well. The metaphor of the Last Judgement is the experience where we stand naked before God and we can no longer cover ourselves up. I think of someone like Vladimir Putin. No-one likes to think of themselves as a bad person. You can be almost certain that Vladimir Putin does not think of himself as a bad person. In his mind he has a whole lot of stories to justify to himself and to other people why he is doing what he is doing. In his propaganda he constantly tries to show himself in the best light. What will judgement look like for Putin? It will look exactly the same as it will be for each of us. It will be a moment or an experience of no longer being able to hide behind the stories that we tell ourselves, and having the truth about our actions exposed will surely be a most painful experience. But what we don’t realise is that the Light of Truth that illuminates our darkness and exposes it is also at the very same time the Light of Divine Love. And while it might be painful to have the truth about ourselves revealed by Divine Light, it is also in that moment that we can begin to experience the embrace of divine love. What will the judgement and accountability look like? That is a question that is difficult to answer, because we are in the territory of things that are beyond our full comprehension. But what I would suggest is that at the very least judgement and moral accountability when we stand naked before God will look something like my experience standing at the door of the church shaking hands. At the very least the final judgement will be a lifting of the veil of the true nature of our crimes of commission and omission. It will be seeing our acts of cruelty and indifference in the full light of love. It will be a coming to know and to experience the full impact of our actions upon those whom we have hurt, abused or perhaps neglected. And that seeing of ourselves and our actions unveiled completely before us will be an experience searing and inescapable pain for it is a dreadfully painful thing when we have nowhere left to hide and our deeds of darkness are exposed to ourselves and others. But the good news will also be that this searing pain of having our deeds and misdeeds exposed by the Light of Divine Love will also be our healing and for our final salvation. When one thinks of these things in terms of victims and perpetrators, when a victim wishes pain on a perpetrator is it not that what they are really wanting is for the perpetrator to fully know and to fully understand and in some way to fully experience for themselves the full extent of the pain they have caused the victim. And generally, where perpetrators have been able to bring themselves to the point of doing so with deep contrition, then a true and real reconciliation is able to happen between victim and perpetrator. Does that possibly give us a glimpse of what the final reconciliation of all things will be: On the one hand, it will be the experience of the complete healing of the pain and wounds of the victim which will be mirrored and facilitated by the complete accountability and the complete contrition and healing of the perpetrator as well in which the perpetrators of this world will come to fully know and fully experience from the inside the true depth of pain inflicted upon their victims. And this process of healing of the perpetrator will not be without pain or without cost, but it will be full and it will be complete, just as the healing of the wounds and pain of the victim will also be full and complete aided by the fact that the perpetrator has fully understood and experienced in their own spirits the pain that he or she has caused. In Ephesians 5:13 we read: ‘But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes light.’ The exposing of our darkness might be a painful experience, but it is also the experience of our ultimate healing. The Light of Divine Judgement turns out to be the Light of Divine Healing and Love because “...everything that is illuminated becomes light.” Questioning Eternal Hell (Part 6) - Free Will & Corrective Punishment
Over the weeks of Lent leading up to Easter, I had been inviting us to question the Doctrine of Eternal Hell. I had been using as my guide a book by David Bentley Hart trying to communicate the essence of some of the key points he makes. A question that we began to explore in the last sermon was: Is there any justice? Where is the justice? If the promise of Universal Salvation is true, that everyone, even the worst of humanity will in the end be saved by God’s all-redeeming Love expressed in Christ, is there still room for justice. We saw how David Bentley Hart believes that the New Testament writings point to two horizons: A penultimate horizon, ‘the end of the age’, in which all will be held accountable for our actions in this world, and a final horizon, ‘the age beyond all ages’ when having been purified of our darkness, we will all without exception be brought home to God. George MacDonald was a Scottish Congregational Minister who lived in the 1800’s (born in 1824 – and died 1905). He was the author also of quite a number of fictional stories. He had a very big impact on C.S. Lewis. Now George MacDonald was a Christian Universalist, in other words a believer in Universal Salvation, that in the end, all would be saved. But this did not mean that he had given up on the idea of some kind of judgement, accountability and even punishment in the after-life. MacDonald's universalism was not the idea that everyone will automatically be saved, but is closer to the ancient view of the Christian theologian Gregory of Nyssa that all will ultimately repent (come to a change of heart and mind) and thus be restored to God. MacDonald grew up in a very severe Scottish Calvinist tradition and appears to have never felt comfortable with Calvinist doctrine, feeling that its principles were inherently "unfair". Apparently when