“Afterlife?” based on Job 14 and Mark 12:18-27

October 13, 2019February 11, 2020
by Sara Baron

I want to start today by asking
for your trust – particularly from those who are here particularly
for the baptism. I do know that the first hymn and the scriptures
have been an odd match for a baptismal Sunday so far, and it is going
to get worse before it gets better, but it IS going to get better, I
promise.

The question of “what happens
after we die” is relevant to us for two separate reasons. One
reason is entirely personal: we want to know if we are simply mortal
and if we cease to exist when we die. The other may be just as
personal, in a different way: we want to know if the connects we
have to those who have died before us are still alive or if they only
feel that way.

Both of these are good reasons
to want to know, but nevertheless, we don’t know what happens after
death. And our believes about it end up being profoundly personal.
If we are looking at afterlife through the lens of the Christian
Tradition, there are three big questions people to disagree over:

Does afterlife exist?
If there is an afterlife, do
both heaven and hell exist, or just heaven?
If both heaven and hell exist,
how are people sorted between them?

While many people have deep
conviction about their answers to these questions, and believe their
answers to be the “normal” ones, the truth is that Christians
have disagreed about this for about as long as there have been
Christians.

For
centuries, Christianity has taught about afterlife and the existence
of heaven and hell, all while arguing about the means of sorting
people into each. Yet, there is also a large group of Biblical
Scholars who think that we’ve gotten those assumptions wrong. They
say that 1^st
century Jews, Jesus, and the earliest Christians did not believe in
heaven and hell the way we do. At best, heaven and hell were
temporary resting places while waiting for bodily resurrection that
would come along with the Kindom of God on earth.¹
More commonly, people believed that there was nothing until the
moment of universal bodily resurrection, which they expected to come
within the first generation after Jesus. For some others the
perspective of Job 14 was accurate: humans die but at least God
doesn’t.

For
the most part, I think afterlife is an aside to Christianity. The
goal is to build the kindom on earth, not in heaven. However, the
reality of deaths of those we love and the looming reality of our own
deaths don’t let us go. We really want to know, and for many people,
what they believe about afterlife profoundly connects to how they
understand God.

Now,
this is the fifth and final sermon in a sermon series
comparing the salient points of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, the
tradition of the Christian Right, and what I’ve been calling
“Jesus-followers”. (That final group is us.) Moralistic
Therapeutic Deism was discovered through sociological research on the
belief system on teenagers, and we have reason to believe it is the
default belief system of most Americans. Unfortunately, as we’ve
found, its a rather problematic belief system, at least in my
opinion. It consists of 5 intersecting assumptions:

“A
god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human
life on earth.”
“God
wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in
the Bible and by most world religions.”
“The
central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”
“God
does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when
God is needed to resolve a problem.”
“Good
people go to heaven when they die.”

Today we are looking at the 5^th
and final point, “Good people go to heaven when they die.”

Of course, if you asked most
people what Christians think, that would be a key part of the answer,
“good people go to heaven when they die,” but – of course – our
tradition is far more complicated than is generally known.

Historically,
I think the concepts of heaven and hell came into clarity in the 3^rd
or 4^th
century, as that’s when the fights over who went where really picked
up. So let’s look at our three questions:

Does afterlife exist?

Christians
of good faith disagree about this one. Some, including some in this
community, say, “no. This life is all there is, so let’s make the
best of it instead of pretending there is more.” Others, including
some in this community, say, “I think so. I’ve had some
experiences that lead me to that conclusion and/or it just feels
right.” Still others simply aren’t sure. Because the “word on
the street” about Christianity so profoundly conflates belief in
God with belief in afterlife, I feel the need to say this explicit:
all of these are faithful statements that are congruent with knowing
a loving God through Jesus.

So, the second question, which
presumes an answer of “yes” to the first one about afterlife
existing. The second question is:

2. If there is an afterlife,
do both heaven and hell exist, or just heaven?

I’ll admit that I nuanced this
one to lead to a particular answer. While I’m not always confident
about afterlife (and yet sometimes I am, it is a confusing place
inside my head), I never think there is a hell. It just doesn’t make
the tiniest bit of sense to me that over the long run anything but
God’s grace could win out. I read one time a suggestion that people
continue to have free will after death, and so if heaven is unity
with God, people can take AS LONG AS THEY WANT to get there, but in
the end, they will because grace wins. Put another way, I simply
don’t believe in a God of eternal punishment, it is incomprehensible
to me. That said, I think most modern Christians believe in a heaven
and a hell, and most of them think it is heresy not to. (oh. Well.)

