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A Few Stories about Heaven and Hell

April 1, 2011 - 1:44 pm 35 Comments

Exam Question: Is Hell Exothermic or Endothermic?
 

The following is from Dr. Schambaugh’s Chemical Engineering Test given at the University of Oklahoma in 1997….
 
Concerning the rules for Heat and Mass transfer, the following question was posed:
 

 

 

Is Hell exothermic or is it Endothermic? Support your answer with the truth!

Most all of the professor’s students wrote their proofs using some variation of Boyle’s law. One student, however, wrote the following explanation:

 

He said: First we postulate that if souls exist, then they must have some mass. If they do, then a mole of souls can also have mass. So, at what rate are souls moving into Hell and at what rate are they leaving?

 

I think we can safely assume that once a soul goes to Hell, it stays there! Therefore, there are no souls that are leaving. As for souls entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state confidently that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell! Since there are more than one of these religions, and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls will go to Hell! With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect that the number of souls in Hell will increase exponentially.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, we look at the rate of change of volume in Hell. Boyle’s law states that in order for the temperature and the pressure to stay the same, the ratio of the mass of souls and the volume needs to stay constant.

 

Case 1: If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose!

Case 2: If Hell is expanding at a rate that is faster than the increase in souls in Hell, then the temperature and the pressure will drop until Hell freezes over!

Q: So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by my classmate Theresa Banyan who, during my freshman year told me that it will be a cold night in Hell before she would sleep with me, and if we take into account that now, as a senior, I still have not succeeded with her, then Case 2 cannot be true!  Thus Hell is exothermic!

The student, Tim Graham, got the only A in the course!

 

Story:     Sanity and Sanctity

 

 

How do we learn about our differences, and how one person’s talent or skill is not to be envied, just as another person’s spiritual beliefs are not to be shunned or put down? Here is a story form the famous Black theologian, Howard Thurman that offers us an answer:

“I dreamt that God took my soul to Hell. To my right, there among the trees, were men and women hard at work making a garden. And I said, looking at them, ” I should like to go and work with them. Hell must be a very industrious place, filled with lots of personal success and much individual accomplishment.”

 

Then God said,” Nothing grows in the garden they are making.” Together we look more carefully: And I saw those people working among the bushes, digging holes, but instead of planting anything, there was nothing to fill these holes. The workers covered the holes with sticks, straw, leaves, and earth, and I noticed that each man as they walked back behind the bushes, they watched their footsteps very carefully, then the men hid themselves and intently watched their holes…

 

 

 

I asked God, “What were they doing?” And God said, “Oh, they are making pitfalls for any man or woman to fall in.” I said to God,” Why do they do it?” And God said, “Because each person who lives in Hell thinks when his brother or her sister falls, then they will more easily rise or succeed.

 

 

And then I asked, ” How will he or she rise?” God said,” They will not rise, but instead, they will fall into egotism and fail to truly succeed”

 

And I asked God,” Are these people sane?” God replied, ” They are not sane; there is no sane person in Hell.”

As I understand it, life requires us to accept with gratitude, the gifts and talents of others, and not seek to feel superior or inferior. Also, we are to honor all the different ways of understanding God, or what is good or what is considered to be Holy- We are not to sharply criticize the differences, but we are to compare, and to appreciate so that we can learn from them.

 

After all, if we are to trust the intent of World Scripture, we are given the view that God created humanity so that we can bless and care for one another, not so we could harm or judge each other- No one truly gets ahead when another person fails, and no one is made better by trickery or deceit, envy or revenge.

 

In fact, it could be said that only as we learn to tolerate and accept one another’s differences, and not try to create pitfalls, can we begin to find a genuine and lasting sense of inspiration within the diverse communities that we build, …

 

And only then, does even a glimpse of heaven become possible.

 

 

 

You and I are in the business of building kingdoms and queendoms together- to build the realms of wonder and sustain the structures of integrity and worth in which all of our sisters and brothers of the liberal and lively spirit work together and dwell….

 

This is ideal of community- It consists of the blessings and grace we can experience in caring for one another, and the that can be found in sharing our life’s journey with one another, thereby enriching and supporting each other all along life’s way….

 

Story:     What Heaven and Hell Are Really Like?
 

 

One day, a young monk brought a perplexing question to his Abbot, the head of the monastery. He said” I have been studying all the theology about heaven and hell, but its all so complex that I am confused… Is there any easy way I can know what the difference between Heaven and Hell is ?


