“Heaven – the Promise”

First Congregational United Church of Christ

October 16, 2011

The Rev. Sharyl B. Peterson

 

Scripture Readings:  various

 

For those of you who weren’t here last week, we began a sermon-series considering what our faith has to say about the afterlife – specifically, about whether there is an afterlife, and if so, what it might be like, and what the relationship is or might be between the way we live our lives here on earth and how we spend the hereafter.  Today, we’re going to reflect on what we might call the “positive version” of the afterlife, which our faith tradition has called “Heaven.”

If you find yourself blinking in surprise from time to time this morning – just as some people found themselves surprised last week – I encourage you not to be alarmed.  Good and faithful people have been talking about heaven – and arguing about heaven – where it is, and what it is like, and how we get there – for more than 2,000 years.  So, while many faithful people today think that there is some set of commonly-agreed upon faith understandings about Heaven, some set of understandings that are “true” – or that all people believe – that was not the case 2200 years ago when the Heaven conversations began, nor has it been in the 2200 years since, nor is it today.

            As a brief recap of last week’s sermon, until about 250 years before Jesus was born, Jewish people did not believe in an afterlife.  For some 2,000 years or so, they got along just fine focusing on the present life, and how we are called to live this life as God’s people.  For the Jews, if they considered it at all, Heaven – in Hebrew, shamayim – was a mysterious domain both in, and beyond the sky – where God and the angels dwelt – but human beings most definitely did not.  Heaven was not only inaccessible to humans, but forbidden to them.  Jewish faith practices – like daily prayer – connected them with what they thought of as the Kingdom of God, but it was not until nearly Jesus’ era that they imagined humans might actually go to that place the rabbis called Gan Eden, which means the Garden of Eden.  (Interestingly, even in Christian monasticism in the Middle Ages, many believed, like the Jews, that while Eden – Heaven – existed, “you can’t get there from here[1].”)

            And then, as I said last week, a couple of centuries before Jesus was born, during the persecutions of faithful Jewish people – children, youth, adults and elders – by three Greek kings, persecutions in which nearly 100,000 people were hideously tortured and slaughtered solely because they were people of faith … which also happened to be a period in which Greek thought about something called the “immortal soul” also developed … Jewish theology (which forms the roots of Christian theology) changed in a profound way.  Specifically, by the time Jesus arrived on the scene, while some traditional Jews still did not believe in an afterlife, many had come to believe – because they also believed in divine justice – that there was a life after this one, or that somehow the immortal soul lived on after us, in a special place or state that was reserved as a reward for those who had lived (or been killed) as righteous – as God-fearing and God-obeying – people.  For the first time in Scripture, we hear a Jewish prophet – Daniel – promising that “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life…” (12:2).  Yet even with that slim affirmation, Biblical writings from that period don’t offer us any insights on exactly what that “everlasting life” might be like.

            When we get to the New Testament, however, we find that Jesus had a lot to say about Heaven.  As I mentioned last week, and want to talk more about today, when Jesus appeared on the scene, he clearly shared the developing Jewish belief in a “heaven” – an afterlife – that occurs after this one.  He also shared the Jewish belief that the name of God was too holy to use, so Jesus often used “kingdom of Heaven” and “kingdom of God” interchangeably.

And so we hear pronouncements like the one that comes on the evening before he will be arrested, tortured, and killed, as He’s sitting at a dinner-table with his closest friends and followers.  In Mark’s version of the story, we hear that:  “…while they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’  Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it.  He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.  Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mk. 14: 22-25). 

            Clearly, Jesus imagined a life – with God – after this one is over.  He just doesn’t have a whole lot to say about what that life-after-this Heaven is like, except that it is the place where God is.

            That is an omission which John’s community, a century or so later, addresses very creatively in the book of Revelation – the last-written, and the most controversial book, of the Christian Bible.  It is in Revelation that we read the popular notions of Heaven as a place with pearly gates, and streets of gold, and lots of harp-music, and everyone dressed in white robes.  And it is those statements in Revelation, although widely-acknowledged to be symbolic language rather than literal descriptions, combined with some of Paul’s theology (not Jesus’ theology, but Paul’s), that led to yet another new development in Christian thought.  And that was the idea that not only did Heaven exist, but people had to earn their way into it.

