Sermons

February 25, 2007
Not Hell, But Hope and Courage

NOT HELL, BUT HOPE AND COURAGE
a sermon by the Rev. Mark Worth

READINGS:
1. From 1st Timothy 4:10
For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe.

2. From John Murray Atwood (1869-1951), The Tao of Universalism, edited by Rev. John Stewart MacPhee, Vantage Press, New York, 1989. Probably written in the 1930s:
Universalism declares that all people, not part of them, all classes and races, are intended for the good life here and now, not in some indefinite future. No one is a Universalist who is content that any, even the least, be excluded from the means to the best life and who is not rather enlisted in the endeavor, in whatever way, to help them possess it... It again expresses faith in God as the Highest (ethically), as Eternal Love, as unqualified good... the kind of God anyone, even a humanist (who is perhaps unable to find proof of his existence), can sincerely worship... It holds that the human is naturally divine, of supreme worth... It declares that truth is to be found in our Bible, the source book of our religion, but it is also contained in other books of life... It asserts its faith in liberalism, that freedom is an essential to religion, morality and true living, as air is to physical life, but that we must understand, emphasize and accept the responsibility of liberty, and have inner as well as outer freedom. It asserts that we need not worship and glorify Jesus in his name – surely he never desired that! – but that we have faith in his way of life... We further hold that the test of religion is as Jesus taught, not doctrine (belief) but conduct (doing his will).

THE SERMON:
From time to time I hear the question, “Who are the Universalists, anyway?” Or if the questioner knows that the organized Universalist Church in America went out of business, so to speak, when the Unitarians and Universalists joined together in 1961, the question might be “Who were the Universalists?” The quick answer is that the Universalists were the “no hell” church.
I was a Universalist before I was a Unitarian. I became a Universalist when I was twelve years old, in 1960. Back then I didn’t know there was a Universalist Church, or that they were about to join with the Unitarians, who I had never heard of either.
But let me tell you about my conversion experience.
Our Methodist Youth Fellowship was studying other churches and religions, and we took a couple of field trips. I remember one trip to a Syrian Orthodox Church and one to a Jewish Synagogue.
The rabbi showed us around the synagogue and answered our questions, especially about the Torah scroll. When I came home I asked my father, that assuming that the rabbi was the good man he seemed to be, would the rabbi go to hell for not accepting Jesus as his savior? My dad, who was about to change careers and become a Methodist minister, said that he thought there was a place in heaven for good Jews.
I was relieved to hear that my dad thought Jews could get into heaven – I would have been disappointed in him if he had not said so. God would not punish good people for simply having the wrong opinions.
But two things occurred to me. First, if good Jews could get into heaven, then why not good Muslims, good Hindus, good Buddhists, and good atheists? Heaven was suddenly open to everybody all over the world, not just Methodists. And second, it occurred to me that my father did not believe what I had been taught in Methodist Sunday school: that only people who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior go to heaven. My dad, who was, to me, the symbol of the Methodist Church, did not believe what they taught in Sunday school!
It was at that moment that I became a Universalist, and there was no turning back. I had accepted the Universalist notion of a loving and fair God, not an arbitrary and judgmental God.
I had grown up Methodist with the idea of God as a big Santa Claus in the sky – You better watch out, you better not cry: He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake! But more importantly, he knows whether you have accepted Jesus as your Lord, and if you have made the wrong decision about Jesus it actually doesn’t matter much whether you are a good person or not. You get into heaven based on your religious opinions, not whether you are a good person. It’s all about, not “political correctness” certainly, but “theological correctness.” Having the right opinion is what is good, and having the wrong opinion is what is bad.
So I could murder twenty people, then accept Christ as my Savior, be forgiven, and go to heaven. Or I could live a good life, be kind, loving, generous and helpful to everyone, and go to hell for it. My opinions get me into heaven, or in my case, into hell. No wonder Saint Augustine prayed, “Lord, give me chastity, but not yet.” He must have thought, “Go out and indulge yourself, then have a deathbed conversion and go to heaven.” This, in essence, is what I was taught in Sunday school, not as bluntly as I just put it, but this is the effect of that doctrine.
Many fundamentalists take great pride in being right. And what would be the fun in being right and going to heaven, unless those who are wrong are going to hell?
So I had no idea that a Universalist Church existed, but I came to the conclusion that a loving God would not torture anybody for eternity in hell. I came to believe that no God worth being called a God, no God worth worshiping, would be a torturer. And I would not worship a torturer. And so I became a Universalist without knowing it. I had decided that God is Love.

