"Brad was beginning to rally somewhat when he wrote these two sermons on 'Life After Life.' But he realized he had to deal with the subject. No one knew how long he had. He thought he was going to recuperate. There were tears, there was laughter, there was sharing. There were also times when all we could say was, 'It's been a wonderful life. Haven't we been blessed.' He did not think these were going to be his last sermons. He was already working on his 'Rules of the Road for Summer' and his Bible-study classes for the fall. He thought he was going to rally until the very end, but his cancer was unusually virulent. He never gave up hope. His beautiful spirit never faltered." (Carol Hall)
In the murky depths of an old pond, there lived a small colony of water nymphs. Their entire life consisted of crawling along the muddy bottom feeding and chatting. Occasionally they would run across another animal, sometimes crawling through the same sea grass growing on the bottom, and every now and then a great dark shape would pass overhead. But the water was very cloudy and their world very confined, so they saw very little. One day one of the nymphs named Charlie started rising to the surface. The other nymphs were started. "My God, what's happening to Charlie?" Now Charlie was the oldest of their little clan, so they were all very sad and fearful. Why had Charlie left them, they thought. Why had he left their very comfortable world?
Charlie wasn't sure what was happening, either. He popped up to the surface of their little pond and within a short time, his whole body had changed. Charlie, the soft round nymph, was now Charlie the exquisite dragonfly. He instinctively spread his wings and flew up into an incredible world filled with dazzling sights and sounds and millions of strange, yet wonderful, creatures. He hovered over the old shell of himself, longing to go back to the bottom of that pond. He wanted to tell his friends what lay just above them; but he couldn't. He could no longer live in the water. Down below his friends looked up through the murky waters and wondered where Charlie could be. What terrible fate had their friend endured and, God forbid, would it happen to them?
This little children's story about nymphs and dragonflies is a most helpful analogy for me to begin a two-part sermon series on the existence and nature of Heaven. It has been some six years since I have explored this Christian doctrine with you, and since we have just celebrated the Feast of the Ascension, that time when Jesus rises and returns to His Father in Heaven, I think we should reopen the pearly gates and have a peek inside.
Let's begin by asking: "What do we know about Heaven? And what are our sources for this knowledge?" Scripture must be our primary source and, as you might expect, the New Testament is loaded with references and even a few detailed descriptions. Along with Jesus' ascending into Heaven to sit at God's right hand, there are two references in the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father, who art in Heaven...Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven..."
Perhaps the greatest number of references to Heaven is Jesus' use of the Kingdom of Heaven, The Kingdom of God and eternal life. These phrases are used over six hundred times in our Gospels and letters. Indeed, eternal life with God is the whole basis of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and thus our faith. As Paul put it so well:
"If there is no resurrection, if Christ has not been raised to eternal life, then my preaching is in vain...is futile...and all people are to be pitied. (I Cor. 15)
Jesus himself was very clear about life after life in Heaven with God, when He gathered them together just before His death and said:
In my Father's house are many rooms and now I go to prepare a place for you...that where I am you may be also." (John 14)
So the Scriptural basis of Heaven, as eternal life in the Kingdom of God with God is indisputable. As I said, life after life forms the basis of our belief system--that life after life exists.
So what is all the fuss about? Why do we have six-page articles in Time Magazine posing the question, "Does Heaven Exist?" (March 24, 1997). Or in U.S. News and World Report wondering about "The Existence of Heaven in the Age of Reason" (March 31, 1997).
Well, the issue may not be whether Heaven exists or not (Time reported that over eighty percent of us believe so). The real issues are the difficulties we get into as humans when we try to describe it, locate it, or try to decide who gets in and who doesn't, etc. We humans have a wonderful propensity to complicate or pick apart what are often very simple or basic beliefs; and I suspect we have done this with our struggles about life after life. Our insatiable curiosity wants to know where it is, what is there, who is there and what part of us gets to go. So, accepting the fact of Heaven, let's have a look at some of these struggles about the particulars. Where is Heaven and what does it look like up there?
You notice that I have already used one commonly held belief, that Heaven is up there. Unfortunately much of our understanding of the geography and decoration of Heaven comes from the Book of Revelation. That book, as you know, is filled with detailed descriptions of Heaven written as a result of a vision by a first-century prophet named John of Patmos. Here we see God enthroned in great glory, surrounded by twenty four elders and fantastic sights and beasts. Heaven is filled with angels and all sorts of phenomenal events. The New Jerusalem, as Heaven is named in Revelation, is described as a city paved with streets of gold, all bedecked with jewels, with permanent light and water and thick walls. It is a place where pain and tears are no more and of such magnificence that it is meant to take our breath away.
This description of Heaven was used liberally and literally by medieval writers like Dante (Divine Comedy) and many writers and artists, all of whom have over the years formed the basis of our current description and understanding of Heaven.
Unfortunately, the Book of Revelation was not meant to be a detailed description of Heaven. It is symbolic, a great metaphor, an ancient way to help first-century Christians through the hard times of persecution and give them hope that, in the end, God is in His Heaven and in charge. Revelation was never meant to paint a detailed description of the celestial landscape.
So without this book as literal description and twenty centuries of theology, writings and art which drew from it, we are left with very little. For, as my opening story points out, we are not able, like John of Patmos, to penetrate the barrier which separates the world of the nymph from the world of the dragonfly. The nymph cannot willingly rise to the surface, have a good look around and return to tell his friends. And the dragonfly cannot reenter the water to tell his clan about the incredible new world he has entered. As Paul put it (I Cor. 13), "Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror." Later we will see Him face to face. And that is just how it must be with the separation between this world and the next.
The next question that plagues many of us is, "Who gets in?" Or if we want to be negative about it, is anyone refused entry...and why not? We often picture Heaven as guarded by the pearly gates with Peter sitting in judgment with the keys. There are at least a thousand jokes told about this annually, and a New Yorker cartoon made its point: Is Heaven a gated community?
Well, there are lots of folks who would like to tell you "yes" and they will also give you a detailed list of entry requirements. But Jesus was very simple and very clear about this issue. There are no gates and no keys. Just say "yes" to me and you are in. The sign hung out at football games and held up behind TV interviews tells the basic truth (John 3:16) that:
God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
As the two thieves who hung on the cross with Jesus discovered, we are given a simple choice: to live in the dark or to live in the light. To the one thief who said yes, Jesus replied: "Today you will be with me in Paradise."
Well, that's enough for now. I will close with a piece from C.S. Lewis' book about Heaven and Hell, The Great Divorce. It illustrates this last point superbly:
A group from Hell has been given an excursion into Heaven and among them was a man whose vices were minimal and whose virtues were equally minimal. The first person he meets in Heaven is a murderer He is obviously upset and feels that things are mixed up. After a bitter complaint he goes on:
Look at me now...I've gone straight all my life. I don't say I was a religious man, but I done my best all my life, see? I done my best by everyone, that's the sort of chap I was. I never asked for anything that wasn't mine by rights. If I wanted a drink I paid for it and if I took my wages I done my job, see?...I'm asking for nothing but my rights.
The murderer responds saying that if it were a matter of rights, he would not be in Heaven. People get something far better than they deserve, and he urges the other man just to be happy and come along with him. But the visitor answers, "I'm not asking for anybody's bleeding charity." And he finally goes away grumbling, unable to comprehend what God offers.
It is a powerful scene which tells a hard truth, that some people just won't accept charity--the love extended by God--to freely enter His open Kingdom. Amen.
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