 

The elder Abbot paused for a moment, and then told the monk this story: He said Heaven and Hell are, in some ways, similar, the difference is found in how we treat people…
Picture a large ornate dining hall, you know fine china, flowers, soft linen… And now see all the people surrounded by the most delicious foods you can imagine- tasty meats, sumptuous desserts… But the people gathered there were gaunt, tired, listless, severe, miserable…. You see the only silverware they had were long forks and spoons- so long that they could not load up and bend their arms to get the food into their mouths… So all the food was wasted, and the people remained painfully thin….
That is Hell…  Now Heaven is exactly the same… A beautiful dining hall, great food, but there the people were happy, well fed, laughing, and truly enjoying one another… You see, said the elder Abbot, the difference between Heaven and Hell is this: In heaven, the people learned to take the long forks and spoons, and instead trying to put themselves first, they learned to reach across and to feed one another…. Heaven is found in unselfish, loving service to others….”

Posted in Humor, Pastoral Reflections, Resources & Research |

Heaven and Hell: Up, Down, or Right Here?

April 1, 2011 - 1:20 pm 69 Comments
When people mention the concepts of Heaven and Hell to you, how do you react? Depending on your current theological beliefs, and what you were previously taught, your response could range from laughter to outrage, from curiosity to horror.

Much of how we respond implies our past religious education or indoctrination. When we combine those largely emotional remembrances with our present day adult reasoning and life experience, the result can confuse or be unsettling to us. Because the age-old beliefs about Heaven and Hell die hard, and the fears and uncertainties surrounding them tend to linger as theological pessimism- if not personally, then we can see evidence of their impact definitely in our culture.
The ideas that formed our understanding about “where the soul goes” or “what happens to us after we die,” find their beginnings in ancient Semitic cultures of the Middle East.
In the Hebrew belief system, some 4000 years ago, the hard and harsh realities of life experience was all that a human being could trust. Life was life, and death was just that, death- the end of our existence. The body, now dead, would be disposed of and the incomplete Hebrew notion of soul that is connected to a land somewhere under the earth, the valley of the shadows call Sheol. Heaven, where the Lord God resided, was totally above and beyond the human dimension, thereby unapproachable. The soul in Sheol- or translated literally as being in the Pits- was a suspended state, where the entity known as you would remain in a suspended, passive state- Nothing else was ever considered or proposed for some two thousand years!
It wasn’t until the distinctly Persian or the Zoroastrian belief were made known to us that we received most of our modern conceptions of a Heaven and a Hell. While the Hebrews were held captive in Babylon, they were exposed to the teachings of Zoroaster that postulated that there was a life for one’s essence or one’s soul that was beyond bodily physical death.
By the way, the Zoroastrian philosophers, priests and magicians were very generous to the Hebrews, who in turn passed these ideas down to the Christians and subsequently they became rooted into the larger Western religious culture. In addition to their teachings about Heaven and Hell, they also gave us the delightful concept of angels and then,just for balance, the concept of The Devil who would tempt, torture or torment us… They forwarded the idea of a Heaven as a place of eternal sweetness and light, and that Hell was everlasting fire and suffering… To this kind of gift I say- Thanks  a lot!
The next major influence on our development of these places for the soul came from the influences of Greco-Roman thought on Jewish religion. As we approach the time of the writing of the Christian Testament in the Bible, we can see the influence of certain Greek Platonic thought and Roman mythology. These influences shaped and refined the Zoroastrian teachings by giving the revised Jewish religion the belief in an immortal soul; The belief in some form of resurrection from the dead, and eventually ushered in all those countless debates over the nature of human will, responsibility, moral rules, and temple authority.
All these early adaptations and accretions set the stage for Christianity. Early presiders and bishops took these accumulated beliefs and tried to unify them into a cogent and consistent theology. After three centuries of debate, discussions, and even out and out brawls among contending points of view, orthodoxy was devised and established, and they formulated in their ancient creeds that Heaven and Hell are two separate contrasting  realities- that they were actual physical locations above and below the Earthly realm, and that all souls would, upon physical death, the soul would go to one place or the other…
When these conjectures and assumptions took on the influence of official church doctrine and therefore unquestioned teachings, whatever glimmer of truth they might have contained became laden with the burdens of fear, guilt, depression and anxiety. With certain minor doctrinal modifications, these definitions and assumptions about Heaven and Hell have come down to us as a part of our current religious culture- ironically, they are often beautifully depicted in some of the West’s greatest art, literature, and music.
To encapsulate elaborate and complex theology is a difficult task- but I will try to give you a synopsis of what is still generally accepted and widely taught:
1) Historical or traditional Roman Catholic and it is somewhat the same in the Eastern or Orthodox churches: There is a Heaven above and a Hell below; there is also an intermediary state called Purgatory, and until recently, there used to be a suspended state for the unbaptised called Limbo.(Gailieo!)
