Christianity is NOT about getting a ticket to heaven.
In spite of the hymn writers and the various evangelists, the main point of Christianity or following Jesus, is not to get to heaven when I die. If someone could prove to me that there was no life after death (or life after life) I would still follow Jesus. There has been a distortion that has led to people thinking that this is what faith is all about. I think it comes from a mistaken reading of two Biblical terms. They are "Eternal Life" and "Kingdom of God". Often in the past these have been read as the equivalent of "Heaven". "Eternal Life" is much more to do with a quality of life than a quantity of life. "Eternal" was often the way the ancients talked about God and so "eternal life" is a life that has a God-like quality about it. It is a life in the here and now that is infused with the character, ways and nature of God, the God of love. The "Kingdom of God" is a concept that Jesus told most of his parables about to try to communicate, so it is very multi-faceted. The Kingdom of God is not some heavenly place, but rather the movement or reign of God amongst us. Jesus at one place likens it to the mysterious life force that makes seeds grow into plants. Entering the Kingdom is something we do now, we allow this movement or life to change us, direct us and give us meaning. So the reason I follow Jesus is that he makes this life,(made up of ups and downs, of health and sickness, of all sorts of relationships) much more meaningful, more whole and more fulfilling. Life after death is not the goal.
What does my faith have to offer me in the face of death then? After all we will all die!
I will be still alive...
I am David Brown, a unique individual. But really in me there are so many other people. My father, a plumber, church man and one time soldier; my mother who was a hard working mum I loved, even though we often clashed over ideas and values; old Uncle Harry I used to garden with as a teenager; my grandmother, a Christian Women's Temperance enthusiast who would spin in her grave if she knew I was a chaplain to a brewery; Old Uncle George who I would roam around his sheep run with learning Banjo Patterson poetry; but before them too, Winston Churchill who was a childhood hero I read about; Rudyard Kipling whose stories I loved when read to us at cubs; the early pioneers who set the tone for the nature of our community in this beautiful country; there is a sense in which all these people, long dead are still alive in me, still expressing themselves, still impacting the world. As I looked at the Parliament Buildings in London I was deeply aware that much of the democracy, community ethos and law I take for granted was hammered out there. Those long dead parliamentarians are still impacting this world. When I die, and depart this world, I will still be alive impacting the world through the lives of those who have come after me, who have been influenced in some way by my lifestyle. I will be gone, but still alive... Following Jesus helps me make that impact better than I otherwise would.
The purposes for which I lived go on.
As I look at history I see the movement of God stimulating people toward love, justice, harmony and freedom. There is this ultimate cause, unseen spirit and ongoing journey in history, which possesses me and countless of others (christian and non-christian) down through history. I get to share in that journey on this earth for a certain length of time. I am motivated by it, I get the privilege of this movement working through me and expressing its "music" through my personality. At sometime I will "move off the dance floor" and rest in the wings, but the "music and dance" will still go on! When I do die and some poor parson has to run my funeral I have let it be known that one of the songs sung will be "Lord of the dance". The song pictures Jesus as "The Lord of the dance" and a couple of verses have these words...
"They buried my body and they thought I'd gone;
But I am the dance and I still go on... "
"They cut me down and I leap up high,
I am the life that will never, never die;
I'll live in you if you live in me;
I am the Lord of the dance said he..." (Sydney Carter)
My cars will rust out. My house will rot. My garden will turn to weeds. My diplomas will be thrown out. My furniture discarded. My money, such as it is, will be dispersed. My body which I try to keep in good shape, will go up in smoke. But the real purposes for which I live, the purposes of love, will "never, never die".
Mysterious relationship and partnership.
I speak of the purposes of God, the ways of God the values of God. But that is all "third person" stuff. There is a mysterious "knowing God" that is a reality in life. I don't know how to explain this. Just some instances of "relationship" that I can share.
- Once a longstanding and deep friendship I had broke down. There were angry words and where we once were close, we did not want to know each other. (There is a fine line between love and hate) I lay in bed night after night hurting, asking myself where had I gone wrong? I was feeling very low, my self esteem, confidence and inner resilience shot to pieces. "If this man who really knows me, hates me, I must be a bad person!" I concluded. One night as I tossed and turned, got out of bed and paced the floor, then returned to bed to stew some more; an "inner voice" came to me. "If you have made mistakes you are forgiven. If no one loves you, I still do. You can build your life again." That inner-voice came from ... "outside of me" but was a powerful, comforting and affirming presence that turned me around.
- I was to preach my final sermon at Palmerston North Church. After hours of study and preparation, I had a real beauty prepared. I climbed on my little "Nifty Fifty" motor bike to go around to the church which was not even a kilometre away. By the time I reached the Church building, the beautiful sermon I had prepared was thrown out, and a sermon I "must" preach had replaced it in my mind. How? Where did it come from? In preparation for funerals, weddings or other programmes there are often "bells that ring" that guide me to say and do things that turn out to be just right for the group I am leading.
- Insights in counselling situations; extra power to love with difficult people; encouragement when I most needed it; the "right words" in funerals and difficult circumstances; the ability to lead the chaplains and the wisdom emerging at the right moments last Friday; digs of conscience in the midst of temptation; a sense of understanding love and support in the confusion of life when I struggle with the right path and perhaps fail; the right people beside me to guide; inner affirmation when I have gone out on a limb; nudges toward changes in my values; "digs" toward growth... again and again there has been a loving "presence" making "himself" known to me and partnering me in life.
- Nearly throughout my whole time in ministry I have had a love/hate relationship with the church. I struggle with it's distortions and the baggage that it carries. I struggle with the expectations placed on me as a minister and the things church members see as important. I have tried to get out of ministry time and again. But this "presence" keeps "calling" me and won't let me do it!
It is impossible to describe, but there is in my life a mysterious "relationship" or "partnership" with the sacred, the eternal one, the one we call God. (Let me add that I am far from perfect and often a selfish, low minded git!) He is "there" in love, sometimes affirming, often challenging but always pushing toward the adventure of growth. (He keeps us young) When I think of my final departure, I cannot help but think that this relationship is stronger than death, and that as I go through that horizon, it will be into that "loving presence." While the western, modernist cynic in me tries to tell me that death is death, and my life will be finished; this relationship and love seem bigger, stronger and more real than the death I will inevitably face. I believe it will outlive (or perhaps "out love") what we call death. We really are important to the "eternal one".
The Apostle Paul wrote these words... "I have become absolutely convinced that neither death nor life, .... nor anything else in God's whole world has any power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!" Whatever happens to me in death, I think that presence will be there with me, that relationship and love is stronger than even death itself.
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