Faith, Grace, and Hope

I wrote and posted this originally in 2015 , but I recently dusted it off and updated it to preach to a group of clergy colleagues. It's one of those sermons that is truly written for oral delivery with asides, facial expressions, and gestures, but it's still good in the reading. _________________ The Top 10 Things to Know about Hell 10. About 99% of the images in your head of hell- the red demon with a pointed tail, the levels of suffering, the pit of fire, the presence of those who never knew Christ, the darkness, AND the eternal wailing and torment (plus the image of Judas in hell)- are all from Dante’s The Divine Comedy (or The Inferno ). His writing was a piece of political literature that condemned powers of his day that he didn’t like. It also was Dante’s way of confirming himself as a poet for the ages by using the poet Virgil, who lived and died before Jesus, as his guide. Additionally, Dante’s work was a distillation of Greek and Roman mythology, some alle...

Difficult Questions: Hell 20 September 2015 Texts: Isaiah 14:12-20; Psalm 139:1-18; Revelation 6:1-8; Luke 12:1-12 The Top 10 Things to Know about Hell 10. About 99% of the images in your head of hell- the red demon with a pointed tail, the levels of suffering, the pit of fire, the presence of those who never knew Christ, the darkness, AND the eternal wailing and torment (plus the image of Judas in hell)- are all from Dante’s The Divine Comedy (or The Inferno ). His writing was a piece of political literature that condemned powers of his day that he didn’t like. It also was Dante’s way of confirming himself as a poet for the ages by using the poet Virgil, who lived and died before Jesus, as his guide. Additionally, Dante’s work was a distillation of Greek and Roman mythology, some alleged gospels from the second, third, and fourth centuries, and one other work that had serious influence in Dante’s lifetime. The majority of the artwork about hell is not from Bi...

This sermon had many off-the-cuff remarks, but the notes are enough to get a general idea.  Genesis 9:8-17; 1 Peter 3:18-22 ; Mark 1:9-15 The basis of “he descended to the dead” in the Apostle’s Creed finds its roots in the 1 Peter reading. Along with a verse from Ephesians and one from Hebrews, a whole doctrine has been constructed around what Jesus did, as the Christ, in the interim between being laid bodily in the tomb and being resurrected, of the same body, on Easter morning. Late Christian writings, circa 325 ce , refer to this time as the “harrowing of hell”, wherein Christ descended to the place of the dead, spoke the words of triumph to Satan, and offered the good news of the gospel to all those who would hear it. Eastern Orthodox traditions have a profound iconographic tradition around the harrowing of hell- showing the gates shattered, demons bound, and Jesus lifting Adam and Eve up from the pit by their wrists. (By the wrist is important, since by the han...