Some time back, my blogging friend Fred Peatross shut down his blog for a while with the simple post, “This blog needs a rest.”

I think this blog needs a rest, too.

Recently it has been the battleground of concepts at war in my mind and heart that have left me drained and empty and angry and cold.

Most of those concepts have to do with “how to do church.”

Yup, I’ve let myself become a grumpy, irritating, belligerent jerk not just here, but in the comments I’ve left elsewhere, over “how to do church.”

I don’t know how to do church.

I really don’t.

I don’t have a clue.

And I don’t know how I could have finished a Lenten fast having gained so much arrogant weight above the neck.

I appreciate the kind words and encouragement so many have left here. I wish I had shown the same grace.

When I can show some grace again, I’ll come back here.

Right now, I believe I need to refocus on Christ.

I’m delighted to share with you (and to beat Mike Cope to the punch) that Bob Gomez – one of my elders when my family and I attended at Highland Church of Christ – has been nominated to receive a Jefferson Award in Abilene, an award for community service.

If you’re registered to read the Abilene Reporter-News online, you can catch the entire story here.

One pair of paragraphs reads:

Gomez said he was surprised – and a little embarrassed – to learn his volunteer work had earned him a Jefferson Award nomination.

”I’m not the kind of person that wants recognition,” he said. ”I do it because I enjoy helping people.”

Bob and his wife Jimmie led the small group that we were in at Highland. At that time, the church had 33 elders, each of whom led a small group, became involved in the lives of the families in them, and were tender, caring shepherds to their flock.

Kipling’s poem “The Thousandth Man” rephrases Solomon’s dour and somewhat mysogynistic insights as a treatise on the rarity of true, deep friendship.

Yet in Jesus’ mortal life, those who were most loyal to Him were women.

They kept their distance in respect for His naked shame, but they stayed with Him at the cross.

They kept vigil at the tomb.

They went to the tomb early in the morning after Sabbath, with the specific intention of anointing His body.

They were the first witnesses with the newborn gospel of the empty tomb.

They joined in constant prayer after His ascension.

They truly followed Him “to the gallows-foot, and after!”

We of the male persuasion could learn a lot from their fealty.

On this day we celebrate His rising, we could stand to rise to their example.

The kingdom of God has precious little to do with being right about everything.

But it is all about doing good toward everyone.

Discuss.
(Use a number 2 pencil. Neatness counts. No erasures.)

Here’s a link to a free PDF preview chapter (the first) of a book by Off-The-Map.Org‘s Jim Henderson and atheist pal Matt Casper’s many journeys to different churches across the country and their reactions to them – as a follower of Christ and an atheist.

The book, appropriately enough, is titled “Jim and Casper Go To Church.”

http://files.tyndale.com/thpdata/FirstChapters/978-1-4143-1331-3.pdf

My favorite quote so far:

Jesus didn’t just teach principles; he taught practices. He gave people something to do. He didn’t just teach them about forgiveness; he told them to forgive their debtors. He didn’t just talk about love as a concept (eros, phileo, and agape); he told people to love their enemies. He didn’t just tell people to think about changing their behaviors; he told them to repent (change their actions). Sure it’s challenging, but it doesn’t take a weekend seminar to understand what he means.

Enjoy!

I saw it in my e-mail church bulletin from my previous church home in Abilene, but I waited until the news broke at my previous employer there:

Highland Church of Christ, for the first time, will join four other downtown churches of various Christian fellowships that have hosted a series of Holy Week luncheons for the past 30 years.

If you’re registered to view the Abilene Reporter-News Web site, you can read it for yourself at this link.

The article reads, in part:

Traditionally, First Baptist, St. Paul United Methodist, First Christian and First Central Presbyterian churches each have hosted a Holy Week lunch featuring a speaker. The event extends to a fifth day this year with the addition of Highland Church of Christ.

The luncheon series begins at 11:30 a.m. Monday-Friday. This year’s theme: ”Making Sense of Holy Week,” with each of the lectures tied to one of the five senses.

