Most Frightening Meaning of Hell: Waste!

Youth Sermon for September 30, 2012  9 a.m. service

Lectionary Link

Kalum: In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  You may be seated.

Kalum: Did you ever have to submit to your teachers a writing assignment?

Connor: Yes, of course.  Why do you think that I ended up nicknaming many of my teachers Mr. and Mrs. Red Ink.

Kalum:  So you get lots of unsolicited corrections on your paper?  Just think of it as free advice.  What kind of free advice do you get?

Connor:  Well, Miss Red Ink will throw some Latin at me.  She’ll write, Non sequitur…which means that she does not think my conclusions follow from my premises.

Kalum:  What other free advice does she offer?

Connor:  She’ll write “run on-sentences.  New Paragraph.  Too many topics in one paragraph."

Kalum: I guess she wants you to be a better writer.

Connor:  It’s a shame that she doesn’t appreciate my intellectual property?

Kalum:  Are you sure?  She’s aware of Wikipedia too, you know.

Connor:  But speaking of too many topics in one paragraph, did you read today’s Gospel?  It seems as though the editor just wanted to cram together lots of topics.

Kalum: Are you saying that the writing style is not inspired?

Connor:  Well, my teacher does not always think that my writing style is inspired.  But it could be that the Gospel is a collection of various sayings of Jesus that were edited and put together by a later editor in the early Christian communities.

Kalum: So they just wanted to preserve the sayings of Jesus and it did not matter that the original situations of the sayings were not remembered.

Connor:  Let us look at some of the topics.  First, competition in the community.

Kalum:  Well, we do have lots of silly competition in religious communities.  Does food that is given to a hungry person taste better if it is given by an Episcopalian or Lutheran or Baptist?

Connor:  Of course not.  I think that we can ruin even a good deed, if we think that our way of doing a good deed is better or more effective than the way someone else does the same deed.  We can ruin a good deed with our pride.

Kalum:  Yes, is that like that man who was extremely proud of his humility?  Did I ever tell you how humble I am????

Connor: It is perhaps sad that today we have so much competition between Christian churches and between different religions.  Some religious people want to say, “Our way of praying is better than yours!”

But the pride of thinking that one is better than others actually overturns the goodness of the religious act.

Kalum:  Jesus was telling his disciples to just be thankful that a person was healed of a painful emotional and spiritual disorder.  It did not matter if it done by someone who was sanctioned by the twelve disciples.

Connor:  Another topic of Jesus had to do with a rather heavy necklace.

Kalum:  Did Jesus talk about jewelry?

Connor:  No, but Jesus often used extreme language to make a strong point.  How many people today say they don’t believe in God because they see some of the bad things that happen because of the fighting of religious people?

Kalum:  People can be offended when they see religious people behaving badly.  And that might actually keep them from faith in God.

Connor: A millstone around the neck and tossed into the sea; that is a very punishing piece of jewelry.

Kalum:  Is that like what the mob used to say about wearing concrete boots in Lake Michigan?

Connor:  Perhaps, but the severity of the image was Jesus’ way of saying that it is a terrible thing to be responsible for turning another persons away from knowing and believing in God’s love.  And especially if it is a “little one,” a child.

Kalum: Well, Jesus did have a knack for severe illustrations. 

Connor: What do you mean?

Kalum:  If we were literal about the words of Jesus we would have to have every parking place at the church designated as handicapped parking.

Connor: Why do say that?

Kalum:  Well, if we had to cut off our hands and feet every time we went wrong or did something wrong, we’d all be physically impaired.

Connor:  So, if Jesus is not being literal what does he mean?

Kalum:  I think that he means that we have to learn how to use all of the gifts of our lives in the right way.  And if we use them wrongly, we need to fast and give up an activity until we learn self control.

Connor:  So, I have to give up eating brownies until I can stop at just eating one or two?

Kalum:  That's partly so.  But everything in life has many uses and God has placed us a managers and stewards of our life resources.

Connor:  Jesus uses severe images to shock us into the right use of all of our functions in life.

Kalum:  And now we get to the most shocking word of all.  Hell.  My mom told me I could not say that word, but the Gospel and this sermon gives me permission:  Hell, hell, hell, hell.

Connor: Don’t over do it or we’ll have to add some censor beeps.

Kalum:  Actually hell and fire may seem like they are severe punishment but it could be that they are productive teaching metaphors.

Connor:  What do you mean? 

Kalum:  Fire is about purification.  Things are sterilized or purified by fire.  The Bible writings often use fire as a symbol for the purifying process of life.  The purpose of our trial and error in this life is like a purifying fire and that is a good thing.  The painful things that we learn in life because of our mistakes can be like the fire that helps us to leave our mistakes behind and take up new behaviors.

Connor:  But what is good about hell?  It is used to talk about an endless place of fire and punishment for bad people or perhaps a place that freezes over if the Cubs ever win the World Series.

Kalum:  The word for hell in the Gospel refers to the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem.  It is where the waste was burned. 

Connor:  So, Jesus was saying that the most frightening thing that we can do with our lives is waste them.  We should see the fires of the trials of life as a way to get rid of what is wasteful in our lives.

Kalum:  Yes, that is quite an awesome notion about hell.  Jesus is saying to everyone, “Really be frightened by the notion of wasting your life.”

Connor:  I have to admit that is more effective than hell with little devils prancing around with pitch forks.

Kalum: Yes, Jesus was warning his disciples about wasting their lives through pride and petty competition.

Connor:  And we waste our lives and other people’s lives if we don’t live our lives showing others that God is love and that God is interested in salvation and health no matter how it comes or who brings it.

Kalum:  So, in the harsh words of Jesus we are shocked to remember some important things.

Connor:  We need to recognize goodness, no matter who does it. 

Kalum:  We need to learn self control and if necessary fast and give up things completely until we learn self control.

Connor:  And the thought of hell and fire can be very useful.

Kalum:  Jesus says in a very strong way, “Do not waste your lives!”

Connor:  Amen.

Kalum:  Amen.