Father John McGinn, Rector

Saint John’s Episcopal Church

Sandwich, Massachusetts  02563

 

 

May 20, 2007                                                                                                  7 EASTER

 

A little girl, aged five, asked her mom, “Mom, when you die and go to heaven, every time you hear Gabriel blow his horn, are you going to see if it is me coming?” 

 

I want to talk for a few minutes this morning about heaven.  The modern church probably does not address the subject of heaven often enough.  In fact, there are probably more jokes about heaven than there are sermons.

 

A mother said that when her nine-year-old granddaughter addressed a letter to God at the pearly gates of heaven, it was returned by the post office.  Someone at the Postal Service had written across the envelope, “Nobody at the post office is headed that way; sorry.”

 

St. Peter is very busy in heaven, so he leaves a sign at the pearly gates, “For service, ring bell.”  Away he goes - he barely gets started, when “bing, bing” the bell rings.  He goes to the gates, and no one is there.  He goes back to work, when suddenly “bing, bing,” the bell rings again.  He rushes back to the gates, but again, no one is there.  A little annoyed, St. Peter goes back to work and suddenly, “bing, bing, bing,” the bell rings again, and St. Peter goes back again, and no one is there.  “Okay, that’s it,” St. Peter says.  “I’m going to hide and watch to see what is going on.”  So St. Peter hides, and a moment later, a little old man walks up and rings the bell, and St. Peter jumps out and yells, “Ah ha!  Are you  guy who keeps ringing the bell?”  “Yes, that’s me,” the little old man said.  “Well, why do you keep ringing the bell and going away?” St. Peter asked.  The man replies, “They keep resuscitating me.”

 

And, of course, there’s that little poem about heaven…

 

            I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered heaven’s door,

            Not by the beauty of it all, by the lights or its décor.

            But it’s the folks in heaven that made me sputter and gasp,

            The thieves, the liars, the sinners, the alcoholics, the trash.

 

            There stood the kid from seventh grade who swiped my lunch money twice,

            Next to him was my old neighbor who never said anything nice.

            Herb, who I always thought was rotting away in hell,

            Was sitting pretty on cloud nine looking incredibly well.

 

            I nudged Jesus, “What’s the deal? I would love to hear your take.”

            How did all these sinners get up here?  God must have made a mistake.

            And why is everyone so quiet, so somber?  Give me a clue.”

            “Hush child,” said He, “they’re all in shock. No one thought they’d see

            you!” 

             

Here’s an interesting item I want you to think about  for a moment:

 

Investors’ Business Daily reports a new study from Future Lab, a think tank in London, England.  According to the study more people are requesting they be buried with their cell phones.  The trend began in South Africa; it spread to Australia; it is now moving into Europe; the U.S. is next. 

 

The article doesn’t say whether people are afraid of being buried alive, or if some of them think they will be able to make calls from within heaven’s gates.  Some time back, Newsweek magazine published a cover story about heaven, and according to their research, seventy-six percent of Americans believe in heaven.  However, among those who believe, there is much disagreement over what heaven is like.  Nineteen percent believe heaven looks like a garden; thirteen percent say it looks like a city, seventeen percent don’t know.  Seventy-five percent of Americans believe that their actions on Earth determine whether they’ll go to heaven.  Most think that if they are good they will get in.  Interesting study.

 

What do you believe about heaven?  There is no wrong answer, at least none that can be given with any authority.  The pictures we are given in scripture and in literature are quite obviously symbolic.  Streets of gold, pearly gates…probably not.  These are attempts to describe the indescribable.  The human brain is not capable of grasping the idea of a spiritual realm, or even of eternity.  These are truly beyond our understanding.  All we can do is use a simile, an analogy, a metaphor.  Heaven is like that little patch of carpet where people waiting at an airline terminal are reunited with their loved ones.  Anything more is just speculation.  And yet I think we need to think about heaven from time to time.  We rarely think about eternity.  If previous generations put too much emphasis on what cynics call “pie in the sky by and by,” we have erred on the other side.

 

Note our readings for the day. 

 

In the Gospel from John, Jesus prays, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am.  To see my glory, the glory you have given because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

 

The Epistle from the Book of Revelation reads: “Blessed are those who wash their robes,  that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.“

 

Heaven is real.  And that is the first thing I want to say this morning.  It is not wishful thinking.  Heaven is real.  Life does not make sense otherwise.  Unfortunately, we see death from the other side of the street, and it is terrifying.  But our faith allows us to claim the promise of heaven.