First Central Presbyterian Church pastor Cliff Stewart said he thinks Abilenians are ”eager to see their faith transcend denominational boundaries.” He warmly welcomed Highland to the event.

”(Highland’s) pastor Mike Cope is a marvelous communicator and a valued colleague,” he said. ”He will have much to offer.”

Cope said the four other churches invited his to participate.

”There is a growing sense of shared mission among our churches (along with many others),” he said in an e-mail. ”In many ways, we’re following the lead of our teenagers who have been sharing Holy Week experiences for a few years now.”

I’m sure this will come as no surprise to Mike’s many critics – quite a number of whom are separate-and-aparters who insist that all other churches outside the Church of Christ fellowship are apostate, lost and forever damned; that “we” should come out and away from them – but I think I know his heart. He was my preaching minister for three years. I know he has had a long-standing tradition himself of exchanging pulpits with the minister of one of those four churches (Phil Christopher) one Sunday each year. I’ve read his books. I’ve read a lot of his articles.

I believe he has captured Christ’s vision for the unity of His church, poured out in pleading prayer to the Father in John 17.

And this will be my second opportunity in a week to congratulate him on a lifetime achievement.

The first would be his inaugural grandbaby, Reese Kathryn Cope, born March 29.

I imagine I’ve riled some folks this week with my stubborn insistence that there is more than one “right” way to “do church.”

I’ve left my electronic autograph attached to many comments on many blogs to that effect where I encountered folks who are just convinced that – for instance – because church buildings are not the most cost-effective means of drawing people closer to Christ that they can think of, it must be wrong to do so.

And while I agree that we Christians could do better at being open to innovation; to new ways of lifting up Christ so that He may draw all men to Himself … I must continue to insist that while some people are drawn to Him by one kind of outreach, others are drawn to Him by completely different kinds of outreach. What works for me, or for my church, or for my neighborhood, city or culture, may only work for attracting a handful of others who are outside of the body of Christ – but He still loves them dearly and holds them precious.

Will I finally be judged by adherence to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles when He returns?

Or will He remember that it cost Him everything to win the ones who would follow Him?

So forgive me if I continue to work with a clear conscience at a large metro church with a Family Life Center and gym and cafe … one which is open to the community and hosts all kinds of non-profit and community organizations … one which supports thirteen missionary families/teams … one which hosts the campus of a Christian elementary school and baby/toddler Day School … one which supports a thriving inner-city ministry downtown and an inner-city church across the river … one which employs three youth ministers and one children’s minister … one which has outgrown its teen room on Sunday and Wednesday nights because of so many visitors … one which has run out of Sunday School classroom space for adults and children even after expanding the building four times over the past twenty years … one in which elective offerings on Sunday morning and Wednesday nights have included “Eschatology (Second Coming),” “Revelation,” and “The Holy Spirit” … one whose preaching minister hosts an “ask-the-minister-anything” Seekers Class on Sunday mornings … one which has three ladies’ classes on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and a Seniors class on Wednesday mornings … one which operates a Substance Abuse Recovery program on Monday nights … one which is tracking with its elders’ prayed-for goal ten years ago of 10 percent growth per annum.

I know numbers and statistics are not the measure of a church.

But I am a stubborn old cuss, and I believe there is more than one way to lead people closer to Christ – and that where I am at this point in time, there’s nothing wrong with the way we’re trying to do so at my home congregation in good ol’ Little Rock, Arkansas because He’s at the center of everything that happens there.

And if I am wrong, I beg Your forgiveness.

What does the Bible actually say about hell?

Not a lot.

And Jesus says more than anybody else.

In Matthew 5:22-31, Jesus is quoted several times as warning against it. He says nothing about being torched alive there forever in an indestructible body.

He warns against it again in Matthew 18:9 in what can only be described as a hyperbolic commentary on blaming parts of your body for your sins. He doesn’t say anything about being tortured in hell forever.