I
think that for most people who believe that “good people go to
heaven when they die” and the unspoken but obvious corollary “bad
people go to hell when they die” there is a desire to believe that
there is fundamental justice in the world and that bad things are
punished and good things are celebrated and even if we don’t see
evidence of that on earth, it will get balanced out later. I can
understand a desire to believe that!

Now, for me the third question
is null and void, but since Christianity has spent the past 1600-1700
years fighting over it, I guess we should take a moment to hear the
arguments. 😉

3. If both heaven and hell
exist, how are people sorted between them?

Possible answers:

In order to get into heaven you
have to BELIEVE the right things ( “Justification by FAITH.”)
This is the primary perspective of the Christian Right, although it
intersects some with the next idea.
In order to get into heaven
you have do DO the right things. For many of those Christians there
is a list of good things and a list of bad things to guide behavior.
( “Justification by WORKS” or “Works Righteousness.”)
In order to get into heaven one
must be baptized. This is often even subconscious now. This is one
of the strongest arguments for infant baptism. It is also one of
the strongest arguments against it. Some in this mindset will claim
that only baptism in their PARTICULAR part of Christianity will
matter. However, when Christianity was much younger, this often
resulted in people refusing to be baptized until the very last
moment. (I think, in fact, this is the historical basis for the
Catholic ritual of last rites.) They thought that once baptized all
their sins were forgiven, and if it was done late enough they
wouldn’t have time to sin. I’m not kidding. This was very common
practice.
In
order to get into heaven we need God’s grace, and God’s grace given
to us results in our ability to have faith. (“Justification by
grace alone though faith.”) UMC option
Thus it is not what we do or do not do; nor what we believe or do
not believe that results in our welcome into heaven. It is simply
God’s nature. This does raise a rather large question about those
who do not believe in God though.

As
a reminder of how complicated all of this is, I do not think that
our Gospel lesson supports or disproves any of the schools of
thought. Rather, it urges humility. The Sadducees were trying to
trick up Jesus, and they brought him a tricky question in order to do
it. The question supported their belief about what happens when
we die, but Jesus’ answer did not let them trip him up. He says,
““Is
not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the
scriptures nor the power of God? For
when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being
raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about
the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the
living; you are quite wrong.”

This
passage keeps me humble. I don’t know what it means, I don’t know
what heaven is like,or if it exists, and that’s OK. Many of us are
not same worldview as moralistic therapeutic deism who say “good
people go to heaven when they die” or the Christian-Right who say
that and have clarity over who counts as “good.” Many of us
simply don’t know what happens after death.

I
think that at the core, the questions of if afterlife exists or not
and whether there is cosmic justice are really questions about
existential anxiety. That is, as beings who are conscious and who
know we are mortal, we struggle with the reality that someday we
won’t be (at least in this form) anymore.

I
think that our shared, all the way back to Jesus, Christian Tradition
offers Jesus-followers two ways we can respond to existential anxiety
and the claims of the other traditions. If we are about continuing
the work of Jesus – about building the kindom and inviting others
to be partners with us in building the kindom – then our work does
not end with our deaths any more than Jesus’ did. This is not same
as individual afterlife, but is really powerful in a different way.
Certainly the ways that each of us work towards the kindom is unique,
but the end goal is shared, and after we are gone others will be
following up on our work with theirs … until the kindom comes.

The
other piece of our response to existential anxiety is simply trusting
in God. Whether or not we cease to exist at the end of our lives,
God and God’s memory will still hold our lives, our loves, our
actions, our thoughts, and our feelings. And, whatever is on the
other side of the proverbial curtain – God IS and God is GOOD and
what will be is possible to trust in.