A family funeral:
In January I went to Detroit, Michigan, for my brother-in-law’s funeral. We don’t wish for such occasions, yet it was good to see family members. After the funeral, my nephew Rick took me aside and asked, “Who are the Universalists?” (He didn’t ask about the Unitarians.) He asked, “Is it true that the Universalists don’t believe in hell? Wouldn’t a just God demand punishment for our sins? And do you have any Bible references to back up your beliefs?”
Rick attends a Pentecostal church. He wasn’t accusing or arguing. He was respectful. And he was curious. He wanted to know how I could hold a belief that probably seemed to him to be at least a bit odd.
I said that there had been two kinds of Universalists: Restorationists and Ultra-Universalists. The Restorationists thought there might be some temporary punishment, like purgatory, for some very bad people. But because, as 1st John 4:8 and 4:16 says, “God is love,” God would eventually forgive everyone, and everyone would be restored to a proper relationship with God – that’s why they were called Restorationists. And there were Ultra-Universalists who believed there was no hell at all. When you die you go to glory, so they were sometimes called “death and glory” Universalists.
But all Universalists believed that a just and fair God would not torture anyone for eternity in hell. Why? Humans are not infinite, we are finite. That is, we all die some day. We have limits. If we are finite, our sin is also finite. No fair God would give an infinite punishment for a finite sin. We are talking about eternity here, and eternity is a long time. Eternal punishment simply would not be fair: an infinite punishment for a finite sin. We all know the saying, “the punishment should fit the crime.”
Hosea Ballou was a Universalist preacher in the late 1700s and early 1800s. One day he was working on his farm when a neighbor came by. “Brother Ballou,” the neighbor said, “my son is out drinking at the tavern. I think it’s because you’ve been preaching universal salvation, and so he thinks he can do anything he wants. When he comes home I want you to put the fear of hell in him.”
Rev. Ballou said, “I’ll tell you what, friend. When your son comes home it will be dark and he will be drunk, so he won’t be seeing all that well. You and I will dig a big pit in the road, and cover it with branches and leaves. When your boy stumbles into the pit we’ll throw kindling and firewood on him and light him on fire. That should put the fear of hell into him!”
The neighbor said, “That’s terrible! I would never do that to my son!”
And Ballou replied, “That’s right! And you are an imperfect father. So why do you think your perfect father in heaven would do that to any of his children?”
Ballou reasoned that God is better than we are, and so would behave in a more loving way than we do. But the orthodox churches imagine that God is less loving and less kind and compassionate than we are. They imagine a God who would torture us infinitely for a finite sin, a God who would treat us far more severely than we would ever treat our own children.
Why do parents discipline their children? To teach a lesson, so that the child does better next time. But what would be the point of an eternal hell? There is no “next time” after eternity. What lesson could eternal torture teach us? How could it improve our future behavior, if there is no future for us? Again, the orthodox churches imagine that God is less moral and less just than a human parent. They imagine a God who would punish us eternally simply for revenge, because there is no lesson to be learned, no future behavior to improve after eternity.
The Universalists thought that sin is like illness – it should be healed, not punished. A loving God would heal our sin, not torture us for it.

Is fear a good reason to convert?
The Universalists thought there were many reasons to be a good person – fear just wasn’t one of them. And anyway, a Universalist might say, if I accept the “correct” theological opinion and accept Jesus as my Savior just because I fear an angry God, am I really a “Christian,” then, or am I just afraid? Is an insincere conversion, just to avoid hell, a real conversion? Is fear really a good motive in this case?
No. There are better reasons to be a good person than fear.
I know that my fundamentalist sister would say, “God doesn’t send you to hell. You send yourself there by rejecting Jesus.” Well, I was taught in Sunday school that God created the universe and got to make the rules. So yes, it would be God’s rule, God’s plan, that would send me to hell, not for being a bad person, but for having the wrong opinion. Just for being Jewish or Buddhist or Unitarian Universalist. That sounds pretty arbitrary to me.
Rick wasn’t sure that we should try to reason this out. He said, “God is beyond our comprehension.” I said, “Human reason isn’t perfect, but it is what we have to work with. I think we were given our reason so we would use it.”

