Luke 20:27-38
During our vacation Deb and I visited a
dear friend in Asheville.
Grady had served as my clerk of session in Clinton and was a godsend to every shut-in in
our congregation. She moved to a retirement center in Asheville a couple of years ago and we have
remained close.
About a month ago, Grady’s daughter
called informing me Grady had suffered from an extensive heart attack. Thanks
to the quick response of a rescue team and the medical staff she survived. But the experience was not without excitement.
On reaching the medical facility, her heart stopped and Grady was shocked twice
to restart that vital organ.
When Deb and I arrived at her apartment,
we expected to find a frail invalid covered in blankets. Instead we discovered our
old friend, bouncing around her apartment, eager to tell us about the new
adventures she planned for the coming months. After the usual pleasantries,
Grady turned serious. “Louie I have a theological question. When they got me to
the hospital, I blacked out and my heart stopped beating. My daughter thought I
was gone. They hit me with the paddles and I came back from where ever I went
but I have to tell you, I have no memory of seeing any kind of white light. It
was just darkness. What on earth do you think that means?”
I wish I had a dollar for every time I
have been asked about heaven and hell. I read somewhere when Dante reinvented
hell by writing The Divine Comedy, church
attendance exploded. No one wanted to risk going to the place Dante had so
vividly described. Likewise, when a person who has no religious affiliation has
an out of body experience, he suddenly becomes an expert on heaven. That amazes me. My personal Bible has over
1600 pages. This includes the 27 glossy photographs with circles and arrows and
explanations on the back of each one. In those 1600 pages the word “heaven” is
mentioned only a handful of times and it usually refers to the sky which covers
the earth. “Hell” or to be more exact “Gehenna” receives even less Biblical
interest. The “Christian” development of the idea of Hell happened during the first
and second century and its formation was highly influenced by the Greco-Roman
culture. Truth is Hell is mentioned only in passing by Jesus but it does get a
bit of attention in the Book of Revelation.
I believe we have given heaven and hell
a lot more airtime than they deserve. Might I remind you the resurrection of
Jesus is the center piece of the Christian faith. Resurrection is nothing less
than the act of a new creation, signaling the divide between the old and new
world and inaugurating a new order of life. Without the resurrection of Christ
there would be no Christianity. Jesus might have been seen as a great rabbi.
Perhaps a new sect would have followed his interpretation of the Torah, but the
sect would have remained Jewish. The significance of the resurrection of
Christ, to paraphrase First Corinthians 15, is death cannot hold the source of
life. I have no intention of down playing
the significance some folks place on of heaven. But I would like to suggest discussions
of heaven and hell complicate rather than compliment the New Testament message,
that being the significance of God’s love as understood in the life, death and
resurrection of Christ Jesus.
To
quote Douglas John Hall, “If there is anything distinctive about Christianity,
it is that this faith is focused, not on general theism, not on religious
principles, not on ethical teachings, not on ritual observances, not on
heavenly appearances or worldly observations, but on a life, a life lived under
the same basic conditions that affects all life. Faith perceives what transcended
this particular life. We believe this life revealed an eternal love in which
all life is wrapped. Because of this life, we believe all life is eternal. We
are not surprised or threatened if we see this same eternal love manifested in
other places. Yet we cling to this particular life for our universal understanding
of love. Our faith is bound to this one we call Christ but because we believe the
way to the universal is through this particular man we dare to call Son of God.”
Now that is a mouthful. But it is a
glorious mouthful. Hall celebrates the resurrection of Christ. Hall, without speaking
of heaven or hell, expounds on a God who created something out of nothing. Through
the faithfulness, love, and commitment of God, where there was once only chaos,
God created life. This belief in God’s grace informs the biblical story from
beginning to end. This is such good
news and should be our emphasis as we share our faith. But we get sidetracked
by rabbit holes as we explore our curiosities concerning heaven and hell.
A perfect example is the text this
morning. Jesus was in the Temple
just days before his death. The Sadducees, a religious group of great
importance, came to Jesus with only death on their minds. They asked tricky
questions hoping Jesus would utter some heretical words justifying their claims
that Jesus was a dangerous man. They bombarded Jesus with questions such as, “Where
do you get your authority? Did the baptism of John come from heaven? Should we
pay taxes to Rome?”
The questions came fast and furious but Jesus never answered in a way that was
in conflict with Torah.
Almost
in desperation one of the Sadducees asked, “Moses wrote if a man’s brother
dies, leaving a wife with no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise
the children in honor of is brother. What if there were seven brothers and each
died childless. Would not each brother be obligated to marry the widow? Then when
the widow died, who would be her husband when she arrived in heaven?”
This is such a ridiculous question asked
by a Sadducees did not even believe in heaven. But it was also a dangerous
question because many of his religious counterparts did recognize an afterlife.
No matter how Jesus responded, someone was going to be upset. All ears strained
as Jesus spoke. “Moses speaks of the
Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not
God of the dead but rather of the living.”
Game,
Set, Match. The contest was over. Jesus had taken the argument to a place neither
religious group was prepared to explore. Jesus affirmed from beginning to end,
God’s story is about a new creation while the Pharisees and the Sadducees were
arguing over immortality. Is that such a bid deal? Actually it is bigger than a
big deal. Immortality is based on a doctrine of human nature that denies death.
Resurrection is based on a doctrine of God which says even though we die, God restores
us to life beyond out imagination.
Unfortunately this text and others like
it peak the curiosity of those who are doing everything but dying to discover
answers about heaven. They jump on the questions of the Sadducees while all but
ignoring the comment offered by Jesus. Our curiosity is intrigued with the
unknown and we ask, “What will heaven be like? What will we look like? Will we
know Uncle Henry? Will our eyesight be restored? Will we recognize each other?”
Those and a thousand other similar questions concerning our immortality cross
our inquisitive minds. I have to be honest I have not discouraged this. Often,
when a family is struggling with the reality of death I have mentioned the
deceased is now with family members. I don’t know why I say this. I certainly
have no Biblical proof for that kind of statement. I guess it is a way to offer
comfort to a grieving family.
The
truth is the Bible doesn’t answer all our questions despite our illusions that
it should. But what the Bible does tell us is that God is faithful, God’s mercy
is immeasurable, and God’s love is beyond our understanding.
41
years ago I was a long haired college graduate who had just been drafted. In my
eyes I might as well have been dead. I marched into a barbershop and received
the same treatment of a thousand other newly minted G.I.’s. I was then issued
my uniform. With my new haircut and olive fatigues I was indistinguishable from
the other 200 men in my company. We soon
came face to face with our new drill sergeant.
I still remember his words. “I don’t care if you flunked out of high
school or finished college. I don’t care who your mother was. I don’t care if
you were rich or poor, black, brown, yellow or white. Now you are green and you
belong to me.”
A
song from the African-American experience claims, “I got a robe, you got a
robe, all God’s children got a robe. When I get to heaven I am going to put on
my robe and shout all over God’s heaven.” Maybe that is all we need to know
about heaven. God has a robe waiting for each of us. When we put it on, we will
belong to God for the rest of eternity.
Amen.
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