And
that brings us full circle to say, that while I know it is awful to
acknowledge death while celebrating a new life, I am happy to say
that the kindom building and the goodness of God will outlast even the life of the baby baptized today life and thanks be to God for that! Amen

(http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/april/13.36.html?paging=off)

Sermons

Untitled

September 8, 2019February 15, 2020
by Sara Baron

We’re
currently looking at 3 different worldviews: Moralistic Therapeutic
Deism, the Christian-Right, and (for lack of language that is better)
“Jesus-Following.” “Moralistic
Therapeutic Deism” was identified by sociologist through a large
research project with US teens, and is the actual belief system of
most teens, despite any religious tradition they claim. Furthermore,
as teens are most heavily influenced by their parents (No! Really!)
when it comes to faith, we have reason to believe that a rather large
segment of the population actually believes “Moralistic Therapeutic
Deism.” So, we are looking at it, and finding where it does and
doesn’t match our actual faith tradition.

“Moralistic
Therapeutic Deism” has 5 salient points:

“A
god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human
life on earth.”
“God
wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in
the Bible and by most world religions.”
“The
central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”
“God
does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when
God is needed to resolve a problem.”
“Good people go to
heaven when they die.”

This
week we are going to take a closer look at the second of the them:

“God
wants people to be good, nice, and fair to
each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.”

Unlike
last week, where I directly contrasted Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
with the perspective of the Christian-Right and then both with
Jesus-following, in this case I think Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
and the Christian-Right largely overlap. I don’t see a noticeable
difference, other than perhaps in the degree of openness to other
faith traditions.

The
difference from both is in how Jesus-followers see our tradition,
including in our Micah passage today. That passage claims that what
God wants is for us “to
do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

For
some people, what Micah says and “be good and nice” may look
similar at the outset. That’s what makes it so dangerous!

Now,
obviously, I take no issue with the last bit, where the Bible is
conflated with other faiths. When it comes to the basic moral
principles of the world’s religions, there is enough agreement to
speak in such terms. The issue, rather, is what a moral life looks
like!

The
first statement is that God wants people to be “good.” That’s
not particularly controversial at this point, but it is circular
logic! What does it mean to be good? Isn’t this a statement about
what being good means? Then simply saying, “being good is being
good” doesn’t help us figure things out much does it? That means
we have to decide from the next two words what this goodness looks
like.

This
is where we get “nice.” “God wants people to be nice.” In
fact, if you take out some words, this statement could read, “God
wants people to be nice, as taught in the Bible.”

Here
is the problem. It doesn’t. The Bible doesn’t tell people to be
nice.

Actually,
the Bible does not include the word NICE. And I mean AT ALL. Its
not there. It doesn’t show up. And I don’t think its an accident or
a mistranslation. I think its not there ON PURPOSE. What is nice
anyway? We use the word so much that we easily lose its meaning.
Apple dictionary defines it this way: “Nice”
pleasant;
agreeable; satisfactory.” I think the most important part of that
definition is “agreeable.” The word “nice” has very serious
connotations of “don’t rock the boat!” A nice person doesn’t
argue, doesn’t disagree, doesn’t tell you when you’re wrong, doesn’t
tell you when you are harming another person. A nice person doesn’t
name injustice, doesn’t upset the status quo, doesn’t willingly
engage in conflict. A nice person is always pleasant, even when
things are profoundly wrong. To be NICE is to take the path of least
resistance.

Our
Micah passage says that God wants us to do justice, to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with God. For clarity’s sake, I offer 3
different translations of this verse for you:

NRSV:
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;  and what does the
Lord require of you  but to do justice, and to love kindness, 
and to walk humbly with your God?

NIV:
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD
require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly
with your God.

Message:
But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God
is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair
and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously – take God seriously.

Now,
there is something in there about loving kindness or showing mercy.
They aren’t the same thing as “be nice.” Now, the definition of
kindness, “the
quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate”,
helps, but I think its in the definition of mercy that we really see
the difference. Mercy is compassion
or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to
punish or harm. WHOA. That’s so not the same thing as agreeable.
Its so much STRONGER!

Jesus
says that the greatest commandments are to Love the Lord Your God
with all you heart, all your soul, and all your mind – and to love
your neighbor as yourself. In fact he suggests they aren’t so
different. This Micah passage is another way of saying it. To
love mercy is to love your neighbor as yourself, ESPECIALLY when you
have the power and reason to do otherwise.

