Resurrection: To Die For

I love the new pope, alone of all popes I have watched, Francis could be the Lord’s first step toward Christian reconciliation and unity in our time. He’s a man, a Jesuit, a real man, nothing phony and he kisses up to nobody including pompous tradition. I loved the picture this week of the pope clowning around wearing a red nose with a newlywed couple, the bride also wearing a red clown nose; that couple are in volunteer ministry that brings clown therapy to sick children. And I loved the television coverage of the little boy who wandered up on stage during the pope’s sermon, hugged Francis around the legs, was patted on the head, then climbed up in the pope’s chair and sat there while Francis spoke to the crowd. ... forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.

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In this morning’s gospel Jesus gives us an opportunity to ask what Christianity teaches about the afterlife, resurrection after death, indeed, the kingdom of Heaven. To the question “Are you saved?” my father, a cradle Episcopalian though of an era far different to our postmodern church, liked to say “We don’t have a religion to die by, we have a religion to live by.” Of all the things I heard my father say in the fifty-seven years I knew him, I liked that best of all: We don’t have a religion to die by, we have a religion to live by. I like that: it keeps me mindful that to worry about heaven or hell or oblivion, about whether I qualify, whether I’ll get in, is to sit myself down in God’s chair, behind God’s desk and make God’s decisions, mind God’s business. Of course it is our business, because it’s about each of us personally, but it’s about us in a way that God put us here as God’s stewards to look after God’s creation, and we get to make the little decisions, name the animals and stuff, but God did not appoint us to sit in God’s chair behind God’s desk. There are only Three Persons around that table, and we are not one of them.

The Sadducees who asked Jesus the question about the afterlife may have been sarcastic, or they may have been trying to trick him; or they have been serious, you know, the question about the resurrection? Have you noticed what our church teaches about that, it’s easy to discover, and we are not Sadducees. The place to find out what the Episcopal Church teaches is not to go to the library stacks, and it’s not to go online. The best way to find out what we teach about resurrection to life after death is go to a funeral and pay attention to what we do and say and sing and pray at a funeral -- because lex orandi lex credendi, our theology is in our liturgy. So, go to a funeral. Or, open The Book of Common Prayer and turn to the liturgy for Burial of the Dead.

What are some possibilities for resurrection and afterlife?

One of course is oblivion, that we have no more awareness in life after this than we had in life before this, because there wasn’t.

Another possibility, having in mind Saint Paul, is that we “sleep in Jesus” (to use Paul’s metaphor) “sleep in Jesus ‘til the trumpet sounds” (Paul’s metaphor) and the dead are raised, and dead and living stand before God in judgment. Some theologians and preachers, not liking the starkness of that, speculate, conjecture that while our dead bodies “sleep in Jesus,” our souls stand around the throne of God praising God night and day. That’s frantic grasping, gasping for breath, but whatever. In a few minutes we will stand and say in our Creed: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead” and “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”

Paul did not expect to “sleep in Jesus” very long, he thought the Second Coming was imminent and he would live into it, but we’re waiting two hundred decades now and still no sign, so it could be a while yet. “Sleeping in Jesus” to my mind is like being under that anesthesia for open heart surgery at Cleveland Clinic: I was totally oblivious; six hours seemed like a two minute nap, and I would not have known the difference if it had been a hundred billion years.

But that’s not my idea of Heaven.

So, I’m going to sit in God’s chair for a moment, like the little boy who climbed up on stage and sat in the pope’s chair. And I’ll decide what I would do, about heaven, how I would create it.

First, I would never put those trees in the middle of the Garden to tempt Adam, that’s what got us into this mess in the first place. Second, if the tree was already growing there, I never would have pointed it out to Adam, “Now you can eat the fruit of any tree but not that one -- see that most beautiful tree, in the center of the garden, the one with the luscious, golden sweet-smelling fruit? do not eat that fruit.” I would not put serpents in the Garden either (although Eve seems to have liked the snake) but it caused a lot of trouble coming between the woman and her husband and God.

If I were to provide an afterlife for Adam, heaven for Adam and Eve, I would have had them slip into heaven immediately as they died here from this earthly life.

That’s really what most of us believe anyway, isn’t it, not what Paul believed about sleeping in Jesus ‘til the trumpet sounds at the end of time; we believe we die into the everlasting arms of God, go straight to the beauty, wonders and love of heaven. And lex orandi lex credendi, that’s what our Church teaches liturgically. When I’m standing with someone at bedside as they die, I pray from the PrayerBook, “Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world; In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created you; In the Name of God the Son, Jesus Christ who redeemed you; In the Name of God the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you. May your rest be this day in peace, and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God.” That’s our theology, and there’s nothing ambiguous about it: your dwelling place this day ... in the Paradise of God.

Just as Jesus said to the thief who was crucified with him, (Luke 23:43) “Truly I tell you: today you will be with me in paradise.” Nothing ambiguous about that. You see? We’re standing on the promises of God.

Furthermore, as we commend our beloved dead to God we pray for ourselves, “Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that we may have strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of a reasonable and holy hope, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those we love.” That’s the theology of our church, prima facie because we pray it. Blessed hope, standing on Godly promise: today you will be with me in paradise; eternal life with those we love.

I do not need to sit in God’s chair to find that, it’s been there for us all along. Salvation and Resurrection: it’s all there if you look for it.

Please stand as we say our Creed together.

Sermon 20131110. Pr27C. Luke 20:27-28. HNEC, PC, FL. The Rev. Tom Weller