            In Judaism, remember, faithful people were called to live “righteously” – but the reason for doing so was simply that they were God’s people, and God called them to live that way.  It was not because they were earning points toward entry into an afterlife that was unimaginably better than this life.  Faithful people were – and are – supposed to worship and obey God … to pray … to tithe … to be honest … to be compassionate … to be faithful in relationships …because God has told us that’s the way that faithful people live.

            (But) as Christian thought developed over the next few centuries after Jesus died, there was an emerging trend toward what some current scholars call “evacuation theology.”  That is, the idea that Jesus, in one way or the other, is our ticket to Heaven.  Christians are to believe in Jesus, so that they can go to Heaven when they die.  And that belief persists in some Christian faith communities today, which encourage people to make public proclamations of their belief in Jesus so that (in these communities’ understandings) they can be “saved” or go to Heaven.

            In time, as Christianity became still more diverse, and even newer interpretations of Jesus’ life and thought and meaning emerged, that first idea evolved into a more nuanced notion, which was that Christians were to believe the right things about Jesus, in order to go to Heaven when they died.  And you find that approach in some faith communities today as well.  These communities each have developed a set of agreed-upon (within their community) statements about Jesus (e.g., he was born of a woman who was a virgin in the 21^st c. sense), and only people who share that set of particular beliefs are thought able to go to Heaven.

            And then, over still more time, afterlife theology changed again.  Particularly around the time of the Reformation and thereafter, as the Christian church split first into the Catholic and Protestant branches, and then the Protestant branch split into a myriad of new denominations – each of which had their own ways of doing things – the idea emerged in many churches that Christians were to not only believe the right things about Jesus (as defined by their group), they were also to do “things of faith” (like baptism and Holy Communion) in the right ways (as defined by those groups), in order to go to Heaven when they died.  And this is probably the commonest stance in churches today.

            One huge and obvious problem with this kind of thinking is that it totally obviates the reality, and power, and meaning, of God’s grace.  While the Gospel writers do occasionally put apocalyptic utterances on Jesus’ lips:  “God is gonna get you if you do this … (or if you don’t do that) …” those are far rarer than His repeated proclamations of God’s grace and love.  For Jesus, for God, redemption is always (or nearly always) possible.

            A second huge problem with this kind of thinking is that it resulted (and still results) not in the kind of increasing unity among believers that Jesus calls us to, but in ever-increasing conflicts and differences between groups.  It also results in ever-strengthening beliefs that people who believe like “we” do are going to Heaven (or are going to be saved), and everybody else is going to burn in Hell forever (more on that next week).

            And a third huge problem with this understanding is that if our interest in Jesus’ message – if what we understand to be the significance of Jesus’ message – is only that it gets us somewhere else, we can get so focused on trying to get our thinking about that message exactly right that we lose interest in – or energy for – trying to get our living based on that message right.  And we can become so focused on what’s in this life for me, and so focused on my salvation that we can easily forget about the millions of starving people, and the raging wars, and the rampant diseases, and other evils in the world, all of which we could do something about, and which Jesus calls us to do something about.

            Problematic or not, however, some version of those three ideas – either that we need to believe in Jesus … or we need to believe in the right things about Jesus … or we need to do one or the other of those, plus do “church things” correctly –to get into Heaven is the theology that most of us grew up with.

            For example, as I was growing up in the South, there was a very popular expression that when you did something good, like (an adult) helped a neighbor, or you shared your toys with another kid, you got “a star in your crown.”  The notion was that the more stars you had saved up before you died, the better, because it was going to substantially increase your chance of getting into Heaven.  I’m not sure how seriously people took this – but given how many other versions of the same kind of thinking you encounter even today, it seems like a theology that is still very much alive and well.  It is also a theology that is (almost) totally antithetical to what Jesus himself preached and taught.

            You may remember the story in the Gospels where a man comes to Jesus, and asks the question we’re considering explicitly:  “Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life (go to Heaven)?”  And you may remember that Jesus does not say, well, you have to believe this particular statement from this particular faith community, or that particular statement from the Nicene Creed (which of course had not yet been written).  Jesus doesn’t even launch into the lecture we might expect him to give on God’s grace, and on how eternal life is a free gift of God’s grace.