Now
its time to go back to the rest of Micah’s claim. To do justly, to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. I will admit that its best
the Moralistic Therapetic Deism’s claim that God wants us to be
“fair” is entirely true, and I suspect that its a similar
articulation as the theme of Justice throughout the Bible. It seems
clear, Biblically speaking, that God is OBSESSED with justice. There
are all sorts of commandments that have to do with making sure that
the justice system is fair – and that it doesn’t benefit the rich
more than the poor, men more than women, natural citizens more than
outsiders. There
is a deep awareness that left to its own devices, a society will bend
justice toward power so that the powerful will constantly become more
powerful and the powerless more powerless. God’s commandments are
meant to prevent this!

Justice,
and judgement, and the judicial system even are all there to make
sure that things are FAIR for people no matter who they are. You
might remember the story of the prophet Nathan telling a sob story to
King David … the story is that a very very wealthy man with many
herds noticed that his very poor neighbor had a very nice lamb, and
so, he stole it! David’s was so angry at this rich man, and Nathan
pointed out to him that HE was the wealthy man in the story. The
prophets were the ones making sure that people didn’t forget about
justice!

Justice
often demands the opposite of niceness. While niceness is the
path of least resistance, justice often requires being part of active
resistence. The demands of justice in the world may require
upsetting the social order, upsetting other people, upsetting the
institutions of power and privilege. Those fighting for women’s
rights were told they weren’t being NICE. Those fighting to end
slavery weren’t NICE. Those fighting to end segregation weren’t
NICE. But…. they were just, and they were merciful.

In
the best case scenario, if “fairness” is given all the power and
energy that it deserves, then YES, God does want us to be fair, but
note that it isn’t some fairness that has mostly to do with trivial
matters – it is a fairness that has to do with everyone having a
fair opportunity to LIVE and THRIVE. That’s where the Leviticus
passage comes in. It does, of course, include “love your neighbor
as yourself” but it seems to also be pretty explicit about what
that looks like. In this passage, loving your neighbor as yourself
means leaving a means of livelihood for the poor rather than
enriching yourself. In this passage, loving your neighbor as
yourself means telling the truth in order to produce fairness and
justice. This passage worries about the disempowered, and tells
those who have power to act responsibly with their power: to give
wages when they’re earned, to refrain from doing harm simply because
it can be done. Loving your neighbor as yourself means creating a
JUST justice system, impartial to power and wealth, and to refrain
from profitting from violence. This is some PRATICAL and real stuff.

It
isn’t “nice” stuff. It is “just” stuff.

That
tiny Micah passage includes, as well, that God wants us to “walk
humbly with our God.” This is not paralleled at all in Moralistic
Therapeutic Deism, and from my understanding of it, that is not
accidental either. People following that way of thought do not
believe that in spiritual practice or discipline. They see prayer as
a way of manipulating God into giving them what they want. For the
most part, they do not read the Bible, or reach out to others as a
way of sharing God’s love. They think of God as existing for THEM,
rather than thinking of themselves as existing to do God’s work in
the world. Its an enormous switch!

This
may be one significant place where the Christian-Right and
Jesus-followers align. Our Tradition teaches us that we are the Body
of Christ – we are gifted and blessed so that we can be a blessing
to others. We exist so that God’s love can spread. We are the
continuation of the ministry of Jesus himself. We are part of God’s
transformation of the world, and our work in that includes
significant time studying and praying and worshipping and discussing
so that we might BEST use our lives for the goodness of all.

Micah
tells us to be humble before God. That is, to remember that God is
God and we are not! That the purpose of life is not that God serve
us, but that we serve God. And that in serving God we are both
blessed and a blessing! That our lives AND the lives of those we
meet are improved!

You
see, our Tradition is not all about us, it is about everyone. It
is DEFINTELY not about “ME”! Micah reminds us with simple words
about humility – which are put next to justice and mercy in their
importance! Those THREE things are what it means to be a “good”
person, if you listen to the Bible. Justice, mercy, humility.
They’re balanced, and they push us beyond ourselves to being truly
good neighbors to those we meet.

So,
my friends, despite the the apparent similarities, again we find that
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a mistranslation of our faith. Our
tradition does NOT teach us to be nice. In many ways it teaches the
opposite. It teaches us to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with our God. May we do what we are taught. Amen

–

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

September 8, 2019