Unity Sermon: Beauty

It's been a couple of years now, and I don't believe I've heard a single sermon on the subject of Heaven. So all of that changes here and now, because Heaven, indeed, is the subject of this one.

And what I have to say about Heaven is this: This is Heaven.

That really is pretty much all I have to say, but since I've only been talking for about 30 seconds now, and I think that by law I'm required to speak for at least 15 minutes, perhaps I'd better elaborate some.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend called me up and asked me to go out for lunch because wanted to talk. She didn't say what she wanted to talk about, but when we finally did get together, she finally divulged what she was wrestling with. And it was pretty basic: she asked me, "What happens when we die?"

Now until recently the best answer I knew to this kind of question is: "I don't know." But people don't like to hear that sort of thing from ministers, and so what I usually would do is tell people that it is a much more complex question than they think, and what exactly were they after? I could talk about how the various religions of the world handle the problem; I could tell them about the mythology of the Christian tradition, or I could tell them my own personal theories which don't really amount to a pile of beans.

The incident caused me to think deeply about the question, and it's real or imagined importance in our lives. A great deal of emphasis has been placed in the Christian tradition of the afterlife and the destination of our eternal souls. That's especially true in the Protestant tradition and even more-so in the evangelical tradition in which I was raised.

In fact an entirely inordinate amount of emphasis has been placed there given that the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are not clear on exactly what the afterlife is going to be like. We find quite a few passages which use rather poetic language or elaborate metaphors to try to relate the splendor that is the presence of God. But human language simply is not up to that challenge.

Now we are seeing a dim reflection, as in a flawed mirror, and the knowledge we have now is incomplete.

The truth is that we simply cannot know exactly what will happen when our time here is over. There are any number of theories and beliefs about the next realm of existence and if one particular idea sparks your imagination or clinging to that idea is of comfort in times when a loved one passes away, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Ultimately, though all ideas about Heaven are in fact speculations, based on interpretations of various passages of scripture, and it is important to realize that theses ideas about heaven are in fact speculations.

These speculations about the afterlife have been used in the Christian tradition in ways which have come to lead some not closer, but farther away from the glory of what I believe Jesus truly meant by the "kingdom of heaven".

The idea of a new life in new and perfect bodies, where there are no more tears or heart aches, when all of the sufferings of this life can be traded in for riches and glory, a time when death will never again separate us from those we love - a place where hunger and sickness are unknown: this concept of heaven is very seductive, and has been very influential on modern Christianity.

I can think of dozens of hymns and choruses I sang in church as a child and teenager that deal solely with leaving behind the hardships of this life and going on to the glory of heaven:

By and by , when the morning comes,
when the saints of God are gathered home,
We will tell the story of how we've overcome
And we'll understand it better by and by,

When I get to heaven gonna walk with Jesus
When I get to heaven gonna see his face
When I get to heaven gonna talk with Jesus
Saved by his wonderful grace

When we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be

When the roll is called up yonder I'll be there

The list goes on and on, and you know many of these songs come from a time when life was hard. Some are spirituals sung by those who suffered the
horrors of slavery there entire lives, those whose only hope of escape was death. They needed something better to look forward to.

Many others, though they had never been enslaved, also suffered and struggled every day of their lives just to provide a barely adequate income for their children only to lose those children to common childhood diseases because proper medical care was not available or could not be afforded.
They needed something better to look forward to.

My life has not been that desperate. And I would venture to say that yours have not either. Of course we still suffer personal losses and we virtually all have friends or family members who suffer from diseases which modern medicine cannot yet treat. But we live in an age of hope. Every day new advances are made in the treatments of many forms of cancer, and diseases which a hundred years ago meant certain death have been all but wiped out.

The concept of a heaven where all the misfortunes of life will be eliminated is, to put it bluntly, no longer relevant. In fact it can actually be distracting from the very important work of learning to live the abundant life that God has promised us.

"I don't really have to try to become a better person because I'm going to die and go to heaven someday and then I'll be perfect."

"We don't really have to worry about recycling or taking care of the Earth or using her resources wisely because someday the Earth will pass away and we'll all be in heaven."

"I don't really have to try to be reconciled to my parents or my children because we'll be together in Heaven forever and we'll never fight again. I know that because there's no crying in heaven."