All souls are required to pass through life’s trials and with the mandatory assistance of the church, its clergy, its sacraments, teachings, and discipline. All these rules and behavioral tasks would guide your faith, and outline your good works, and then based on your observance and obedience, your soul after death would head directly toward one or the other!
2) Protestants, in the Reformation, reacted to all this elaborate doctrine and its subsequent ecclesiastical abuses. Luther and Calvin both cut out the classical details and elaborate schemes for salvation. They reduced their teachings to rather austere pronouncements. They were:
First The Bible, not the church, was to be the chief interpreter of the whole and literal truth. Thus it was the belief in its words as having power and that the words The Bible contained held sufficient information that would guide one to eternal salvation.
Secondly, only your faith saves you- not your good works! And if you don’t believe this,then you all can go to Hell!
3) Among religious liberals who are our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors vehemently disagreed with many of predominate doctrines and their conclusions. The Unitarians came to teach that they could not believe in such a negative image or destiny for humankind, and that under God’s guidance and principally through our endowed gifts of free will and reason, we are infinitely capable of change and willingly encourage transformation for the greater good of humanity!
Our Universalist ancestors took the doctrines on directly; they stated that the whole notion of a Heaven and a Hell as Reward and Punishment was obscene, and had nothing to do with the God of Love they found in the Scriptures.
Contrast this to what timeless religious commentators such as Dante and Milton declared when they described how they got their notions about Heaven and Hell. John Milton said of Heaven in Paradise Lost: People make their own Heaven or Hell”, and Dante patterned his Divine Comedy and the teachings about the Inferno on his contemporary culture! Truly, without actually claiming it, these are Universalist points of view! Now, I have to wonder, IF Dante were alive today, what ring of Hell would we, in this culture, occupy?
Hell, Michigan; Purgatory in Utah and MA; and heaven is in Iowa)
It is central to Universalism that the full and rightful salvation of our souls can be found in building for one another, a heaven on earth. Heaven, then, is defined as the human state of existence that is guided by the motives of compassion, kindness, justice, mercy, and peace, made manifest among us.
Furthermore, Universalism can be seen as actively disbelieving in a Hell as the traditional Christian describes it; it neither truly exists nor is it spiritually valid. The belief in Hell is a delusion of personal or self-righteous power. It can only be employed by those who wish to strike fear into a person’s heart or to try to coerce obedience by the threat of punishment.
Psychologically speaking, we only lose God, or any sustaining sense of good, when we give credence to our fears; we only lose sight of God or good when we lose sight of ourselves as being created in the image and likeness; We feel God’s absence whenever we refuse to forgive or be forgiven.
As I see it, Heaven and Hell exist as states of our minds, and are found within the feelings of our hearts, and shown to exist by the motives or the aspirations of our human spirits …. Heavenly or Hellish attitudes and emotions can be seen or found through the decisions we make, the quality of relationships we keep, and depth of the community that we create.
In this way, Universalism, is generally an uplifting religion and it is one that offers any of us a sustaining relationship that is based in the here and now- partly because living in the past can only prejudice our future, and living in the future, can make us forget our current responsibilities to daily life. Our central concern focusses on cultivating those qualities and capacities it takes to create a caring community, and to act personally through our  commitments to make our principles visible and active in our larger world.
Heaven, then, is found in the faces of our children and our seniors, in those timeless smiles of recognition and affection among our members. It is found in the laughs we share and the burdens we bear for one another.
Hell, conversely, is experienced whenever we feel an icy loneliness, when we feel isolated, deprived, or when we remain antagonistic, spiteful or aloof. However, we do believe that there is a kind of Hell that others have experienced in their childhood or in their early religious life before they found a more Universalist point of view.
Community for the religious liberal is our most cherished possession- at its margins are the hellish feelings any person can have. At its height and depth, there are the inspirations and consolations we can give to one another…
Today and everyday, the promise of a Heaven is held out to you. Today and everyday we can decide the extent of our hope, the depth of our love, the breadth of our caring as our community decides whether we will work together; whether we will choose to create either a pit or a paradise for each other. The choice is daily and perpetually yours….
As individuals, and as members of this larger liberal religious community, we can determine how much truth, life, and love our world and our church can contain. I believe that through the active support of a compassionate community that inspires you, you can learn the true meaning of Heaven and Hell. From our sincere Universalism we can come to fully experience the gifts of grace and togetherness we have to share, and then be able to meet each experience in our lives with an open, courageous, and loving heart.  AMEN, SO BE IT.

