Today begins a run into the chapter Willimon calls "Damned." This is the logical place to go after what we have been running through up until now.
Hell is the opposite of heaven. Hell is that eternal separation that is contrary to what God wants: eternal reconciliation. If we have little firsthand experience of heaven, that time and place where God is all in all, we know next to nothing, since Jesus came among us, of hell, that time and place where God is not. It is the nature of the risen Christ to intrude, to encroach upon empty places of the heart, to fill each drab void with radiant light. So forgive Christians for not knowing much about hell - the void where love is not, where Christ's victory is null. Those of us who have been stalked by the risen Christ tend to believe that it is difficult for any human to keep the Hound of Heaven forever at bay.
The Good News of God's Reign is filled with the stories and the images of God, in Christ, walking into our lives even when it means walking into rooms where the doors are locked. This saving God does not stop pursuing us. So, hell gets to be a closet filled with monsters...in some ways. When the Good News has not yet overwhelmed us and pulled us into new life, hell is brought out by those who feel the need to control the story so that it makes some kind of logical sense. We then get the language of "If....then..." I just heard that yesterday as I was watching one of the local "big name" worldwide preachers doing his have threat based word that is not Good News at all. We are people who have found ourselves in the room with Jesus because Jesus will not stay out of the room even when we have done everything to keep him out. This is going to be a good chapter.
Connection: Hold close the stories of Jesus walking into the places no one would think he would go. Then, rest...simply rest.
When you are for us, O God, it is quite unbelievable. The world is not that way and we live here. So, continue to send you Spirit to whisper this everlasting truth into our ears each time we are do no let our lives go along with your gracious presence. Amen.
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