Imagine all the money churches would lose if they stopped serving as trip advisors - you know - this is how to get to heaven - this is how to get to hell. That trip advising too often seems to be the beginning and the end of the message. In some places that is all that you will hear. It may come to you through a grading system you can use to discover for yourself the way to one place or the other place. It may come as the complete bastardization of the intent of the ten commandments so that they are used to keep you in control of the journey you want to take. It may come as a thunder of threat to frighten or a syrupy sweetness to attract. I may come as the saving message that will bring you eternal joy - always couched in language of another time and place.
Imagine going to worship and never being told of a place other than here - this life - this day. Imagine going to worship at a place that does not make us wonder about the great by-and-by and how we can get there. Imagine taking part in a study of Scripture and it is not about leaving here or being left behind. Imagine hearing stories of people who lived out of love and never fear. Trip advisors always seem to have the plan for your journey into the bosom of Abraham - or not. Hmm.
I remember being the host pastor for a International Pentecostal Conference at our congregation. Our church was a safe place because for decades, we were what is called a Reconciling in Christ congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. That simply means we publicly stated and then lived within the reality that the saints among us who are LGBTQ are always saints among us and with us - without question. This Pentecostal conference was for LGBTQ folks who also identified as Pentecostals. I was told that those are usually contrary identifications.
Well, in a discussion with several of the pastors, I brought up Bishop Carlton Pearson. He was a Pentecostal Bishop prominently known in the worldwide Pentecostal movement. But he also had become a Bishop exorcized from his communion. He had come out as a Pentecostal clergy who could no longer serve as a trip advisor. No more 'how do we get to heaven - how do we stay out of hell' - no more talk about another place to which we are meant to be. No more 'spiritual coercion' that leaves people either boasting or gloating or too often - rejected. Instead, he preaches about life within - what I call - the Reign of God - which is ife now - life that is the place and time for us to be the followers of Jesus - the radicalized movement of grace - the overwhelming power of forgiveness - the eternal gift of life that has no end and is already at hand.
The response was clear. They said they disagreed with that. Hell and Heaven are essential to the preaching of the faith. Really? And what faith might that be? Obviously it is one that needs trip advisors - travel agents - and off course - the fees you must pay to become an informed traveler. Yet, the final destination is never seen - it just hangs out there like a carrot or a hangman's noose. By the way, you can tune into those wise trip advisors weekly - or read one of their devotional books.
Here is one way I see this heaven and hell thing. I really think that I often am walking around in a hell-like world that is also a part of the in-breaking of all we hear of heaven's glory. When I am willing and able to open my eyes and not look away from the brutality of life - from the pervasive gestures of prejudice and bias to the unthinkable actions of tyrants, here I stand - right inside the gates of hell. And yet, at the same time - or moments within that time - I see and hear the utter presence of life that has been depicted as life within heaven's gates. This is life in which we are provided with a lens that gives us the vision to see that which is not yet present even as the world spins around in its own violence and degradation. Here I stand - Here I am invited to act as though enemies have no power because I will not be seduced to see them as enemies. Here I am available to be a presence of peace that will not fall for the words and deeds that so often make life a living hell for all of us.
I suppose I would suggest that we all stand in the same place. The journey is not a way out of this place. It is a way that leads us more deeply into the hell-holes that can be transformed into a the peaceable Reign of God (my way of saying heaven). This is a journey in which we drop the stones we so often like to throw - that simply add to the hellishness around us - and listen and touch and lean into that from which we so often are told to flee. It is much easier to throw those stones - especially if we are wanting to get on board the train that will take us away from those-kind-of-folks and take us to a better place - as we want it with our-kind-of-folks. We must remember the those stones can become instruments that become the building blocks for a new life - a new day - a new community. In the midst of such life, we will see that vision that seems a bit dream-like in the book of Revelation when the new Jerusalem comes down to earth - for this is where it was always intended to be - the City of God always present - for all.
No power can displace that vision. No trip advisor is needed. The Reign of God comes down to us to transform us. We need more people who announce its coming - its availability - its gift of life - its breath of fresh air. When the Reign comes down - it will be some Reign indeed. So let it shine baby - let it shine.
TRRR
Amen.
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