He instructs us about whom we should fear in Matthew 10:28: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” I tend to take the word “destroy” literally. I picture it as meaning “obliteration” of “both soul and body.” I do not see it in this context as literal for one and figurative for the other. I take this instruction to mean that we should have a healthy fear of God’s power to judge, since He has the power to offer eternal life as His gift. But I see nothing here about being roasted alive for aeons.

Jesus decries the Pharisees’ efforts to create converts to their legalism in Matthew 23:15 by saying the new converts become just as much sons of hell as their mentors. Not a politically correct observation. Also not a teaching about endless physical torment in flame. Nor does such a teaching surface a few verses later in 33 where He calls them the offspring of vipers and asks how they plan to escape hell.

The parallel passages to Matthew 5 in Mark 9:45-48 does apply a quote from Isaiah to describe hell: “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” The original does indeed describe a prophetic vision of the consequences of God’s judgment by Isaiah (66:24. But it only says that the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. It says nothing about the “bodies” in that scene being still filled with life. In fact, the impression is quite the opposite. Maybe the worm and the fire do not die out because they are being continually fueled with more bodies to consume.

Then, in that expansive picture of judgment Jesus paints in Matthew 25, Jesus clearly warns in verse 41:

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Eternal fire. Prepared for the devil and his angels. But He does not say that those humans thrown there will endure it eternally.

Luke 12:5 echoes the instruction about whom to fear – given at the sending out of the twelve in Matthew 10 – as a polemic against the Pharisees, also given later after the twelve and 72 have returned and thousands are following Him. Still no elaboration about unending agony.

However, Luke 16:23 is part of the enigmatic story Jesus tells about Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man finds himself in hell (literally, the Greek word for “Hades,” the place of the dead) and begs for Lazarus to bring just a dripping finger of water because he is “in agony in this flame.” It’s not a pretty picture. But no one says anything about it being eternal. Is the rich man’s plea for his brothers motivated by the realization that he doesn’t have much time left to beg (a terrible irony, since Lazarus lived and died a beggar at his gate) for their fate? Is the point of the story to relate actuality; to teach us something we needed to know about hell? Or to use the existing, probably Zoroastrian-Greek-originated beliefs about life and life after death to make a point:

“If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

James, generally regarded as the Lord’s brother, warns of the tongue’s fiery destructive inspiration and capability (in what strikes me as a curious comparison to the Holy Spirit’s fiery church-constructing activity in Acts 2) in his general epistle (3:6). Still nothing there about timeless excruciation.

Now, II Peter 2:4 does tell us something about hell: that it is a place of gloomy dungeons where God sent rebellious angels to be held for judgment. Angels. Not people. And not for eternity; just until judgment. Then Revelation 20:14-15 takes up the tale of what happens next:

Then death and Hades (the place of the dead) are thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:8 gives us the final glimpse at the sinful and their fate: “their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

I can’t tell you how literally to take the Revelation to John. I don’t believe anyone can. It is a highly symbolic book of apocalyptic vision. But I can tell you that nothing in those words says that anyone would survive being thrown into that lake of fire. Nothing. Not a hint. Not a reflection back to law or prophecy or Christ’s words or His followers’ teachings.

It is final. It is the “second death.”

I am not a fan of stringing together tenuously-related scriptures to build a point. I do not have the clear and complete teachings of Biblical times on the question. I can tell you that “sheol” is the Hebrew word that comes closest to the concept of “hell” in the Old Testament, and it is sometimes translated “grave” or “pit.” It is the final resting place of the body. I can tell you that, similarly, “hades” is the Greek word which simply describes the abode of the dead in literature as well as scripture. Sometimes its inhabitants are dead bodies; sometimes spirits.

I can tell you that when Paul is talking about “all” of us being changed in the twinkling of an eye into incorruptible flesh in I Corinthians 15:51-52, he is writing to Christians. To conclude that “we … all” includes anyone other than those who put their hope in Christ is making an unwarranted and unsupported assumption. In fact, he distinguishes between the perishable and the imperishable – only one of which can inherit the kingdom of God. (Guess which one.)

