Greetings from HELL??
In the middle of my sermon research I ran across an old article that I read a while back about a place called Hell. No, not Hades, Sheol, Gehenna, Tartarus, or even Purgatory. There is a real town called Hell. It is 25 miles northwest of Detroit in a rural area. To be honest I think if they were going to call a town by that name they would have had better luck about 25 miles to the southeast. Just kidding for all of my friends at Rochester.
Its all fun and games in Hell. Apparently at the Hell gift shop they sell bats, sno-balls (the pastry) and many other curious tongue in cheek items for the obvious jokes. They sell T-Shirts there so coincidentally if you buy one then later someone tells you to go to Hell, you can say "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt"
They have a post office so that you can send someone "Greetings from Hell". They even have their own "Fully un-accredited" college "Damnation University" or DamU for short. I realize that this is all meant to be humorous and certainly marketing is a key element. But I think it just goes to show how our culture trivializes the idea of a literal Hell, or even a literal afterlife.
The Church has done a really good job over the centuries of creating a caricature of Hell so that non-believers just find it down right silly. Dante's inferno anyone? I think this is a subject that deserves at least another hearing. I don't think we ought to dwell on it, but at least we could mention it once in a while.
Its all fun and games in Hell. Apparently at the Hell gift shop they sell bats, sno-balls (the pastry) and many other curious tongue in cheek items for the obvious jokes. They sell T-Shirts there so coincidentally if you buy one then later someone tells you to go to Hell, you can say "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt"
They have a post office so that you can send someone "Greetings from Hell". They even have their own "Fully un-accredited" college "Damnation University" or DamU for short. I realize that this is all meant to be humorous and certainly marketing is a key element. But I think it just goes to show how our culture trivializes the idea of a literal Hell, or even a literal afterlife.
The Church has done a really good job over the centuries of creating a caricature of Hell so that non-believers just find it down right silly. Dante's inferno anyone? I think this is a subject that deserves at least another hearing. I don't think we ought to dwell on it, but at least we could mention it once in a while.
1 Comments:
I don't know... maybe we ought to dwell on it a little more than we do. After all, Jesus taught about that more than anybody else ever has. It is a real place, and while it should not be our motivation for our own relationship with Jesus, I believe it SHOULD be our motivation to introduce Jesus to other people.
I'm not saying we should do that in a hell-fire and brimstone fashion, and I'm not even sure if hell is the first thing to talk about with people, but if the fact that the person you are talking to is going to hell without Jesus isn't stuck in your head, I believe your motivation factor is going to be minimal at best.
Besides, if they're not going to hell, then what does it matter to us if the accept Jesus or not. Our people that are in our churches need to think about it alot. Again, not to shame themselves, because as Romans 8:1 says, "There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus".
But those outside of Jesus, man, we need to have a sense of urgency. Thanks for a great post... If you don't mind, I might use it in an upcoming sermon. Love ya man.
Brian
P.S. Sorry I didn't answer the phone last night... I was otherwise "occupied", if you know what I mean :)
By
Brian Burkett, at 9:34 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home