I will never forget the first Halloween I heard about the so-called “Hell Houses” or “Judgment Houses” that churches host during this time of the year. Have you heard of these things? It’s like a Haunted House, but instead of walking through rooms where people jump out and scare you dressed in spooky costumes, you walk through rooms staged to depict scenes of people being tormented for all of eternity for the poor decisions they made while they were living.
The first one I heard about had teenagers in one room who were being punished after they were killed in a car accident after drinking alcohol. Another room featured an atheist or maybe a Taoist or Buddhist. One room featured someone who had completed suicide. Another room had a woman begin tormented for choosing to have an abortion. Another had members of the LGBTQ community. And another room was filled with, I don’t know, I suppose the most popular hell-bound suspects: your fornicators, liberal preachers, democrats.
I first heard of the “Hell House” or “Judgment House” in October of 1999, which just so happened to be a very hellish period in my life. We had just purchased our first home that August. Six weeks later, it was flooded by Hurricane Floyd. Our children, who were 4 and 2 years old at the time and Lori were rescued by a boat, while I stayed behind cramming everything I could into the attic as the house filled up with water. We spent the next 6 months living (“surviving” would be a better word describe it) in a very small, very cramped and very cluttered FEMA camper which was parked our driveway. I had never been more stressed-out in my life.
Of course, upon hearing of a neighboring church hosting a Hell House, I preached a sermon against it. I said something like a colleague, Robert Lowery, recently said, and that is: “If the scariest thing you can come up with to frighten people this Halloween is your own theology, then you might want to rethink your theology.”
And at the conclusion of the sermon, I said something like this: “Now after hearing this sermon, if you still feel inclined to visit a Hell House, please don’t go to that church down the road that is hosting one. Just come on over to my house, and I will gladly let you walk through my Hell camper. And if you really want the fright your life, come next Sunday morning before church, when we are all crammed in there trying to get dressed to make to Sunday School on time!
I believe trying to scare people into joining a church or a religion with bad theology may be part of what Paul meant when he talked about his appeal not “springing from deceit or impure motives or trickery.”
Paul may also be referring to the type of trickery that some churches use to bait and switch and deceive; like churches who say all are welcome, but when some show up, they quickly discover that the grace they first experienced as a treat was only a trick.
Churches say: “come just as you are,” but after you come just as you are, you soon learn you are expected to become just as they are!
Churches host events like the one we are having this afternoon. They entice people in the community with candy, chili and a good time. However, they soon make it clear that if you’re not buying what they’re selling, you’re not truly welcome.
There is a video that went viral a few years ago of a homeless man who walked into to a Chick-fil-a in Tennessee asking if they had any extra food. The manager meets the beggar and says: “I will give you a hot meal, if you will pray with me.” The man agrees. The manager lays his hands on him and prays. And then gives him a sandwich.
Christians loved this video and shared it all over social media. [i]
But it is important to remember that Jesus never said: “Feed the hungry, if they will pray with you,” or “Welcome the stranger, if they will believe like you or learn your language” or “Give drink to the thirsty, if they will dress like you” or “Free the oppressed, if they will make a pledge and contribute to your budget.”
You may be surprised at the number of faith-based social service agencies whose promised assistance comes with some sort of string or trickery attached. “We will give you a hot meal and warm bed, but first, you need to sit and listen to a sermon.” “We will help you if we think that you are helping yourself, and that means believing the way we believe and worshiping the way we worship.”
I knew of one ministry to the homeless that would kick folks out of their program if they failed to turn in four consecutive worship bulletins from an pre-approved “Bible-believing church” they attended on Sunday. One day, I asked the director, “what if they are Muslim, Jewish, or an atheist?” He responded, and I quote: “We only help people who want to better themselves. So, we only help those who want to be Christian.”
The gospel truth is that Jesus said we are to love our neighbors as ourselves—period! No “if’s,” no “buts,” no strings, no tricks, no treats. Just love. Paul writes we are to love others “as a nurse tenderly cares for her own children.” We are to care for others because they are God’s children who need care, not for any other reason.
In two weeks, we are going to have a Congregational Café to discuss ways we can be the church outside of these four walls, how we can go out into our city and our region to love our neighbors. I believe such discussion is important and necessary, as we must make certain our outreach is not some sneaky, tricky, deceitful church growth tactic. For one of the most disappointing things I’ve heard from church member after we participated in a service or mission project in the community is: “Well, preacher, we didn’t get any new members out of that.” Or “Well preacher, since we have started giving so much in our community, our offerings have not increased.”
This is why you will always hear me insist that we love our neighbors with our ecumenical and interfaith partners. Because, when we love our neighbors, we don’t do it to gain new members or to gain anything for ourselves. Our motive should only be love, just love. It can never be about our church. “Look at us.” “Don’t you want to come join us.” “Don’t you want to give to us.” It always has to be about love, and just love.
Sue Coleman sent me a wonderful quote this week to spark some thoughts for our Congregational Café that underscores this truth. In his book Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship, Gregory Boyle asserts:
“There is nothing more essential, vital, and important than love and its carrier – tenderness – practiced in the present moment. By keeping it close, just right now, we are reminded to choose connection over alienation, kinship over self-absorption.”
Boyle sounds a little like the Apostle Paul to me:
“But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”
We love others for the same reason that God loves us, because others are dear to us.
In William Young’s book, The Shack, Papa, conveys the love of God when she says of every human she meets or recollects: “I am very fond of them.” Don’t you love that?
So, this afternoon, when we greet members from our community with chili and candy and a good time, we are not out looking to make some new converts or to get a new pledge to our stewardship campaign. We go out selflessly offering others the gift of our very selves. Why? Because we are very fond of them, and they are very dear to us. We go out to meet some new friends, friends who may never visit one of our worship services, not even on Christmas Eve or Easter. We go to love the ones we will meet this day honestly, courageously, unconditionally and tenderly. And let’s hope we make a Jewish friend, a Muslim friend, a Buddhist friend, an agnostic or an atheist friend.
So today, although it’s almost Halloween, we are not about “tricks” or “treats.” We are about having the courage to be about “truth.” We are about honesty and integrity and authenticity. We are about sharing the good news of God’s grace and love and sharing ourselves simply because that is what Love calls and compels us to do.
Now, because we are being truthful and because we truly care, let’s always make it clear to those who may be interested in becoming a part of our church, that although they are invited to come “just as they are,” and although they are never expected to become “just as we are,” if they come, we really do hope that they don’t stay “just as they are.”
Let us set the record straight that the reason we are a part of this church, including the pastor, is because we are all hoping to change, to transform into people who love God, love others and love the planet more justly, more honestly and more boldly.
But it’s never our job to judge or change anyone. That’s always God’s job. And we pray God is currently judging and changing all of us. We are praying for a radical repentance that takes away all our prejudices, greed, apathy and selfishness, while filling us with more kindness, more mercy, more grace and more love to share with others.
We pray that if others choose to join our mission, God will bring us together in love, unite us by grace, change us with the truth, and then give us the courage to change the world. Amen.
[i] http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/most-popular/chick-fil-a-manager-prays-with-homeless-man-gives-him-warm-meal
Just Love 