So, in spite of disliking the occupation of building my point on all these somewhat-related scriptures, I don’t have a lot more to go on and neither do you, unless God has been whispering to you on the sly. And the conclusion I come to is this:

We live. We die. We are all judged. (Whether we are raised at this point as spirits or in bodies as mortal as the ones we have now, I can’t tell from scripture.)

Those whom God judges worthy are changed into incorruptible forms to live with Him forever on the new earth among the new heavens. Those whom God judges as unworthy just die. They perish. Whatever is left of them does not seem to be vivified, recycled, or tortured – but annihilated. Burned up in the lake of fire, the second death. Finally. Permanently. Irrevocably.

Fallen angels and demons, including Satan? I have no clearer picture of that. Perhaps, as beings created to be immortal, they do suffer immortally for the sin of having seen God and known His goodness yet opposing it forever. Perhaps, as beings created to be immortal yet becoming God’s enemies, they are not worthy even of the immortality they might have enjoyed – and they too are extinguished.

And perhaps that lake of fire burns eternally, not because fuel is continuously added to it, but because God wills it as a reminder of the consequences of evil. But even that I would have to wonder about as a necessity for eternal survivors of an world turned evil, living endlessly in the companionship of God through His Son.

Nothing in scripture inarguably confirms or denies my view of eternity as a gift only for those given it by God.

Neither does it unquestionably paint a picture of human souls being physically tortured forever in a hell of fire as the expression of God’s justice.

I have my reasons for holding the view I have; you have yours for your view. It is difficult for me to believe that God would mete infinite torture as punishment for finite sin; it is difficult for me to believe that He would even permit such a place to eternally exist. If Christ conquered sin and death, then He conquered it. Obliterated its power. If He did so on our behalf, then it makes no sense to me that its place should continue eternally. Perhaps “eternal” is meant literally. Perhaps it is meant figuratively. Still, I have to concede, it is described by Him as “eternal fire.” And it surely has a purpose.

I believe in scripture. I believe in judgment. I believe that God is perfect in judgment. I believe in the kindness and severity of God. I believe in His mercy and His righteousness. I believe in what hymnist Elizabeth Clephane spoke of as the “trysting place where Heaven’s love and Heaven’s justice meet!”:

I believe in the cross.

I think I’ve confessed on my blog before that Angi and I watch way too much HGTV.

But I don’t think I’ve explained that a lot of my fascination with its shows is faith.

That’ll take a little more explanation.

On a lot of HGTV shows – just as on the granddaddy of them, ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – a family, couple or individual steps out in faith. Out of their own home. Having faith in their designer/design team. Having often never seen much more than a sketch; on some shows, not even that.

Then they return after a day or two, or a week.

And a truly lost room or suite of rooms or house has been redeemed.

(Well, most of the time.)

David Bromstad’s ColorSplash is the newest entry into the field. The homeowners always have total faith in what he will do for their room(s). They hug him – without exception, so far.

Last night, the wife of the couple expressed the redesign as “life-changing.”

Okay, that would be an exaggeration for me. It would certainly be “house-changing” or at least “room-changing.”

Still, I admire her faith.

Would I have such faith, to turn over my house to strangers and let them imprint it with their design sense and preferences?

I like the way my house is decorated.

It’s the same way with my life.

Is it any wonder that it’s difficult persuading people to turn over their entire lives to a Jesus whom they hardly know?

Is it any wonder that it’s difficult persuading ourselves to turn over our entire lives to a Jesus who wants us to step outside our homes, outside our comfort zones, outside ourselves to reach them?

Somewhere in a Hollywood prop room, the Quaker Oats Guy is engaged in a staring-down contest with the Burger King.

(Just thinking about this will creep me out enough that I will have difficulty getting to sleep.)