Posted in Holiday Readings, Humor, Pastoral Reflections, Resources & Research, Sermons & Addresses |

If Life Is A Game- Here Are The Rules!

February 18, 2011 - 3:48 pm 108 Comments
When progressive people first hear the word, rules many of us will gasp or bristle- thinking that someone has the audacity to tell us how to live our lives, or that someone has the gall, the temerity, the brazenness or the chutzpah to try to act in some obnoxiously parental and pedantic way.
 
 “[If you are open to all the lessons and gifts your body has to offer... it will provide you with all the basic knowledge you will need. ... Love or hate it,accept or reject it, this body of yours is the only one you will receive in this lifetime- there is no exchange or refund policy... its lessons act as a blueprint from which all other relationships will be built.]“

As this relates to a spiritual or a religious community, the lessons we offer or that we provide for one another have to incorporate and advance these qualities of openness, choice, fairness, and grace. From my more Emersonian view, I consider that the model for a any spiritual group as a place that is designed for the greening of the spirit and the ripening of the soul. It is where a person or a family will be given ethical rules and tools, and the seeds of knowledge, responsibility and service. Then under the cooperative, egalitarian support of their sisters and brothers, be given space, and encouraged to grow.
Within the community, each person is nurtured so that they might grow toward the sun of their own completeness- to aspire, to discover, to know themselves and their world in an affirmative, inspiring way. The liberal religious community is akin to an experimental greenhouse, and ethical hothouse, or a soul-airium.

Rules 3,4,and 5: There are no mistakes, only lessons… Lessons are repeated until they are learned, and that Lessons never end.Life, as I understand it is a lively experiment. As the Existentialist philosopher Soren Kirkegaard put it, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”

Only through being willing to risk a full participation and responsibility for our lives, can the lessons of self and soul ever be fully known, appreciated or realized. Some moral philosophers insist on seeing life as a classroom or a school- a place where the texts, the tests, and the tasks are all on many levels, many subjects, and given all at once! Given the complexity of such a teaching, the idea that life is a school has a corollary attached to it: You never, ever graduate! One never leaves the need to learn, to discover, to ripen knowledge into wisdom; Life has a curriculum that spans womb to tomb…

Life is a benevolent, compassionate teacher that requires us to pay attention, to have patience, to practice forgiveness, to laugh at foibles, and to have the capacity to be nonjudgmental about our own and others behaviors.

Without such an inclusive and broad perspective, life could appear downright gruesome and cruel. As the author puts out, lessons do have a tendency to be repeated, until we discover just what it is that these episodes and experiences are truly trying to teach us. The author asks: ” have you ever found yourself repeating a pattern or having the same challenge or problem? ” I would add lessons that make you feel as if the rut you are now in, feel like an ever-expanding black hole?

Lessons are repeated until they are learned. What is being asked of you, of me, of all of us on planet Earth, is to learn how to be more aware of our patterns and tendencies, so that we can act consciously, responsibly. We have to be able to acknowledge that a problem exists before we can either release or resolve it. Then we have to choose willingly to commit to any necessary follow-through, no matter how awkward or painful, and then be willing to affirm and celebrate every step toward freedom and resolution we are able to make. So be It! Amen!

Selected Reading: Life is a Cafeteria

 

A friend’s grandfather had come to America from war-torn Eastern Europe. After being “processed” through Ellis Island, he went into a cafeteria in lower Manhattan to get something to eat. He sat down at an empty table and waited for someone to come over and get his order. He waited, and waited, and of course no one came over. Finally, a woman with a tray full of food sat down in the chair across from him, and realizing his dilemma, explained to him how American cafeterias work.
“You start out at that end, getting an empty plate,” she said, “then you just go along, and pick up or ask for anything that you want, and you either get it from the cooks, or you reach and get it for yourself. Then, when you get to the other end, they will tell you how much you have to pay.”