These may sound like rather silly, exaggerated examples, but I have heard
well meaning, otherwise intelligent people say these very things

A more common way the concept of Heaven is abused is as a motivational aid. Heaven is held out before us like a carrot on the end of a stick.

" If you were to die tonight, can you be certain that you would go to Heaven?"

That's a question I heard many times growing up in a staunchly evangelical church.

And of course the implied question is "can you be sure you won't go to Hell?"

It's positive and negative reinforcement. Heaven is the carrot out front and Hell is the whip behind.

If that kind of understanding is the basis of a conversion experience, I'm afraid I'd have to say that that person doesn't want to be a Christian, they just want fire insurance. Then once they've got their insurance Heaven is used as motivation for behaving the way one ought to out of love.

This conception of Heaven as a reward for calling oneself a Christian and doing good things then to " store up treasures " there is not only shallow, it's self-defeating.

As the apostle Paul put it in the opening verses of the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians:

IF I SPEAK WITH THE TONGUES OF ANGELS AND MEN , BUT HAVE NOT LOVE , I AM ONLY A RESOUNDING GONG OR A CLANGING CYMBAL

IF I HAVE THE GIFT OF PROPHECY AND CAN FATHOM ALL MYSTERIES AND ALL KNOWLEDGE, AND IF I HAVE FAITH THAT CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, I AM NOTHING.

IF I GIVE ALL I POSSESS TO THE POOR AND SURRENDER MY BODY TO THE FLAMES, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE I GAIN NOTHING.

And as Mahatma Gandhi put it" All good deeds that are prompted by hope of happiness in the next world cease to be moral"

If the only reason I do good deeds is impress God and earn my brownie points in Heaven, I might as well not do them. Because God is not impressed with selfish motives in any way shape or form. Even if I delay gratification until I get to Heaven.

You see, being a religious person is not about going to heaven when you die.
Being a religious person is about how you live the life you've been given.

Did Jesus the Christ live his life just in eager anticipation of the day that life would end? Hardly!

Jesus' focus was in the present, on those around him, tending to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the downtrodden and dispised, of the outcasts, of both the oppressed and the oppressor.

If I have been given the gift of eternal life, that eternal life does not start the day I die. It started the day I received the gift.

And Heaven is not just some place where all the righteous finally get the good things they deserve and get to hang out with God forever. Heaven is the domain of God, where the desires of God are made manifest.

The desire of God is that we love one another, and that we love ourselves.
The desire of God is that we care for those who cannot care for themselves.
The desire of God is that justice be done and that the oppressed be lifted up.
The desire of God is Heaven, and the work of Christians is to make Heaven happen here and now.

Everything we do in our lives that does not contribute to the realization of Heaven on Earth will indeed amount to nothing.

Only those things we do out of faith, hope and love will endure.

And the promise of Christ is not for some place of eternal ease and leisure. The promise of Christ is that the will of God will be done on Earth, right here, right now. The hope that we can, we must work toward that end.

And faith, the faith we have in Christ is demonstrated when we act on that promise. When we take unpopular stands on issues of conscience, on issues of justice. When we ease the sufferings of another, When we befriend the friendless.

And love, Love is patient, Love is kind, Love does not become envious when others succeed, Love does not boast when we succeed. Love is deeply respectful, Love is not motivated by personal rewards. Love knows true peace. Love forgives. Love does not delight in evil. Love rejoices in the truth. Love always protects . Love always trusts. Love always hopes. Love always perseveres.

As St. Therese of Lisoux said, "All the way to Heaven is Heaven."

Have you noticed? This is the abundant life. This is Heaven. This is the promise of God.

Since my conversation with my friend, I have come to a new answer to her question. The next time someone asks me "What happens when we die?" My response will be, "Is there enough beauty in your life?"

Because if there is enough beauty, then there is ENOUGH, and such questions of the sweet bye-and-bye become irrelevent. The Jews do not spend much time wondering about the afterlife--their attitude is that we should remain faithful in this life, and the next will take care of itself. How do we remain faithful? We love, we seek peace, we do justice, and we NOTICE. We notice the beauty that positively assaults us on all sides. We wake up to the sublimnity of the everyday. We practice mindfulness to see the world as it really is. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.