the doctrine of predestination was first explained to him as a child, and that God had created some to be destined to eternal torment, he burst into tears. He could never accept the doctrine even though he was assured that he was one of the elect. As Barbara Amall writes: He was repeatedly quoted saying that when Protestants decided that three places in the afterlife were too many, [hell; purgatory; heaven] he believed that “they got rid of the wrong one.” He believed the early protestants should have got rid of the idea of Eternal Hell and rather should have retained something of the idea of purgatory. It is not to say that his understanding of some kind of purgatory in the afterlife was an uncritical acceptance of the Catholic Doctrine of purgatory. He simply believed that some kind of purgatory, in other words a place or an experience of purification made far more sense of the over-arching Biblical framework and could at the same time preserve the foundational Christian teaching that God is Love, that God’s Love would be triumphant and that no-one would be finally excluded from God’s all encompassing, never-failing love. For George MacDonald, the idea of an eternal hell of sufferings and torment turns God into a monster for whom eternal cruelty is the final word and not eternal love. And so in 1890, George MacDonald, while giving a series of lectures on Dante made the following statement: “I do indeed believe in a place of punishment, but that longing and pain will bring us back to God.” He went on to say “There is a deep truth in the soul undergoing Purgatory [in other words, the sufferings of purification] in order that it may return to God—in whom we live and move—at all times.” From his "Unspoken Sermons: Series I, on Justice" MacDonald said that "If our God is a consuming fire, what will he do but burn and burn until every evil thing is consumed, and creation is awakened pure and free from sin! The fires of hell are but the love of God." He went on to say in the same sermon that "God's fire is not an avenging wrath, but a refining and cleansing flame. He will purge from his creation all that mars its beauty and tarnishes its purity." In God's school, where men [people] are punished for their sins, there is no cruelty, only love. For God cannot be cruel, and he never punishes for vengeance; he only corrects for the sake of the wrongdoer…. Punishment is not vengeance, but a means of reclaiming the wrongdoer and restoring him to his true self." It also needs to be remembered that where the New Testament refer to punishment, the Greek word that is used, kolasis, refers to corrective punishment and not vengeance. The word can be found in Matthew 25:46 at the end of the parable of the sheep and the goats, where the goats, or the ‘unrighteous’, who have not shown care and concern for the poor and the needy, are separated from the sheep and thus destined for what English translations call ‘eternal punishment’. But here the Greek word is kolasis. And as Thomas Talbot writes in his book the Inescapable Love of God, kolasis was a common Greek word for remedial punishment or correction, and that the idea of an eternal correction, would be an event or process of limited duration whose corrective effect literally endures forever. And so for George MacDonald and many other Christian Universalists like him, all the metaphors of fire in the New Testament as we touched on in the last sermon, refer to the purging fire of Divine love burning away all that is false, unjust, unloving and wicked within us in order to reveal that golden essence within of that original true self or the image of God that God has placed with us that has been marred obscured and distorted, by our selfishness, injustice and lack of love. George MacDonald believed that the purifying, purgatorial, love of God is in fact already experienced in this life whenever we are met with the painful consequences of our wayward actions. But there are also a few other metaphors as well in the New Testament, most especially in the Gospel of Matthew and one from the Gospel of Luke, metaphors of exclusion, like sealed wedding doors, accompanied by the gnashing of teeth. And one can think especially of the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus where because of the Rich Man’s failure to show compassion and human kindness to Lazarus in his destitution and poverty, he seems to be quarantined off in some experience of suffering and thirst in the afterlife. But there is nothing in the parable to indicate that these sufferings of the Rich Man are in fact eternal. We should also be reminded of the fact that it is a parable, not a literal description. It is but one metaphor among many used in the New Testament. For George MacDonald, if the passages in the New Testament referring to some kind of exclusion and banishment from the Divine Presence are to be taken seriously and not simply dismissed, then the purpose of such exclusion is ultimately to awaken a deeper longing for God that would in the end bring that soul back home to God. I am reminded of the words of St Augustine: “O God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you”. The suggestion is that outside the embrace of Divine Love, there is no real happiness, only restlessness. And it is that restlessness and unhappiness that will eventually make all of us turn back to God where we can find our deepest happiness. There are a lot of people who suggest that eternal hell is the choice that some will make to remain eternally separated from God. This is the argument based on free-will. That God respects our free will so much that God will allow us to make the eternal choice to reject God. But David Bentley Hart says that such a choice in fact makes no sense. Because we have been made by Divine Love and for Divine Love, and that our true and deepest freedom can only be found within that Divine Love. To live outside of that