When the man came to his new home, he thought to himself, this must be the way everything works in America… That life is a cafeteria.

You can get any thing you want, you can achieve, accomplish and realize whatever you want to see happen, just as long as you are willing to pay the price. You can even get lasting successes, not only for yourself, but for your family and for your community, but you will not get or gain a thing, if you just sit, worry, or complain or expect someone else to give it or get it for you. In America, you have to learn to ask- to get up, and then to go get whatever it is that you want, for yourself.

Q: What is it that you want for yourself, and what do you want for this community? Are you willing to learn how it’s done, how to get up, go over, get it for yourself, and then share it with others?

How best can you choose what you want, and what you want to give to this community? Are we offering our members enough choices, enough

encouragement, enough hope, security, and promise for the future?

Meditation/Reflection:
 Each moment of our living brings us closer to our dying, Young or old the knowledge of life’s end is with us, growing more real, more familiar with our experiences of time and loss…

So how is it that we can grasp more fully the urgency of life and to seize our moments together in a way that says, “we have truly lived? What will be the signs of such a full life?
As I see it, it will be a life that is shared with others, that leads us far beyond self preoccupation’s, or safe identities that seek approval. Life that is authentic, life that is really lived is a life that risks openness, and that gains fulfillment from unselfishness.

The measure and worth of our lives will be known by the commitments we keep and the groups and ideal we endorse. Our participation in life equates to our participation in those ideals and values that make our lives most meaningful. Then we can say that we have lived well.

The 10 Rules
 
1. You will receive a body.

 

2. You will be presented with lessons.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.

4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned.

5. Learning does not end.

6. “There” is no better than “here.”

7. Others are only a mirror of you.

8. What you make of your life is up to you.

9. All the answers are inside of you.

10. You will forget all this at birth.

 
　

 

 

 

As this might apply to congregations like ours, the body or the shell that houses the life and soul of the community is its building- its sacred space- where we gather to express our message of liberal religion through our style of common worship, outreach, service, and education to our members, their families, and to the larger community. Using Rule 1, this building requires our expression to become alive with the liberal spirit; we have to learn to accept, value, respect, and find pleasure in opening up its use and sharing its space more fully with each other and our surrounding population. In that regard, there is little good reason why it is not used fully every day and every night of the week by some cause, enterprise or group that is in accord with our values and beliefs.

 “[The only thing you can count on for certain is that all the lessons you specifically need to learn will be presented to you during your lifetime-- whether you choose to listen, learn, and heed those lessons is entirely up to you. ]“

in the book itself, Dr. Carter-Scott adds the qualities of openness, choice, fairness, and grace.

Posted in General, Humor, Pastoral Reflections, Resources & Research, Sermons & Addresses |

New Year Reflections

December 27, 2010 - 5:05 pm 30 Comments
New Year’s Reflections and Resolutions

Happy H&%#(&@#

 

 

 

:Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally

conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the

winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

And a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2002, but not without due respect for the

calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only “AMERICA” in the Western hemisphere), and, of course, this celebration is without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.

(By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to

clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole Discretion of the wisher.) 

PEL ( adapted from other sources)

From the Unitarian poet, T.S. Eliot:

Time present, and time past are both perhaps present in time future And time future is contained in time past….

Selected Readings: Of Time

She wondered if he could ever see how often, although silently, she pleaded for a moment of his time.. and she recalled a Danish folk tale about an angel who came down to Earth to plead for a moment of any person’s time. In exchange, the angel would give eternal life.

The angel’s gift was never given, for everyone she encountered had one foot in the past, the other in the future, and no one had a moment to spare, not one, had a moment of time…

She wondered, would there ever be an answer found to life’s questions that is not bound by either yesterday or tomorrow? “Why is it,” she asked, “that life is not being lived in the present tense but a tense present, instead of taking each moment as it is.”

Over and over, she framed her unspoken plea, yet every once in a while an angelic moment in time would occur, which could be our moment, our promise of eternity.

E. B. Devito, adapted

 

 

 The Contented Fisherman
 
One day, a rich industrialist drove up to the edge of the ocean to admire the view… there, under a shady tree, with his fishing pole in his hand, he saw a young fisherman lying lazily beside his boat…

He got out of his limousine, and walked over to the young fisherman and questioned him… in a direct tone of voice, he asked

” Why aren’t you out fishing today???

