Wednesday, March 31, 2010

"HE DESCENDED INTO HELL"

In the Church Times, Giles Fraser, Canon at St. Paul's in London, writes wonderfully on Jesus' descent into hell.

THE Bishop of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe, the Rt Revd Pierre Whalon, has just returned from a visit to Haiti. He preached at St Paul’s the other day, and came to lunch with us afterwards, where he told a story about how bad things are in Port-au-Prince.

He spoke of coming across an open pit of bodies that people were also using as a rubbish tip for house hold refuse. All he wanted to do was climb down into the pit and clear out the rubbish. That is to be my abiding prayer thought for this year’s Holy Week.

Christ jumps into the pit of death to claim even the grave for his victory. With this last act, the victory over death, Christ is the Lord of all. There are no corners of human experience that cannot be redeemed by his love.

Although the words, "He descended into hell," are present in The Apostles' Creed, today we tend to slide over the words without giving them due attention. Read Giles' entire post, and you might change your mind.

6 comments:

  1. They are important words and the Eastern Orthodox icon of the resurrection shows Jesus leading Adam and Eve out of the grave.

    I love the words There are no corners of human experience that cannot be redeemed by his love. Thanks for highlighting this.

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  2. Paul, the words that you highlight are words that we should never forget.

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  3. Lovely words from Giles Fraser (I've just read the whole thing). I do like everything Giles Fraser writes. It's late, and I must go to bed shortly since I've got an early flight to Cologne tomorrow, but I'll come back and read his words again when I am back on late Sunday. (It looks as if we will be going to an Easter Sunday service in Cologne cathedral - yay!!!)

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  4. sorry, wasn't meaning to get "off the message of the post" there

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  5. Cathy, have a lovely trip. I envy you your service in Cologne Cathedral.

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  6. We had a Rector a few years back who preached an Easter sermon on the Creeds and Christ's descent into Hell. In his opinion, Christ was still at it, descending daily to all of us to lead us out of whatever hells we found ourselves in, even those hells of our own making, perhaps especially those of our own making.

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