\nI want to start today by asking
\nfor your trust \u2013 particularly from those who are here particularly
\nfor the baptism. \u00a0I do know that the first hymn and the scriptures
\nhave been an odd match for a baptismal Sunday so far, and it is going
\nto get worse before it gets better, but it IS going to get better, I
\npromise.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nThe question of \u201cwhat happens
\nafter we die\u201d is relevant to us for two separate reasons. \u00a0One
\nreason is entirely personal: we want to know if we are simply mortal
\nand if we cease to exist when we die. \u00a0The other may be just as
\npersonal, in a different way: \u00a0we want to know if the connects we
\nhave to those who have died before us are still alive or if they only
\nfeel that way.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nBoth of these are good reasons
\nto want to know, but nevertheless, we don’t know what happens after
\ndeath. \u00a0And our believes about it end up being profoundly personal.
\nIf we are looking at afterlife through the lens of the Christian
\nTradition, there are three big questions people to disagree over:<\/p>\n
\nWhile many people have deep
\nconviction about their answers to these questions, and believe their
\nanswers to be the \u201cnormal\u201d ones, the truth is that Christians
\nhave disagreed about this for about as long as there have been
\nChristians.<\/p>\n
For \nFor \nNow, \nToday we are looking at the 5th<\/sup> \nOf course, if you asked most Historically, Christians \n<\/p>\n \nSo, the second question, which \n\t2. \u00a0If there is an afterlife, \nI’ll admit that I nuanced this \n<\/p>\n \nI \n<\/p>\n \nNow, for me the third question \n\t3. \u00a0If both heaven and hell \nPossible answers:\n<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n As \n<\/p>\n \nThis \n<\/p>\n \nI \n<\/p>\n \nI \n<\/p>\n The \n<\/p>\n \nAnd 1<\/a><\/p>\n
\ncenturies, Christianity has taught about afterlife and the existence
\nof heaven and hell, all while arguing about the means of sorting
\npeople into each. \u00a0Yet, \u00a0there is also a large group of Biblical
\nScholars who think that we’ve gotten those assumptions wrong. \u00a0They
\nsay that 1st<\/sup>
\ncentury Jews, Jesus, and the earliest Christians did not believe in
\nheaven and hell the way we do. \u00a0At best, heaven and hell were
\ntemporary resting places while waiting for bodily resurrection that
\nwould come along with the Kindom of God on earth.1<\/sup><\/a>
\n \u00a0More commonly, people believed that there was nothing until the
\nmoment of universal bodily resurrection, which they expected to come
\nwithin the first generation after Jesus. \u00a0For some others the
\nperspective of Job 14 was accurate: \u00a0humans die but at least God
\ndoesn’t.<\/p>\n
\nthe most part, I think afterlife is an aside to Christianity. \u00a0The
\ngoal is to build the kindom on earth, not in heaven. \u00a0However, the
\nreality of deaths of those we love and the looming reality of our own
\ndeaths don’t let us go. \u00a0We really want to know, and for many people,
\nwhat they believe about afterlife profoundly connects to how they
\nunderstand God. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nthis is the fifth and final sermon in a sermon series
\ncomparing the salient points of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, the
\ntradition of the Christian Right, and what I’ve been calling
\n\u201cJesus-followers\u201d. \u00a0(That final group is us.) \u00a0Moralistic
\nTherapeutic Deism was discovered through sociological research on the
\nbelief system on teenagers, and we have reason to believe it is the
\ndefault belief system of most Americans. \u00a0Unfortunately, as we’ve
\nfound, its a rather problematic belief system, at least in my
\nopinion. \u00a0It consists of 5 intersecting assumptions:<\/p>\n\n
\n\tgod exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human
\n\tlife on earth.”<\/li>\n
\n\twants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in
\n\tthe Bible and by most world religions.”<\/li>\n
\n\tcentral goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”<\/li>\n
\n\tdoes not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when
\n\tGod is needed to resolve a problem.”<\/li>\n
\n\tpeople go to heaven when they die.”<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\nand final point, \u201cGood people go to heaven when they die.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\npeople what Christians think, that would be a key part of the answer,
\n\u201cgood people go to heaven when they die,\u201d but \u2013 of course – our
\ntradition is far more complicated than is generally known.<\/p>\n
\nI think the concepts of heaven and hell came into clarity in the 3rd<\/sup>
\nor 4th<\/sup>
\ncentury, as that’s when the fights over who went where really picked
\nup. \u00a0So let’s look at our three questions:<\/p>\n\n
\nof good faith disagree about this one. \u00a0Some, including some in this
\ncommunity, say, \u201cno. \u00a0This life is all there is, so let’s make the
\nbest of it instead of pretending there is more.\u201d \u00a0Others, including
\nsome in this community, say, \u201cI think so. \u00a0I’ve had some
\nexperiences that lead me to that conclusion and\/or it just feels
\nright.\u201d \u00a0Still others simply aren’t sure. \u00a0Because the \u201cword on
\nthe street\u201d about Christianity so profoundly conflates belief in
\nGod with belief in afterlife, I feel the need to say this explicit:
\nall of these are faithful statements that are congruent with knowing
\na loving God through Jesus.<\/p>\n
\npresumes an answer of \u201cyes\u201d to the first one about afterlife
\nexisting. \u00a0The second question is:\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\tdo both heaven and hell exist, or just heaven?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\none to lead to a particular answer. \u00a0While I’m not always confident
\nabout afterlife (and yet sometimes I am, it is a confusing place
\ninside my head), I never think there is a hell. \u00a0It just doesn’t make
\nthe tiniest bit of sense to me that over the long run anything but
\nGod’s grace could win out. \u00a0I read one time a suggestion that people
\ncontinue to have free will after death, and so if heaven is unity
\nwith God, people can take AS LONG AS THEY WANT to get there, but in
\nthe end, they will because grace wins. \u00a0Put another way, I simply
\ndon’t believe in a God of eternal punishment, it is incomprehensible
\nto me. \u00a0That said, I think most modern Christians believe in a heaven
\nand a hell, and most of them think it is heresy not to. \u00a0(oh. \u00a0Well.)<\/p>\n
\nthink that for most people who believe that \u201cgood people go to
\nheaven when they die\u201d and the unspoken but obvious corollary \u201cbad
\npeople go to hell when they die\u201d there is a desire to believe that
\nthere is fundamental justice in the world and that bad things are
\npunished and good things are celebrated and even if we don’t see
\nevidence of that on earth, it will get balanced out later. \u00a0I can
\nunderstand a desire to believe that! \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nis null and void, but since Christianity has spent the past 1600-1700
\nyears fighting over it, I guess we should take a moment to hear the
\narguments. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
\n\texist, how are people sorted between them?<\/p>\n\n
\n\thave to BELIEVE the right things ( \u201cJustification by FAITH.\u201d)
\n\tThis is the primary perspective of the Christian Right, although it
\n\tintersects some with the next idea.\n\t<\/li>\n
\n\tyou have do DO the right things. \u00a0For many of those Christians there
\n\tis a list of good things and a list of bad things to guide behavior.
