Carlton Pearson is the name of the man I stayed up till 2am on Thursday night to watch. He is a Pentecostal preacher, a superstar in the evangelical world. The story which MSNBC portrayed starred a pastor who started his ministry by preaching hell, fire, and brimstone and he was quite good at it. Then one day he watched a T.V. news program where he saw refugee’s in Africa, mostly women and children, whose eyes seemed to have no soul. Carlton broke down in front of the television and cried. Soon after he came to the conclusion that hell was not the traditional place he had been taught, it was no lake of fire with the weeping and gnashing of teeth. He decided that hell was something we experience here on earth and that in the afterlife; everyone was with God in heaven. Before any of your thoughts jump to the idea that I will be preaching on universal salvation, please don’t worry. That is not my intention, as this doctrine can be as divisive as any other major issue the church faces today. But I want to tell you more about the reason I stayed up so late that night.
I stayed up late watching because I couldn’t fall asleep. Truthfully, I haven’t been able to sleep very well as of late and because of that, I have been spending more and more time in my office. This Thursday, I had just finished a great meeting where a committee of lay members gives me critical feedback. I was in my office for about an hour after this meeting when a man walked into the building. He walked right past my office like he didn’t know where he was going. I recognized him immediately. It was Tom. A homeless man who had come by the church a month or so ago, looking for a meal. We went out to McDonalds and shared a meal. I bought him a gift card, gave him some money for the bus and then he left. I doubted I’d ever see him again.
Reflecting on that though, I realize it wasn’t my brightest moment. Why would a homeless man not come back to a person who had given him food and money…but this isn’t a story about my mental mistake.
This time, Tom and I went back to McDonalds and I picked his brain about his life, the people who helped him, the people who didn’t, the places he lived, we talked about his faith, the jobs he had held and the time he had spent in jail. I shared my grandiose ideas about helping him and others who found themselves homeless. I told him my dream about what I thought God’s rule on earth would look like. We ended our meal by me asking him to come back to my office in a few weeks. As we drove back to the church, Tom asked me what I was going to be doing tomorrow. My hospitality was beginning to wear out and I told him how busy I was going to be. Hoping that, as it neared 10 o’clock at night, Tom would be as anxious to leave as I was. I had $10 in my hand ready to give him once we both got out of the car…but Tom didn’t get out of the car. I waited outside in the cold wearing sandals and a t-shirt, silently cursing him to get out of the car so we could both part ways.
One minute passed…
Two minutes passed…
Three minutes passed…
Finally Tom got out of my car and asked me what was taking so long. I told him I was just waiting for him. I gave him the money I had for him and was about to turn around when he started patting his coat pockets. He said that he had forgotten his hat. We checked the car and my office to no avail. He suggested it must still be at McDonalds. He said we could leave it. Gas was so expensive; he didn’t want to make me drive the two mile round trip to get it. I wasn’t about to let him go into a cold night without his hat. But I had figured Tom out. Tom wanted something else, I just hadn’t figured out what... His hat was somewhere hidden in his coat. Maybe he wanted more fries…I don’t know…but I took pity and decided to humor him. As we started to drive back, Tom commented on how quickly the car heated up.
AH HA!!! The Truth is revealed. I fell for it. The ol’ lost my hat trick so Tom could stay warm for a few more minutes. Who could blame him though? It was definitely cold outside. When we arrived back the restaurant, I decided to let Tom stay in the warm car and go inside and “look” for the hat. I had already determined to even ask the manager if it was there, just to give Tom another few moments in the warmth. I knew it was already in the car, so what difference did it make if I didn’t find it. I walked past the table where we had sat, getting ready to speak to the manager…only to find Tom’s wool hat was scrunched in-between the wall and the seat… just where he had left it.
I felt like Balaam’s faithful steed. I picked up the hat, got back in the car and started home. I dropped Tom off at the train station and just before Tom got out of the car, I apologized for not being able to help him more. He shocked me by saying it was okay and that I had already blessed him greatly. Little did he know all the thoughts that ran through my mind as we drove that night. It was that very moment when part of today’s scripture became very real to me. Jesus had just gotten out of my car. It was quite humbling.
As it approached 2AM on Friday morning, I realized why I could not fall asleep that night. I needed the lesson that hell can be found right here on earth reinforced to me in a powerful way. Tom spends a lot of his life in hell here on earth, and in the short hour or so we were together, my own mind and bias helped contribute to that hell, even if I never acted on it.
Remember how I said universal salvation is a divisive doctrine? Well, it got that bishop kicked out of the mega church he built. He was defrocked as a Pentecostal bishop and he lost thousands of many influential friends. Life as he knew it was over and he was in his own personal hell.
Fortunately for Carlton Pearson, another pastor in California heard of his downfall and invited him to come and speak to her congregation. At the end of the service, that loving pastor poured some warm water into a basin, asked the defrocked bishop to remove his socks and shoes, knelt down, and washed his feet.
The last verse of the 13th chapter of Romans says: Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The pastor who washed the feet of the former bishop was already clothed in Jesus Christ. She saw that he was in Hell and needed a bit of heaven. Tom, without knowing I was in a self imposed hell, released me by blessing me for feeding him and giving him money to ride the bus and stay warm.
What will happen to us when we decide to clothe ourselves in Jesus Christ? What will we do if we see others around us in their own version of hell? Will we remove our clothes of Jesus and give them the love of God which surrounds us?
This whole idea of treating each other, and most notably, the people who need the most compassion, as if we were already in heaven is striking. In the gospel lesson today, (Matthew 24:36-44) we realize that Jesus is talking about his return, when his reign will begin. Scholars say that the fact that Jesus doesn’t share the day or the hour of his return is a sign of grace. A sign which allows us to practice what we hope heaven to be like. As the Advent season begins today, I hope you make an effort to bring someone a piece of heaven here on earth in a very personal way. It’s the difference between feeding the homeless and staying in the kitchen while they eat and cooking for the homeless and actually sitting among them and sharing the meal. What difference will we each make because we are clothed in Jesus Christ? The possibilities are endless and limited only by those things which put in our own way.
Amen.
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