In C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, he tells the stories of heaven and hell. There are accounts of those who meet in the afterlife, and there are intriguing descriptions concerning hell and heaven. I was struck by the description of hell, most notably the sheer size of the place. Lewis doesn’t describe hell in millions of miles, but in lightyears. It is a vast place in Lewis’ mind, vast, but very sparsely populated. And the reason hell is sparsely populated is that one who abides there can immediately create a dwelling, a house, simply by thinking it into existence. The houses are cheap because they do not provide adequate shelter, but also because they are easily produced. No work or effort. Because these dwellings are given so easily, one can simply produce another one, most notably when he or she becomes angry with a neighbor.
You have a disagreement, move farther away.
Someone insults you, just go a few more miles apart.
You are harmed by a family member or friend, just keep moving away from the center.
When there’s a disagreement, a fight, a slight, real or imagined, the residents of that dreary place can simply move farther away from those they dislike or disagree with. Because of this there are vast tracts of uninhabited land. House after house after house, all of them empty, because the residents are living great distances form one another. At one point, it is told in The Great Divorce, a couple of men reached Napoleon’s house, but he was the only notable person from history they ever found. Everyone is moving farther apart.
Of course the alternative to this is heaven, where people come closer together. But the movement of hell is certainly the easier practice. For we know, it is much easier to choose alienation over reconciliation. It is easier to choose resentments over forgiveness. It is easier to choose anger over peace. And it is easier to “un-friend” than it is to stay in relationship. The practice of heaven takes work.
That is the image of The Great Divorce, but even before heaven, this is also what the church is called to be. In a culture that is divisive and fractured, where people are offended and angry and moving farther and farther apart, the church is the place we come back together into close relationships. No one these days need to be convinced that we live in a divided culture. We are divided over so many things. But the church is the place where God brings us back together.