It is still early, and you should be still hard at work…!

” The fisherman said, ” I have already caught enough fish for the day”

The rich man pushed further” Why aren’t you eager to stay out and catch more?? The fisherman replied, ” What would I do with anymore?”

You could sell it and earn money, was the industrialist’s reply. Then, you could buy a motor, fix up your boat or buy a bigger one, and then be able to go out long distances, into deeper water, and catch even more fish!

Then you would make enough money to buy nylon nets, so you can catch more fish, and make more money. Then you could hire workers and buy another boat… maybe a whole fleet of fishing boats! Then you would become a rich man like me.”

What would I do then? asked the fisherman

Then you could relax and really enjoy life said the rich man.

What do you think I am doing right now??

Question: Which would you rather have: a fortune in your future or the capacity to enjoy life in the here and now?

 

 

 

　

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in General, Holiday Readings, Humor, Pastoral Reflections |

An All Soul’s Reflection

November 1, 2010 - 12:23 pm 480 Comments
A Reflection On The Meaning Of  All Soul’s Day

As people who seek to find hidden meanings and inclusive understanding, the usual approach toward holidays and holy days of other denominations is one of curiosity and interest- curiosity, maybe even an appreciation of the tradition and the beliefs involved, but rarely is it a full acceptance and a rightful adoption into our own calendar of meaningful events.

The day of All Soul’s November 2nd, is different. As Universalists, we have full rights to this day, and I feel that it should be celebrated yearly as a reminder of one of our foundational theological ideas, and as an opportunity to check and affirm the timeless connections of church history and the personal connections with both loss and life that every human being shares.

Originally, All Soul’s Day is a late- comer- being instituted after both All Hallows and All Saints were in full observation. This weekend is a rare event; we have all of them over a weekend and can attune ourselves more closely with their greater meaning for us.

Briefly, in church history there is the pattern of adopting indigenous holidays and making them ” Christian.” All Hallows Eve was a time when the dead came alive and their spirits walked the earth for the last time before being sent up to heaven or being condemned to Hell. It was a time for ghostly visitations, and when the energies and impulses toward good and evil became manifested in people and the culture.

The Church, seeing this as a pagan revelry celebrating the harvest and the mischief of merry-ma king, transformed it into a night where there was a battle of good and evil and the night before all the Saints- all the blessed faithful would ascend to heaven to be with God. This more pious approach became a Holy Day of Obligation- a time when everyone was to go to church and pray for the souls of the faithfully departed, that they might rest in peace, and that their entry into heaven would be assured.

However, that practice became modified and exclusive. It became a day for honoring those appointed and officially recognized by the Church as saints, with the sinners still having to worry about going to Hell. Then the prayers began to focus on releasing people from Purgatory- that in-between place that was the place of judgment of eternal salvation versus eternal damnation.

What was then instituted was another day to follow, and that day would be for the rest of us; and a day when all the faithfully departed, would gain entry into the everlasting mercy and peace known as heaven. That became All Soul’s day.

For Universalists, who following from their careful Bible study and an appraisal of Western theology, concluded that if God were as good as these orthodox priests and ministers claim, then why would there be such fear and grief over death?; Why would there be a question about salvation, and where one’s soul goes after death? If God is good, and a God that is love, there is nothing to fear for any or all of us, whether they are strong believers and even the most adamant of unbelievers, all of us will still go to heaven…

Why even the Devil himself will be saved in the end! ( Al Pacino included!!!)

Universalists reinterpreted All Soul’s as a day that affirms the goodness of God, the defeat of the teachings on damnation, and as a time in the history of a community when those who have departed this earthly life are remembered with respect and compassion. All Soul’s, for we religious liberals, is an occasion when we begin to evaluate the past and appraise the future; when a community comes together to live with both memory and hope.

The Devil and his Friend

One day, the Devil went out for a walk with his friend…. They saw a man ahead of them stop, stoop down and pick up something from the ground…

” What did the man find?”, asked the friend. The Devil said, ” Oh, he found a piece of the Truth.” “Doesn’t that disturb you?”, asked the friend…

“No” said the Devil- “I just will let him make a religious doctrine out of it”

A religious belief is only a signpost pointing towards the truth. When you cling to the signpost you are prevented from moving ahead to the goal. When you believe that you have the whole truth, there is no incentive to find out more or expand your understanding of truth that comes in from all directions.

Posted in Holiday Readings, Humor, Pastoral Reflections |

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