Universalism and the Bible:
Rick asked me for some scripture to back up my case.
Now, when I talk about the Bible, I have to give this disclaimer. These are historic arguments. The Universalists, as a separate denomination from the Unitarians, have passed into history. Even by the time the two denominations combined in 1961, these issues were fading into the past. Universalism was moving on. A Universalist church leader was once asked where Universalists stand, and he replied, “We don’t stand. We move.”
By the 1930s the Universalists were beginning to define Universalism in terms of the “universals” that bring people together, and that all the world’s great religions share, such as the Golden Rule. Universalism had moved on beyond the doctrine of "universal salvation."
And when it comes to the Bible, I take the Bible seriously, and for that reason I can’t take it literally. The Bible is the classic literary work of Western religion. It records our spiritual forebears’ search for the good and the sacred, their search for ultimate reality; in other words, their search for God. The Bible points to God, but it is not God. It is a "Good Book," but it is not a perfect book. For instance, the Bible supports slavery. I don’t. I think it is a sin for one person to own another, but the Bible’s moral vision is a bit lacking when it comes to slavery. The Bible contains many errors and contradictions (we don't have time today to go into the details, however). It contains myths as well as facts. The Bible is a good place to begin our spiritual journey, but we need not limit ourselves to the Bible. Great as it is, the Bible is neither the beginning nor the end of wisdom.

The "proof texts"
But Rick asked for Scripture, and the old-time Universalists knew their Bibles. My text today is 1st Timothy 4:10: “For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe.”
Who, according to this passage, does God save? “All people.” Just those who believe? No. Especially those who believe, yes, but all people are saved.
In 1st Corinthians 15:22 Paul writes, “For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” Who are the “all” who die in Adam? Everyone. Who are the “all” who are made alive in Christ? The same everyone. If “all” were condemned by Adam’s “fall” in the Garden of Eden, then “all” will be saved by Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
In Romans 5:18, Paul writes, “Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification for all.” It’s the same argument: Adam’s “trespass” condemned “all,” but Jesus’ “act of righteousness” justifies “all.” It is the same “all” as those who were condemned: Everyone. Not just those who accept Jesus as their Lord. Not just those who confess their sins to the Catholic priest and take communion during the Mass. Not just those who join the Mormon Church. Not just those who confess that “there is no God but God and Muhammad is God’s prophet.” Not just those who meditate for enlightenment. Not just those who are heterosexual. It’s everyone. “All” are saved.
What about John 3:16? You know, the one that fundamentalists put on big signs to exhibit at football games, so that TV viewers will look up the verse rather than watching the next touchdown? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life.” I can say it by heart. I learned it in Methodist Sunday school. It talks about believing, doesn’t it? Well, the Universalists said, put it back into the context of the next verse, John 3:17: “For God sent his son into to the world, not to condemn the world, but so that the world through him might be saved.” What does God want, asked the Universalists? To condemn the world? No. God wants the world to be saved. And if God wants it, and has the power to do it, it will happen.
Then continue reading, because in John 12:32, Jesus says, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” Just some? No, all people.
And a little further along there’s John 12:47, where Jesus says, “I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world but to save the world.” That’s universal salvation over and over again! Jesus says that he does not judge anyone who hears his words but does not keep them, for he came not to judge the world but to save it. Wow! Tell that to Jerry Falwell.
There’s Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.”
There’s the Epistle of 1st John 2:2 “And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Not for our sins only, says Titus, but for the sins of the whole world.
I could go on. There are more passages like this, but you get the point.
When Hosea Ballou was a young man, his father saw him out at the wood pile reading a book. His father asked him, “What book are you reading?” Hosea said, “A Universalist book.” “Well,” his father said, “don’t bring it into the house. I don’t want any Universalist books in this house!” Hosea left the book at the wood pile, and his father looked and saw that it was the Bible.
These are stories and issues from the past, but they are a heritage we can be proud of. In a day of high infant mortality, the Universalists said that when that baby dies before it is baptized, it does not go to hell. When an epidemic strikes the community, your friends and family who are of another faith do not go to hell. Fear not. God is better than that.
John Murray (1741-1815), the founder of the Universalist Church in America, spoke to a group of Universalists preachers in New England back in the 1790s. He told them, “Go out into the highways and by-ways. Give the people something of your new vision. You may possess a small light, but uncover it, let it shine; use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them not hell, but hope and courage; preach the everlasting love of God.”
Amen.