You Can Be in Heaven or Hell Psalm 139:1-12 NUCC Traditional 20 July 2014 PRAY Heaven and hell are real. Anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship is aware of that because that relationship can be experiences of both. On the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary, Billy and Ruth Graham were interviewed from their home in Montreat, North Carolina. The interviewer was Joan Lunden of the television show Good Morning, America. Ms. Lunden asked Mrs. Graham: "In all your 50 years together, did you ever, even once, consider divorce?" Mrs. Graham replied: "Divorce, no; murder, yes." Historically, our ideas of heaven and hell have been based on biblical images, poetry and philosophy. The terms "paradise," "sheol" and "hades" were sources for much of what succeeding generations believed. "Paradise" (an image often used in connection with the Garden of Eden story) was considered a place of peace and perfection, a place where God was present and people were protected from the worries and ills of the everyday world. When Jesus said to the penitent thief, "Today you will be with me in Paradise," it was a word of almost incomprehensible comfort. That thief, suffering on a cross as the result of both his own misdeeds and the cruelty of others, was about to be transported to a place where he would be forever protected - a garden of ultimate beauty and blessing, perfection and peace. A good many of our images of heaven emerge from that Judaic understanding of the word "Paradise." Many of our images of hell come from the Judaic understandings of the words "sheol" and "hades." In truth, those are somewhat different words. "Sheol" was kind of a [1]
misty underworld, no fire or brimstone, just separation from the earth. "Hades," on the other hand, was something else entirely. It is associated with the Gehenna Valley outside Jerusalem where in ancient days garbage from the city was dumped and burned. Those dual images of separation (Sheol) and discarded refuse being burned (Hades) were merged and became sources of latter-day ideas about hell. A couple of key ideas run throughout the Old and New Testament understandings of heaven and hell. Heaven is always the place where God is and where God's people reside in peace. Hell is wherever the world and fear and suffering and failure rage like a fire around people and they feel utterly separated from God. Defined in that fashion, no one would argue that heaven and hell are anything less than real. If you are a parent, you recall the moment you first held your child in your arms. Perhaps it was in a delivery room or at an agency from which your baby was adopted. The first time you held that child and looked into their eyes; the first time you saw the baby smile or felt a little finger wrap around your own, you suddenly understood paradise." In that moment God was real and you sensed something so wonderful and beautiful that earth could not have authored it. You were in heaven. To say, "You Can be in Heaven or Hell" is simply to confess the truth about life - that sometimes it is almost like Paradise, and sometimes the flames of anguish nearly consume us. Most of us live with one foot in each place. David understood this reality. David knew touches of heaven and glimpses of hell. But, as a person of faith, he knew something else, something everyone needs to know to survive the ups and downs of daily living. This is his confession: Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, [2]
you are there. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night, even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. In good moments or bad, in high moments or low, in times when life felt like paradise and in other times when it was absolutely hellish, David knew this much: He was not alone. God was present with him wherever he went and whatever he faced. That is what our faith teaches, that in moments of celebration God is near, lavishing upon us all those things that make life meaningful. And, in our moments of struggle or suffering, God is perhaps even more near, providing us the hope and courage to keep on keeping on when it would be far easier to give up and cave in. Sometimes we find that God even moves into the experiences that seem like hell and turns them into paradise. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night, even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. His name was Jeff. He was shorter than the rest of us in seventh grade at Bammel Middle School in Houston, Texas. He was always exempt from P.E. but none of us asked why. I think we were all just secretly jealous. I remember that Jeff s lips were a bluish purple and people would ask him why, but those of us in his circle of friends wouldn t allow for it, so we would stand up to anyone who asked; although Jeff was plenty capable of defending himself. He seemed to get easily winded when we would play football in someone s backyard, but we would just take a break. We were just adolescent boys doing the best that we could to get through adolescence. Then there was that Sunday morning with an early morning phone call. When you re a preacher s kid, early morning phone calls in a parsonage are not unusual. Then [3]
there were a series of other phone calls, but nothing else was said about it. As I rode with Dad to church that morning, I remember thinking that he seemed more quiet than usual. That morning in worship, Dad announced that the Associate Minister was not there that day because he was handling a pastoral care situation that had arisen. Again, I knew something was wrong, but I didn t think much of it. From the early service, I made my way to Sunday School and it was there that I was met by our youth director, my seventh grade Sunday School teacher and my Mom. They pulled a group of us aside and told us that Jeff had been born with a heart condition that included a hole in his heart and that his blood flowed backwards. That was the reason that Jeff s lips were bluish purple and why he could never participate in P.E. Jeff was not supposed to live past the age of six, much less to the age of 13. You see, Jeff had been admitted to the hospital that previous Friday and had died that Sunday morning. Life works in a certain order. Parents have children. Then those children have children and the grandparents have precious time with grandchildren. Then it is time for the grandparents to step from this life to the next. It s really this simple seventh graders aren t supposed to have to attend the funerals of their peers. We have a term if you lose your husband you re called a widow. We have a term if you lose your wife you re called a widower. We even have a term if you lose your parents you re called an orphan. But the English language is not powerful enough to wrap itself around the grief of a parent losing a child. There is simply no word for it. But maybe that is what the word hell is actually means. Not some fiery place where people go whom we believe do not deserve the grace and love of God. [4]
Maybe hell is that place where our grief is too much and our tears feel as though they will never cease flowing. But, my friends, hear the gospel, the good news of the Psalmist, Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. [5]