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| “Where do we go when we die?” I Corinthians 15: 42 - 52 June 3, 2007 A new arrival in heaven is being shown around. The angel in charge of the tour points out the room for Baptists with an elegant water motif. Then there is the room for Methodists with a huge kitchen and the Episcopalians have a wine cellar. Then suddenly the angel drops his voice and with a gesture instructs everyone to be quiet as the tiptoe past the next room. Once past the angel explained that that was the room for the Jehovah Witnesses and they didn’t know anyone else was up there. So, is that where we go, to a designated room with people like ourselves? Didn’t Jesus say, “In my father’s house are many rooms?” There was a man who died and found himself in a room with no windows or doors and the only furnishings were a television and a couch. There was a man on the couch so the newcomer asked if this was Heaven or Hell. The man said rather ironically, “Well what do you think? You’re in a room with no windows or doors.” “Yes,” the newcomer persisted, “but it looks like a comfortable couch, and a big screen, high definition TV.” “Sure, but it only gets one channel.” “But, it’s PBS, that’s nice.” “Yes, but it’s always pledge week.” So is that where we go, some place sort of neutral that can be heaven or hell depending on our temperament: a nature lover’s hell, a couch potato’s heaven. It’s one of the most persistent questions I get from confirmation classes, where do we go when we die, which always makes me wonder, what makes them so sure we go anywhere; maybe we go to Forest Lawn and that’s it. Yet, everyone except a few nihilists seem to think the journey goes on beyond death, so the pressing question becomes, if the road goes on, where does it lead? Then come the companion questions, who gets to go? On what criteria is the decision made? In what form do we exist there? Certainly not in physical form. Paul said that the perishable cannot inherit the imperishable. Most agree that when we arrive at the “there” where ever that is, it will be in some spiritual form, that at death the body and the spirit become separate entities. Plato believed that the body and spirit, what he called the soul, were never meant to be joined together. The body is particular and temporary while the soul comes from the realm of forms and is therefore part of the absolute. Plato saw the joining together of body and soul as some sort of cosmic accident and the sooner we could be rid of the body, the better. St. Paul was a Platonist in that regard. He goes on and on about it being the body where sin resides and taking his focus off higher things. “Who shall deliver me from this body of death,” he once cried out. Paul would have been acquainted with the allegorical interpretation of Genesis used by the Platonist Philosophers of his time. Adam represents soul, Eve represents the physical and the serpent represents pleasure. So, Eve is tempted by pleasures of the flesh and subsequently seduces Adam away from his higher spiritual calling. Greek philosophers, notably Cicero, said that the soul is made of air and fire, the four elements of ancient science being earth, water, air and fire, in that order. Earth is heaviest and water second. Air is that which rises above the earth and water, and fire, that is what the stars are made of. The soul is made of the lighter stuff and is destined to rise when the heavy stuff finally lets go. So Paul and the Platonist philosophers would agree; we are made for the stars. The old gospel song also agreed, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.” But just because we go on without physical substance doesn’t mean we go on without substance; there is spiritual substance. That which we call solid matter is only perceived as such because of the magnetic attraction between atoms; most of the composition of matter is empty space. Spirit is not the absence of substance but a different kind of substance that cannot be perceived with our physical eyes. Spiritual reality is arguably more substantive because it is eternal. In the Book of the Revelation there is the image of disembodied souls under the altar waiting to be fitted with new bodies. They were not content in their disembodied state and needed bodies to be complete, albeit, bodies made of spiritual substance no doubt. So, if you like what I have said so far, you can tune out now, before I confuse the issue. Further complicating all this speculation is the fact that the position of Paul and the Platonists wasn’t the same as that of the ancient Hebrews: before Greek thought contaminated their theology. They saw no sharp distinction between spirit and body; it took both to be a living entity. The body was holy and created in the very image of God. And man was never intended for heaven like we like to think. We were created for the earth - on the earth - from the earth. The earth was created specifically to be our habitat. God pushed back the seas and put plants and living things on the dry land as a special place for us. And when we die, we stay there. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. And if there is any afterlife existence it is in the earth – literally in the earth. Hades, the place of the dead, was in the center of the earth. When Jesus was in the tomb, he descended to the dead – not up to heaven, down into the earth. And the psalmist understood where he came from and to where he would return, “When I was knit together in the depths of the earth.” And in the last book of the Bible, we don’t end up in heaven; heaven comes down to us, the New Jerusalem. There is a new heaven and a new earth. The new earth is for us, we were created for the earth, the angels for heaven. And what about Hell? Will there be a new Hell as well? No; no eternal punishment. Both death and hell are thrown into the lake of fire – annihilated – burned up – destroyed – no more. Only the beautiful, the good, the holy are eternal. And in the end, everything goes to its appointed place. John had a vision of heaven, the crystal river, the tree of life, but it was the habitation of angels. The eternal habitation for people was the new earth (since the old one was spoiled by evil), New Jerusalem. In Jacob’s dream of the ladder the angels go up and down from heaven to earth. They visit here but they don’t live here. Likewise, we visit there, we don’t live there. That’s another way of answering the question from scripture. So, which is it? If you were hoping for a definitive answer from me, than you don’t know me very well. It’s why I’m a Methodist. Other churches will be happy to give you the “right” answers in three easy steps. We Methodists prefer to let you struggle with the great mysteries for a lifetime. Because, as Paul said, now we see through a mirror dimly but then, face to face. Then we shall know fully even as we are fully known.” But just because I don’t have definitive answers about this question doesn’t mean I don’t have any at all. I know that the greatest of the big three, faith hope and love, is love. I know that God is love and they that love are born of God and know God and shall see God. That being the case, it doesn’t much matter where the meeting takes place. Everywhere is God’s turf anyhow. Paul said it remains to be seen what we shall become but we know this, we shall be like him. Isn’t that enough information to get us through? In one of my favorite old southern novels, the grandmother dies and after the funeral the grandfather and the grandson go fishing. Fishing is a great time for contemplating the mysteries of the universe while waiting for your float to bob up and down. There is a long silence and the grandson asks, “Grandfather, what do you think Grandma is doing now?” And the grandfather replies, “I don’t know what Grandma is doing now, but I know that what ever it is, it’s God’s doing, and won’t that be okay?” There’s the promise you can take to the bank – or to where ever we go when we die; where ever or what ever, it’s God’s doing and God loves us. Won’t that make it okay? The scriptures declare that God himself will be with us. And in that closing part of the Revelation when the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven to the new sanctified earth, God comes with it. The angel who showed it all to John declared it, “The dwelling of God is with God’s people. He will be theirs and they shall be his.” The axiom that applies to vacations applies here, “Its not about where you are, it’s who you are with.” Disneyland ceases to be the happiest kingdom on earth if you’re there with the wrong people. Anyplace is Heaven if you’re with God. And here’s one more bit of good news; you don’t have to wait until you die. Jesus came announcing that the kingdom was at hand. Reconciliation and communion with God was available now, in this life. At hand: all you have to do is reach out and take it. That’s why the saints and martyrs had no fear of death. They already had intimate fellowship with the God of heaven. Death was a mere change of form, a transition from time to eternity within the perfect fellowship of God. I don’t know where we go when we die. I like to speculate about it and philosophize about it but I don’t worry about it. Amid all the questions lies a definitive certainty, where ever we go, God is there, the God who loves us and gave himself for us, and won’t that make it just fine? “Where can I go from your Spirit?” the psalmist asks rhetorically. ‘If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,” you are there. “And, when I awake (on the other side), I am still with you.” As always you can get a DVD of this sermon. Contact the church office.
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