            Instead, He simply says, “If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”  He says, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.”  And we are told that the man walks away, disappointed and baffled.

            The important thing to notice here is, the question the man asks:  “how do I get to go to heaven when I die?” is not the question Jesus answers.  Because Jesus was not tremendously concerned about what happens after we die.  He was much more concerned about what He called “this age” and “the age to come.”

            When Jesus talks about the kingdom of Heaven, He’s not talking about something that happens in the sweet bye and bye, after we’ve stopped breathing, and eating lunch, and getting up in the morning.  Life in the “age to come” that Jesus talks about is a life of peace on earth; a life of justice and equity for everyone; a life of hands-on participation in caring for the good earth; a life without the horrors – like war … or greed … or injustice … or violence … or self-serving pride … or exploitation – things that too many of us have come to accept as “just part of the way things are.”

What Jesus does in this particular encounter is take that man’s question (which is often our question, too) about life then – about life later – and makes it about the kind of life he – and we – live now[2].  What Jesus preached , over and over and over, was “do the right things – create justice, show compassion and mercy, care for the poor and the marginalized, share your stuff, treat everyone with respect – and you will help create Heaven – you will help create God’s reign – right here and now in this place and on this earth where you live. 

A few minutes ago, we heard just a handful of the things Jesus had to say about this kind of Heaven.  He says we can nurture this Heaven, this life that God yearns for, for all people – so it grows and flourishes like an enormous mustard tree.  We can help knead God’s love into all of life, so it rises and expands like bread to nourish everyone who is hungry.  We can create this kind of God-centered world that is more beautiful, and more immensely valuable than the finest, most beautiful pearl, or the most gorgeous, productive field.

            Clearly, Jesus believed – Jesus knew – that the kingdom of Heaven – what he also called the kingdom of God – was real.  And clearly, Jesus believed that this kingdom of Heaven was possible to bring about.  And clearly, Jesus believed that this kingdom of Heaven was not solely something that came in the life after this one, but was something that His followers – that’s us, my friends – are called to partner with God to co-create in this life.

            Jesus says we do that by going out – wherever it is that we are – humbly, like little children, not so sure we know it all – much less believing that we know more than anyone else – and doing our best to make the world a better place, in cooperation with other people who may have somewhat different ideas from ours.  And Jesus says we do it by going out – wherever it is that we are – and “healing” others, healing our communities, healing our world, in the myriad of real, concrete, tangible ways we are able to do that.  And Jesus says we do it by going out – wherever it is that we are – and through our examples, our words, our actions – proclaim the good news that God loves everyone. 

            So, one last question that I suspect is still dangling for at least some of us is, yes, but what about the resurrection?  What about the eternal life we’re promised because of Christ’s resurrection?  How does that all fit in here?

Let me remind you that I do preach a lot about the resurrection, especially around Easter-time, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this today.  But it is also important for us to remember that belief in Christ’s resurrection is one of the core principles of our Christian faith.  And however the early followers of Jesus understood His resurrection (and the Gospels do offer four substantially different accounts of what did happen after Jesus’ crucifixion and burial), we know for a fact that something happened that changed the way they lived, and that changes the way we are called to live.

            Somehow, that bunch of frightened men and women, huddled in locked rooms, quaking in their boots that someone might find out they were followers of Jesus Christ, were transformed into brave – even willing to die – proclaimers of Jesus’ message.  And because they were – and because people still are willing to proclaim – with words, if necessary – that message – the world has been transformed across its entire, beautiful face.  It’s not there yet, my friends, but it’s certainly on its way.

            And that is what Jesus, after all, is about.  Transformation.  Transforming our lives from the hells on earth that they can be, or even simply the boring, not-very-meaningful existences that they often are, into lives that matter, that make a difference, that help bring about what Jesus gave his life for – a world in which every person knows they are loved, are valuable, and which they too are called to help transform, until one day, with God’s help, we will create that “age to come” called Heaven.  May each of us do our part … today … tomorrow … every day that we live.  Amen.