“Heaven or Hell, Are Those the Only Choices?” It’s Not About the Here After...It’s About the Here and Now.

Is heaven the goal of the Christian life? No, not really.  The popular understanding of the goal of the Christian life is that once you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior that’s it, nothing else is required or expected except maybe getting others to do the same.  But this understanding is not right, if you comprehend Jesus and his way you will also understand that the goal of Christianity isn’t to stay out of hell and go to heaven.  The goal of Christianity is to transform lives and the world.

This heaven-and-hell framework has been the way Christianity has been seen, known and understood for a long time now.  Sometime after Constantine called the bishops together and asked them to formula a unifying doctrine for Christianity, a creed that summarized the faith so that everyone knew what it meant to be a Christian and how to know if someone wasn’t Christian, the world has been divided into “us” and “them.” And naturally once you have defined who is acceptable and who isn’t, you can begin to draw up a world view that separates people into two groups and a theology that makes your group the better one.  What this means is that if you are “us” then you get to go to heaven.  But if you are “them” then you go to hell and the only way to keep from ending up in hell is to believe as the “us” group believes.

Add to this a desire by those in power to formula a theology that gave support and credence to the way society was ordered – a theology that said that this life isn’t what matters; it’s the life to come.  In fact, this life will most likely be filled with suffering and pain and this is because of your sin and the sin of your ancestors and of Adam and Eve.  And the best you can hope for is that when you die you will be found faithful and granted entrance into heaven where suffering and pain are no more.  The best way to live faithfully is to believe that Jesus’ death was a payment for your sins, believe the creed, accept your lot in life and place your hope in God’s grace so that you can receive your eternal reward.  And if you want to guarantee a favorable report upon your death you convince someone else of this reality you have accepted so that they can be saved too.  The goal of Christianity as presented in this way is heaven and saving souls.

Jesus didn’t have a lot to say about any of this.  In fact Jesus didn’t seem too worried about heaven and hell and the ultimate destination of one’s eternal soul.  Jesus was far more interested in getting people to recognize that the religious and political authorities were using violence and injustice to try and subjugate the people and keep them from finding the truth that is God’s desire for peace and justice for all people.  Jesus talked a lot about the kingdom but not as a final resting place for a saved soul.  He was talking about a political and spiritual reality that transcended the present reality.  He was trying to tell about God’s justice, God’s economy, God household and how things are to work in God’s creation.  Jesus was about the here and now, bringing justice here and bringing peace now.  We are commanded to love one another not save each other’s souls.  We are commanded to love one another not to believe a certain set of stipulations so that at some final judgment we can be found acceptable.  And in the every few places where Jesus does seem to talk about a final judgment, the measuring stick isn’t a creed or belief system it is what you have done for the least and the lost that counts you among those who are blessed.

The Christian life is one of love and service not of saving souls.  The church has to figure out how to reclaim our original calling.  We have to ask ourselves, how do we become a people on the way instead of a waiting area for the heavenly train?  You see, as I have been saying now for eleven weeks, faithful living isn’t about gaining entrance into heaven.  It’s not about earning a crown or somehow surviving the tests to make it to the sweet reward.  Faithful living is working for peace and justice, it is loving others and struggling to transform the world into the place God dreams it can be.  The goal of faith is a transformed life and world; right here and right now.

The Christianity that professes the goal of faith as being heaven and saving souls is not the Christianity that fits with Jesus’ life, teachings and the early church that grew from his original band of followers.  Time and again the “us” and ‘them” division was trumped by love and acceptance.  Jesus didn’t advocate it, Paul wrote against it, and Peter had visions that told him to forget it.  Being on the way with Jesus isn’t traveling to a place and time in the future we call heaven.  Being on the way with Jesus is living life as Jesus lived it.  It is letting love flavor all you are and do.  It is serving others.  It is working to end oppression and injustice.  It is living God’s commonwealth here and now.  We who claim to believe in Jesus are to be passionate about the here and now and not about some heaven light years away.  The community of faith that claims to follow Jesus on the way is a community that is heavily invested in the here and now and has no time to dwell on heaven and hell and ultimate rewards.  If you follow Jesus you realize that there really isn’t an “us” or a “them.”  We are just “we,” all of us together; the family of God.

I believe in God’s grace.  I know that God wishes only the best for me, you and every single person on this planet.  I believe in God’s love.  I know that whatever comes after I take my last breath, when we take our last breathes, will be something that every person knows.  There isn’t a place called heaven.  There isn’t a place called hell.  There isn’t a final division of humanity into “us” and “them.” 

What there is is a world that needs us.  A world filled with people who are victims of injustice and oppression.  People who have been sold a bill of goods that is so much smoke and mirrors.  A world filled with people who are desperate for a better life, here and now.  People who need other people to love them, assist them, advocate for them and provide opportunities for them that will help them have a better life here and now.  What people don’t need is someone handing them a Bible, telling them to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and to keep on believing and earning for themselves a get into heaven free card they can use when they die.  If we are living faithfully they will know God, they will know a living Christ, they will find hope, and they will begin to find their way to God.  If we love and service, work for peace and justice, advocate and provide opportunity heaven will come, God’s commonwealth will be realized.

The goal of faithful living is partnering with God for the transformation of the world.  The goal of Christianity is loving and serving, transforming lives and the world.  Forget about heaven, don’t worry about hell, don’t sweat saving someone’s soul.  Love you neighbor, help the least and the lost, be the best person you can be, love God and everything will be ok.  

