Like Hell?

Like Hell?

27th August 2023

Matthew 16: 13-20          

This morning I want to preach a very focused message, zooming in on a particular phrase in this reading:

“on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (v18)

There are some key words to unpack here:

Hades, …Church …and prevail.

Just what is ‘Hades”?

Is it like ‘hell’…?

Do you know where the English word ‘hell’ comes from?

A hellier was someone who covered roofs with thatch or tiles, over a darkened place.

So, ‘hell’ means a dark, covered place.

Some Bible translations use the word ‘hell’ to cover a range of different references to places of death.

The New Revised Standard Version (the one we use at St John’s) uses the word ‘hell’ as a translation for only one word: Gehenna.

Gehenna was an actual valley outside Jerusalem that had once been the location of child sacrifices;

it was regarded as a particularly un-holy place,

and was used as a rubbish dump, including for human bodies that were discarded without ceremony.

Whilst translating Gehenna to the English word ‘hell’,

the New Revised Standard Version uses the words of the original languages for two other places of the death.

Sheol is a Jewish word that describes a state of desolation and death; the land of shadows.

And Hades is the Greek word we have in today’s reading that describes a gloomy underworld where the dead are kept.

Neither of these are understood as the place of torment that Gehenna is, but rather where the dead languish;

the destiny of dark destruction.

The ‘gates of Hades’ shut miserable souls in, and keep the influence of love out.

We’ll come back to the ‘gates of Hades’ in a moment…

but what about the word ‘Church’…?

The Greek word behind the English word church (ekklhsia) denoted a gathering of people.

To bring this image to life a bit… picture a crowd in the public square that gathers around the King’s messenger, or town crier, to listen to the important message.

The ekklhsia (the Church) is people sharing good news.

It is an event, a movement flowing on through history.

However, early on, another image was used for describing the Church – a building.

Worship occurred in synagogues and temples, and so it was natural to use this experience.

We still live with this ambiguity, and the image of a building can be limiting in describing the Church – failing to express how Church is an event,

a vibrant happening,

a ‘deployment’ even.

And then another structural image of the Church began to be used – the City of God.

As the Church grew through history, and Christians felt what they had gained needed to be protected, this image became a fortress city;

a church on the back foot.

Defensive.

It was holding out against the enemy.

Today, do you feel like the Church is under attack…?

I worry that our fear of so-called secularism makes us overly defensive as the Church.

How do we understand the word Jesus uses in today’s reading: “prevail”?

I used to assume this suggests that the powers of death take the offensive, laying siege to a beleaguered community,

dug in and determined.

But looking more closely at these words…

“on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (v18)

The image of “gates” connotes a stationary defensive posture, implying that (in fact) the Church is the aggressor; the church is the invading force that storms the powers of death to liberate Hades’ captives.

Do you see that…?

Unlike the thick defensive walls, the gates were the obvious target for an attack.

Those gates of the kingdom of evil, the weakest points, cannot withstand Christ’s love.

The Good News is that Christ himself has terminally weakened the gates of Hades.

His death and resurrection has already unhinged them.

They cannot, they shall not,

prevail against the onslaughts of love, mercy and peace.

Wherever one woman, man or child, anywhere in this world, makes the choice to follow Jesus and declare:

“You are my Christ, the son of the living God”

then the gates of Hades shake,

and death (that enemy of God) begins to tremble.

Onward and forward is the way of the Church.

We follow Jesus every step of the way.

Onward with the excitement and the commitment,

the loss and the gain,

the fun and the pain,

of living with faith, hope and love.

And we proclaim, as the Church in this part of the world at this moment (please join with me):

God gathers us to worship and grow our faith so we can live and share Christ’s hope for our world.

Amen!