This week's sermon

16 November 2008
Prov 31:10-13, 25-31; Rev 7:9-17
November is the month of the saints, so I hope you won’t mind me grabbing the opportunity to preach on the subject of heaven – and hell.
Milton puts these words into the mouth of Lucifer:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in hell:
Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven”
I think that would be echoed by a frightening number of people who have completely failed to understand the nature of heaven and of hell. As with so many things Christian, the secular world seems to have got completely the wrong end of the stick about heaven and hell. Have any of you listened to the Radio 4 comedy called “Old Harry’s Game”? It is set in hell, and stars Andy Hamilton as Satan. It is very funny indeed. For a while I felt I really should not be listening to it; not because it is blasphemous – though some people might find it so – after all, there is an old and venerable tradition of poking fun at the devil. CS Lewis claimed that the devil hates to be laughed at, and who knows. I must say, I can’t imagine that the devil cares in the least whether or not we laugh at him; I suspect that it is laughter itself he dislikes or, at least, the sort of laughter that means happiness or, worse, joy. I felt I should not be listening to Old Harry’s Game because it promotes the idea that hell is quite a jolly place, full of interesting people, and where it might be possible to “rule”. How often have you heard someone say that hell would be a much more interesting place to go to than heaven; “I’d rather be with Oscar Wilde and Napoleon than Mary Whitehouse and Sarah Palin!” Can you imagine the boredom, they say, of sitting on a cloud and singing hymns all day long!
I would not like to sit on a cloud. I would not like to sing hymns all day in the way we sing hymns in church. However I would very much like to sing hymns as one sings a love song. Because that, of course, is what heaven is all about and that is what differentiates heaven from hell. And because most of us share that sneaking feeling that heaven could be quite dull and hell quite diverting (I blame Dante) the truth must be insisted upon, in season and out of season.
Heaven is not where the pious or servile go. Heaven is where the loving go. Hell is not where people who sin go. Hell is where the people who do not love go. And that is the only difference, and it is a world of difference. I assure you that if a stereotypical paragon of virtue did not love, you would not find them in heaven. And I assure you that if a great sinner did love, you would not find them in hell. Jesus told us so. When the Pharisee was shocked that he allowed the Woman Who Was A Sinner to touch him, he replied “I tell you, her sins – and they are many – have been forgiven her, for she has loved much.” Sin and love cannot coexist for long.
You’ve read lives of the saints. You know that all the saints (according to their Lives) are entirely perfect, probably died with their baptismal innocence intact, and (unless they are Joseph Cupertino) were also unusually beautiful and unusually intelligent.
The people who write those Lives have got it all wrong, as wrong as Milton’s Satan. Saints, well saints on earth, saints in the making, are simply one kind of sinner, a sinner whose sins are outweighed by their love. Are you shocked when the psalmist thinks and speaks of himself as righteous? You shouldn’t be. Listen to what he says: “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him”. Not the person who has never sinned. Not even the person who doesn’t sin any more. No: the person whose sins are forgiven – because their love weighs more than their sin. St Augustine put it beautifully: he said Amor meus pondus meum: My love is my weight; meaning that the weight of his love was caught by heaven’s gravity and drawn inexorably to God.
The confusion about heaven and hell is related to the confusion about sin. Have you noticed how the secular world talks about sin? Sin, to them, is something you enjoy but shouldn’t. Smoking. Eating chocolate cake. Adultery. Well, I have news for them. Only the third of those is a sin, and the sinful element in it is not the enjoyment. Arguably the enjoyment is the only good element in it, but I won’t press that too far. You should not commit adultery not because it is fun, but because it is harmful. At best it harms your relationship with God, because it is dishonest; at worst it harms you, your partner in crime and their spouse. And perhaps yours. Oh, and your relationship with God. It is replacing true love with false love.
The devil is the father of lies. God is truth. There must always be deceit in sin. Sin is always in some way hidden, hole-and-corner. For everyone. But especially for those of us who believe in God and supposedly live in his presence. It is impossible for us to pretend before God. So we have to pretend to ourselves too. There is not just the sin, there is the disposition-to-sin that has to come before it, the shift into unreality, the shift out of God’s presence, the shift into a place where sin is possible. The place of unreality, the place of unlove. And the place of total unreality, of total lie, of total unlove – that is hell.
I think you will already be getting the feeling that hell would not after all be that interesting place where you could anticipate chatting with Oscar Wilde and Napoleon, nor heaven that tedious place where you would have to sit po-faced on your cloud listening to Mary Whitehouse. There’s a well-known story told about a dream of heaven and hell, and even if you have heard it, it bears repeating.
"In my dream I was in hell, and there were hundreds of tables full of food. And everyone was weeping and cursing because their elbows had been straightened and they could not feed themselves. I was then taken to Heaven, and again saw a huge feast prepared.
Those in Heaven also had straightened elbows, but were full of joy, because each person fed someone else and was fed in return."
So you might say that in one thing Milton’s Satan was right: not that there can be any ruling in hell, but there most certainly could be joyful service in heaven. God does not need our service, not here and not in heaven; but there, as here, what is required of us is love. How better to show love than in service?
I note that I have developed a bit of a habit of preaching about love, in one way or another. I hope I am not becoming repetitious. But even if I am, I am in a good tradition.
Jerome says, that when John the Evangelist was an old man in Ephesus, he had to be carried to the church in the arms of his disciples. At these meetings, he was accustomed to say no more than, "Little children, love one another!" After a time, the disciples wearied at always hearing the same words. They asked, "Master, why do you always say this?" "It is the Lord's command," was his reply. "And if this alone be done, it is enough!"
And that is what, please God, we will be doing for all eternity. And if you doubt the joy of it, try singing your favourite hymn as a love song, and I think you’ll know what I mean.
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