“Jesus Lives?” How do you understand the resurrection in the post-modern world?

If the body of Jesus, the body that was killed on the cross, didn't come back to life then what does it mean to say “Jesus lives?”  Jesus lives! We proclaim but how?  Is he a zombie, reanimated corpse, ghost, or what?  How can we make sense of the reality that Jesus lives?  For centuries it has been assumed that to say “Jesus lives” means that he came back to life; that his body that was nailed to the cross and put in the tomb was brought back to life, reanimated in some way.  That the laws of nature and science were suspended or whatever and Jesus was returned to life.  This doesn’t make sense to the thoughtful thinking post-modern person nor does it fit with our understanding of how life and creation work.  So how can we make sense of it?

I have a confession to make.  I don’t believe in the resurrection.  Now that I have your attention let me explain.  I don’t believe that something happened outside the natural laws of our universe.  I cannot suspend these laws and I cannot believe in something that causes me to do that.  What I don’t believe in is the resurrection as a literal, factual event in time and space.  I do believe in the resurrection however.

OK, I hear you screaming at me so let me try and tell you what I think, feel and believe about the resurrection.  I have said before that I don’t know exactly what happened that first Easter but a bunch of people who were fearing for the lives and sure that the Imperial and religious authorities would be dragging them off for the next execution all of a sudden started to speak, heal and serve in Jesus’ name.  They openly professed Jesus as Savior, Lord and Son of God – all titles reserved for the emperor.  I do know that whatever happened to them they had an encounter with the holy that they could only comprehend by speaking of it as an experience of the risen Christ.

If you have ever had such an experience you know what it is like to try and grasp what you've seen, heard, felt and know.  You know that words and images just don’t do enough to give a full and complete testimony to what has arisen.  I am not willing to believe that somehow Jesus’ corpse was reanimated, that his dead body was somehow jump-started so that he returned to living as you and I live.  But I can still believe in the resurrection as a reality.

Now I know some will say that with God all things are possible, even the suspending of natural laws and the reanimation of a dead body.  I just don’t believe that this is the way it works.  I don’t think God created a universe that runs by natural laws only to capriciously suspend them when it works to further God’s agenda.  If this were the case wouldn't it happen more often?  I mean when really bad things are happening, things that obviously go against everything we know of God’s desire for humankind and creation, why it is that God doesn't step in then.  The result would be the same as with the resurrection; people would notice, believers would be empowered, God’s mastery of the universe would be displayed, and the love and grace of God would be made known.  Look to the Biblical story of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness to find some insight into how Jesus – an God because we know God by knowing Jesus – feels about the effectiveness of suspending natural laws in order to bring about the transformation of creation.  Spoiler alert: Jesus knows that suspending natural laws will not work to bring about the transformation God seeks in us and in creation.

You see, I believe that God wants partners, men and women who have accepted their adoption into the family God and covenanted with God to work to transform the world using justice and peace, non-violence and love.  Therefore, the gift of free will is critical in this discussion.  Free will does not negate miracle.  I believe in miracles, those events and moments when the expected and normal are transcended and the holy breaks in or breaks out or is noticed.  One example, I don’t belief in faith healing but I do believe faith can heal.  So if we have free will how can we believe that God will step into our lives in such a way as the reanimation of Jesus’ corpse to violate this fundamental gift?  So what are we left with then?  We’re left with mystery.

If you want one thing that unsets and confuses the modern mind it is mystery.  It is all around us and it has been with us since we climbed out of the seas.  Why is it that natural laws don’t seem to rule in the smallest and largest ends of the spectrum of our universe?  Why is it that seemingly random things can add up to something special (e.g. love)?  How can two people watch the same thing and come away from it with very different observations and interpretations?  How is it that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts when it comes to humans working together?  And how is it that Jesus who died is also alive?  Mysteries all and yet they are part of the fabric of our lives.

The resurrection of Jesus is a mystery.  It is not meant to be explained in scientific terms.  It isn’t to be seen as a magical divine intervention that suspends the natural order.  It’s not some test of faith where to be a true believer you have to just have faith that it is true.  The resurrection is true because I know it is in my heart and soul.  It is true because I have experienced the in-breaking of the holy in my life like a candle in the pitch black darkness, a campfire’s warmth on a cool beach night.  It’s true because those I love, respect, learn from and who are people of authenticity have shared how it is true for them.  The resurrection is a mystery that is not meant to be explained.  It is a mystery that just is and we are to learn to live with these mysteries.  When we can, life takes on a much deeper, broader and more spiritual tone and Christ lives.

The church is the embodiment of Jesus and in a mystical and spiritual way Jesus is alive in we who claim to live for him.  We are the candle, the campfire.  You, I, we are the body of Christ – Jesus lives because we bring his essence to life in our lives.  People will know the risen Christ by knowing us, the people who have known him.  Jesus lives whenever love is shares.  Jesus Lives whenever justice is done.  Jesus lives whenever the poor and powerless are cared for.  Jesus lives whenever people of faith proclaim him alive in their lives and service.  Jesus lives when we are the light that dispels the darkness of the world.  Jesus lives!  When you love and work for Justice Jesus lives!  When this happens we can loudly and honestly proclaim with deep sincerity “CHRIST IS RISEN!”