Love will forever leave us unhappy, empty and unfulfilled. And it is precisely for that reason that David Bentley Hart suggests that we will all one day find our way back to God, no matter how far we have strayed or how lost and depraved we have become, because as beings who in fact crave happiness and freedom, the desire for that happiness and freedom will eventually lead us back to the only place where that happiness and freedom can be satisfied, and that is in God. And so it could be said that God has created us with a homing device. You can only stray so far and for so long until it begins to chafe and a deep longing is ignited within us to return home. The idea that we can wonder off for all eternity and of our own free will reject God’s Infinite and Boundless Love doesn’t actually make sense, because it goes against the very nature of how we are made at our core. The Divine Image within, what some might speak of as the Divine Spark within all, will eventually bring us all back home. In this view, there is no-one who is dispensable in God’s eyes and there will in the end be no collateral damage in God’s plan to bring all things back to unity in the end. “O God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you”. St Augustine, interestingly was not a Universalist, but if he had pondered his own statement deeply enough, and truly understood the limitless nature of Divine love, he might have realised that one day, all sorry and miserable sinners would turn back to God. And so in the New Testament there are numerous passages, using a variety of images and metaphors that speak of judgement, consequences and remedial and corrective sufferings. None of those need to be dispensed within a Christian Universalist framework. What David Bentley Hart suggests however is that while these passages do exist and need to be taken seriously and not simply dismissed, if we simply had the eyes to see them, the number of passages that consistently point to the final reconciliation of all things are in fact far more numerous. I hope this series has been stimulating for you. I would have to concede that perhaps not all have been completely convinced by this series of 6 sermons. There is only so much ground that can be covered in 6 short reflections. The gift of our Non-Subscribing tradition remains that all of us are encouraged to investigate these things for ourselves and come to our own conclusions. If this series has peaked your interest there are a number of books that you can read further. I will put references up on our website. David Bentley Harts book “That All Shall Be Saved” was not the easiest reading as he seems to be writing for people who have a masters or doctorate in theology. But there are a number of other books that you could read: Rob Bell has a very readable book entitled: Love Wins which I would be happy to lend to you. I have another readable book by Kalen Fristad called Destined for Salvation. The most thorough book that I could probably recommend on the subject is by Thomas Talbot, called: The Inescapable Love of God. Thomas Talbott’s Book which is available on Kindle is perhaps one of the most thorough Biblical explorations of the subject. Opening Words by Molly Gordon
You can crush Love down, bury it, cover it over, but it will rise. It will reach for the sun, and we will reach for each other. Love will have the final word, even if that word is just a question, a wild possibility, a whisper to rise and follow wherever it may lead. Prayer O God of Resurrection Life and Light We praise and thank you for this day. This day on which you created light and saw that it was good. This day in whose early morning light we discovered the tomb of life was empty and encountered Christ, the world's true light. This day in which we celebrate the triumph of life over death and the victory of that Light that darkness can never overcome. This is the day that you have made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Reading John 20:1-2 & 11-16a 1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” Reflection In the Easter narrative recorded in John’s Gospel, when the Risen Christ meets Mary, he asks her: Why are you crying? And on Easter Sunday, it is a question that we are all invited to reflect on. What are the tears and the fears that you carry with you today? Perhaps they go back years and years. Perhaps they are more recent? What are the tears and the fears that you carry with you today? And on Easter Sunday, we are invited to imagine the Risen One coming to each us in the garden of our lives and speaking our name. He is indeed the gardener, the one who comes to plant seeds of life and love in the pools of our tears. And to remind us that death and fear are not how the story ends, because Life is eternal and Love can never die! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed. Amen. Prayers of Intercession In the midst of celebrating Christ risen and in giving thanks for the resurrection life that is within us and all around us we bring these our gifts and with them our prayers. We pray also for the things in our lives and in the lives of people everywhere that are trapped in the tombs of death: For those trapped despair in the midst of loss or confusion For those trapped in bitterness as a result of hurt or disloyalty For those experiencing violence of heart and hand in the face of conflict and opposition. Silence Wherever death is found whether in our minds and souls or in the matter and relationships of our bodies and corporate lives lead us O God by your messengers of light to look for new life, not among the dead but through the pangs of death and beyond it to the One who is alive forever and ever. And in the hope and assurance of the Resurrection, we pause to remember with love, those who have passed from this world into God’s nearer presence. AMEN. Questioning Eternal Hell Part 5: What about judgement and justice?