\n\t ( \u201cJustification by WORKS\u201d or \u201cWorks Righteousness.\u201d) \u00a0\n\t<\/li>\n
\n\tmust be baptized. \u00a0This is often even subconscious now. \u00a0This is one
\n\tof the strongest arguments for infant baptism. \u00a0It is also one of
\n\tthe strongest arguments against it. \u00a0Some in this mindset will claim
\n\tthat only baptism in their PARTICULAR part of Christianity will
\n\tmatter. \u00a0However, when Christianity was much younger, this often
\n\tresulted in people refusing to be baptized until the very last
\n\tmoment. \u00a0(I think, in fact, this is the historical basis for the
\n\tCatholic ritual of last rites.) They thought that once baptized all
\n\ttheir sins were forgiven, and if it was done late enough they
\n\twouldn’t have time to sin. \u00a0I’m not kidding. \u00a0This was very common
\n\tpractice.<\/li>\n
\n\torder to get into heaven we need God’s grace, and God’s grace given
\n\tto us results in our ability to have faith. \u00a0(\u201cJustification by
\n\tgrace alone though faith.\u201d) UMC option <\/b>
\n\t Thus it is not what we do or do not do; nor what we believe or do
\n\tnot believe that results in our welcome into heaven. \u00a0It is simply
\n\tGod’s nature. \u00a0This does raise a rather large question about those
\n\twho do not believe in God though.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\na reminder of how complicated all of this is, \u00a0I do not think that
\nour Gospel lesson supports or disproves any of the schools of
\nthought. \u00a0Rather, it urges humility. \u00a0The Sadducees were trying to
\ntrick up Jesus, and they brought him a tricky question in order to do
\nit. \u00a0The question supported their belief about what happens when
\nwe die, but Jesus’ answer did not let them trip him up. \u00a0He says,
\n\u201c\u201cIs
\nnot this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the
\nscriptures nor the power of God? For
\nwhen they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in
\nmarriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being
\nraised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about
\nthe bush, how God said to him, \u2018I am the God of Abraham, the God of
\nIsaac, and the God of Jacob\u2019? He is God not of the dead, but of the
\nliving; you are quite wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\npassage keeps me humble. \u00a0I don’t know what it means, I don’t know
\nwhat heaven is like,or if it exists, and that’s OK. \u00a0Many of us are
\nnot same worldview as moralistic therapeutic deism who say \u00a0\u201cgood
\npeople go to heaven when they die\u201d or the Christian-Right who say
\nthat and have clarity over who counts as \u201cgood.\u201d \u00a0Many of us
\nsimply don’t know what happens after death.\n<\/p>\n
\nthink that at the core, the questions of if afterlife exists or not
\nand whether there is cosmic justice are really questions about
\nexistential anxiety. \u00a0That is, as beings who are conscious and who
\nknow we are mortal, we struggle with the reality that someday we
\nwon’t be (at least in this form) anymore. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nthink that our shared, all the way back to Jesus, Christian Tradition
\noffers Jesus-followers two ways we can respond to existential anxiety
\nand the claims of the other traditions. \u00a0If we are about continuing
\nthe work of Jesus \u2013 about building the kindom and inviting others
\nto be partners with us in building the kindom \u2013 then our work does
\nnot end with our deaths any more than Jesus’ did. \u00a0This is not same
\nas individual afterlife, but is really powerful in a different way.
\nCertainly the ways that each of us work towards the kindom is unique,
\nbut the end goal is shared, and after we are gone others will be
\nfollowing up on our work with theirs \u2026 until the kindom comes.<\/p>\n
\nother piece of our response to existential anxiety is simply trusting
\nin God. \u00a0Whether or not we cease to exist at the end of our lives,
\nGod and God’s memory will still hold our lives, our loves, our
\nactions, our thoughts, and our feelings. \u00a0And, whatever is on the
\nother side of the proverbial curtain \u2013 God IS and God is GOOD and
\nwhat will be is possible to trust in.<\/p>\n
\nthat brings us full circle to say, that while I know it is awful to
\nacknowledge death while celebrating a new life, I am happy to say
\nthat 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! \u00a0Amen\n<\/p>\n