 

What appears to be death is a portal to a life transformed.  I think that makes sense.  Life beyond the tomb is a no greater mystery than life beyond the womb.  It’s all a mystery, and surely God’s justice as well as his love demands it.  If this world is all there is, then God owes an apology to those who have suffered greatly in this world.  The only thing that makes their suffering bearable, is that on the other side, there is no suffering, no heartache, no tears.  Only eternal peace and joy.  Heaven is real.  And heaven is a gift.

 

That great theologian, Mark Twain, once put it, “Heaven goes by favor.  If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”  The Scriptures are very clear on this.  No one has earned the right to dwell for eternity with God.  All have sinned and fallen short of its glory.  Heaven does not depend upon our merit, but upon God’s love and God’s grace.  God loves us because God loves us.  God makes it possible for us to enjoy him forever.

 

There’s a wonderful book entitled, “In a Dark Wood, Journeys of Faith and Doubt.”

In this book a man has a dream that he is dead and watches himself.  He sees himself going to the foot of a mountain where he is lifted up.  He knows he is going to his  judgment and he is afraid.  He imagines a crowd of witnesses awaiting him, and thinks,
“This is it; I am going to be judged.  They are all going to be there, and they are going to see everything I have done in my life.”  But when he arrives, the only being there is Jesus,  and Jesus looks like a monk with a cowl over his head.  But there is a light behind him so the man can’t see Jesus’ face.  And all Jesus does is give him a huge hug, and Jesus says, “You silly man.  Why are you worried?  Did you think I didn’t love you?  I do love you.

Nothing matters and you’ll do just fine as you are.”  The man wakes up and nothing bothers him the way it used to.  The dream takes him back to the way he saw God in his early years.  Talking to the holy God as a friend, he is aware of God’s greatness for sure, but he’s not afraid of God anymore.

 

Heaven is not about us.  It is all about God and what God has done for us.  Hopefully,

we will live lives of loving service to our neighbors and to our world as a sign of our gratitude.  But it is God who has redeemed us, and not we ourselves.  Heaven is real. Heaven is a gift.

 

And finally,  heaven emboldens us to live purposeful lives here and now.  That wonderful author of the last century, Eugene O’Neill, brought that truth into sharp focus in a play that he wrote years ago entitled, “Lazarus Laughed.”  You remember the story of Lazarus in the Gospel of John.  He was the brother of Mary and Martha, and what we remember most about him is that Jesus raised him from the dead.  In Eugene O’Neill’s play, Lazarus makes his way back to his house.  The whole village is awe-struck.  And someone asked the question you or I would ask, “Lazarus, tell us what it is like to die.  What lies on the other side of this boundary that none of us has crossed?”  And Lazarus laughs and says, “There is no death really.  There is only life.  There is only God.  There is only incredible joy.  And death is not the way it appears from this side.  Death is not an abyss into which we go into chaos.  It is rather a portal through which we move into ever-lasting growth and everlasting life.  The grave is as empty as a doorway is empty.  It is a  portal through which we move into a greater and finer life. Therefore, there is nothing to fear.  Our great agenda is to learn to accept, to learn to trust.  We are put here to learn to love more fully.  There is only one life.  There is no death.” And Lazarus begins to laugh. 

His laughter begins to fill the whole house, and soon Lazarus goes back to his daily tasks, but something has changed.  He is no longer the anxious and fearful person he had once been.  The house where he lived becomes known as the ‘house of laughter.’ And night after night you can hear singing and dancing.  And this messages that there is nothing to fear begins to spread throughout the whole village.  And the quality of work in this home village of Bethany rises.  People begin to live more humanely.  And joy settles over the whole community.  Someone had come back from the dead saying there was finally nothing to fear. Nothing to fear.  Nothing to fear.

 

That is where we are today.  That is the good news of this sermon.  Nothing to fear.  How liberating that is!  We can live bold and triumphant and purpose-filled lives!  We can live in anticipation of that day when we too shall pass through the portal that leads to eternal life.

 

In the meantime, we can seek to love as Jesus loves us.  How much did Jesus love us?  So much that he asked God that we might be where he is and enjoy his glory forever.

 

Amen

 

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