Over the past few weeks I have been inviting us to question the Doctrine of Eternal Hell. I have been using as my guide a book by David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved, trying to communicate the essence of some of the salient points he makes in the book. A question that some may be wondering at this point is: Is there any justice? Where is the justice? If the doctrine of eternal hell is potentially incorrect will the abusers, perpetrators and oppressors of this world ever be held to account, and if so how? In offering some perspectives on these questions, I would like to take us to what seems to be the framework in which most of the New Testament writers worked within. In this regard, David Bentley Hart writes that within in the New Testament you will find two seemingly contradictory lists of statements. On the one hand, you will find statements that seem to support the idea of eternal damnation. A sample of such verses include: • Matthew 25:46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” • Jude 13 [These people are] wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. • 2 Thessalonians 1:9 “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” On the other hand, you will find statements that seem to support the doctrine of universal salvation: • For as in Adam all die, so in Christ, shall all be made alive (1 Cor 15:22) • For when I am lifted up I will draw (or drag) all people to myself (John 12:32) • In Jesus Christ is “the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21) How do we resolve these seemingly contradictory viewpoints with two seemingly absolute statements being made on both sides? The way in which advocates of eternal damnation have resolved these statements has been by placing their emphasis on the word eternal as in eternal fire, eternal destruction, eternal punishment. While on the other hand they have had to do some re-interpreting of the meaning of the word ‘all’. And so when the Biblical writers mention the word ‘all’ advocates of eternal hell would say that the word ‘all’, doesn’t in fact mean ‘all’, it actually only means a few. When the New Testament writers use the word ‘all’ they suggest that these writers only mean ‘all’ of the elect… or ‘all’ of God’s chosen, despite the fact that the actual references in the New Testament do not in themselves contain any such qualification. But David Bentley Hart suggest that the reason that these two sets of statements seem to be contradictory is because for centuries, theologians have been relying on defective translations of the original Greek word aionios being translated to mean eternal, forever, infinite, unending. But David Bentley Hart suggests that even thought he word has a certain flexibility of meaning no-where in the ancient world was the word used in that way. Rather the word had the meaning of ‘an age’ denoting a period of time with a beginning and an end. Originally it was a word that described simply the life-span of a human being, but later came to be used to describe much longer periods of time. And in this sense the ancient Greek word aionios forms the root of our English word aeon, which although coveys the idea of an extremely long period of time is still a period of time that will come to an end. Some would suggest that by implication the word aionios could be interpreted to mean eternal or forever and ever, but that was certainly not the standard or normal understanding of that word in the ancient world. And with this, David Bentley Hart says these two seemingly contradictory perspectives in the New Testament no longer need to be contradictory. Instead he says the New Testament writers invites us to see the future as comprising two horizons. The first horizon points us to the end of the age. And within that horizon there is space to understand that there is a cosmic justice according to which all of us will have to give account and experience of the consequences of our actions done in this world. An accountability that will be experienced as a judgement. But the good news is that there is a second horizon to which the New Testament framework points that takes us beyond the first horizon to ‘the age beyond all ages’. And in that second horizon, there is the final promise of the complete healing and restoration of all things. David Bentley Hart would therefore suggest that all those passages in the New Testament that deal with punishment, judgement and consequences are referring to that first horizon and describe penultimate, but not the final state of affairs. While on the other hand, all the passages that point to the final reconciliation of all things, points to the second horizon, the age beyond all ages, when as the writer of Ephesians puts it God “will bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth” (1:10) and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:28 God will be All and in all. What does the judgement and accountability of that first horizon look like? The judgement of the ‘end of the age’. The fact that the New Testament contains a variety of words, metaphors and images to speak of these things should alert us to the fact that they are ultimately beyond our full comprehension for those of us who in this world see as though through a glass darkly. But one of the primary images and the metaphors that is used in the Bible for this process of judgement, and accountability is the metaphor of fire. In Mark 9, Jesus is described as saying: Everyone will be salted with fire. The fire in this passage is the fire of Gehenna, one of the words that is usually translated as hell, but the reference to salt clearly suggests that this fire is a purifying and preserving fire that everyone will go through. We see this image of the purifying fire of Divine Love also near the end of the Book of Revelation. The Kings of the earth, in other words, those who have used power in this world in oppressive and violent ways pass through this fire before the final unveiling of the New Heaven and New Earth where we see them now entering the New Heavenly Jerusalem. David Bentley Hart writes that “...though Paul speaks on more than one occasion of the judgement to come, it seems worth noting that the only picture he actually provides of that final reckoning is the one found in 1 Cor 3:11-15, the last two verses of which identify only two classes of the judged: those saved in and through their works and those saved by way of the fiery destruction of their works”. If the work that someone has built endures, that one will receive a reward; if anyone’s work should be burned away, that one will suffer loss, yet shall be saved, even though as by fire. This reference to fire clearly suggests not the fire of eternal, infinite, unending punishment, but rather a potentially painful purification process for the final purpose of realising that second horizon of the complete restoration and reconciliation of all things. It is a process which Paul suggests will be more painful for some than for others, because it is a painful thing to have our darkness laid bare. And for those who have already entered fully into the grace of God made known in Christ, it will not be painful at all but simply and experience of the full light of Divine Love. And so the more we are able to do the painful work of honestly confronting our own darkness, selfishness, anger or greed in the here and now, (traditionally referred to as the word repentance) the less painful it will be later on. And in addition the more we will even now begin to feel and experience the Divine Love and Grace shining upon us and within us. (This is really the kind of work that we covered in our previous preaching series on the 12 Steps). I hope that this contrast has been helpful, between the judgement passages in the New Testament on the one hand and the universal salvation passages on the other hand? They don’t have to be contradictory or sit in opposition to each other. Instead of placing them side by side, Christian Universalists resolve them by placing them in sequential order, so that while there is indeed room for accountability and justice, however that may be conceived, God’s final word is not judgement and punishment and the unending torture of those who fall short. God’s final word is in fact love and the healing of all things where every tear will be wiped away. If Eternal Damnation is God’s final word, then God’s final word is pain, cruelty and torture… By contrast Paul reminds us that 3 things remain… three things endure… faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. It suggests that God’s final word is Love. I end with a passage of scripture that if read in the light of these things can be understood to be pointing towards both horizons, the end of the age, and the age beyond all ages. 2 Peter 3:10-13 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.[b] That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. One of the questions some might ask: If all are assured of salvation in a Christian Universalist framework, then Why live righteous, holy and godly lives? But the Righteous is he heavenly life… it is to be in alignment with the wisdom of life and the wisdom and love of God and to be in alignment with our own true nature. The unrighteousness life by contrast is the hellish life. Unrighteousness us essentially to be out of alignment with the truth of our own being, to be out of alignment with God and the Wisdom of Life. The unrighteous life, the life of disharmony is the very life we are being saved from. By contrast, the righteous life, a life of love, wisdom compassion, goodness, is the life we are saved for… it is the heavenly life that we can already begin to taste here and now the more we open ourselves to the Divine Grace. There is so much more that could be said and so on the Sunday after Easter I would like to further explore these ideas a little further. |
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