November 2, 2003 (Jimmie Johnson)

First Lesson Revelation 21:1-6a

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their
God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Th en he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”  

Second Lesson I John 3:1-3

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. Th e reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Gospel Lesson John 11:32-44

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” Th ey said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Th en Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said
this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Th e dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” 

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  Where are we going? We all want to know what happens to us after we die. Christian faith believes that all creation is in movement--movement toward fulfillment, consummation, the attainment of God’s purposes and goals. So, for Christian faith, the concept of the end has to do with both completion and goal. Rather than nauseous nothingness, we move to purpose.

Even in Christian faith, though, we still are beset with questions. Will I be forever constricted to the cold black box of my own past? Will I be dropped into the dark abyss while reality moves on without me? Will I cease to exist? Will the cumulative meaning of my tradition, my life story, my relationships, my achievements, my unfulfilled dreams, all simply dribble away like sand through my fingers?

I really need today, the day we call All Saints Sunday. I want to know what has happened to our friends and loved ones, those whose names are printed in our worship folder, others whose names we carry in our hearts from many years ago. Christian faith admits we may not have the power of our own future in our own hands, but Christian faith proclaims God has a future. God promises that we will be part of that divine future. God comforts our anxiety over time by offering us eternity.

However, appearances are tough on faith, aren’t they? We live in a world full of suffering and evil that often does not look as if God is in charge of it. Days occur when the world looks more as if it is in the grips of death, a Good Friday world, than in the hands of a loving God of Easter. Even the future of the universe, given what scientists believe today, causes us to question hope. Most scientists tell us that eventually the universe itself will either collapse in on itself or slowly dissipate into utter randomness. The reigning theory of the origin of the universe, the big bang theory, suggests the universe is drenched in temporality. It has a finite past beginning perhaps 13 billion years ago. The problem is that energy flows in only one direction, from hot to cold, not the reverse. Entropy is the level of disorder in the universe, and entropy is always increasing. What this means is that the universe may have begun with the hottest blast of all time but the universe has been moving ever sense toward freezing itself out of existence.

Even if along the way gravity causes our universe to collapse into another dense fireball and explode again, the present cosmos will still come to an end. Whether we freeze or fry, the future of life and our world is not endless. Like each of us, the cosmos, our home, is also destined for death.

If the claims of scientific naturalism are true, they falsify Christian faith. For the essence of Christian faith is the claim that the Easter belief called Resurrection promises supernatural renewal for the whole of creation. If Jesus remained dead, so will we and someday the universe we call home as well. The reality is neither scientific naturalism nor Christian faith is empirically achievable. Lord Tennyson is still right: the things worth proving can neither be proved nor yet disproved.

Will God’s rule over all things ever become clear? I’ll stand here this morning and tell you what I believe. I believe in heaven, and I believe there are no tears in heaven. I believe in heaven for one reason only. I believe God is as good as Jesus said. Where are we going? I believe we are going to God. Luther believed we go to sleep at death and wake up only at the resurrection. Calvin believed that we are joyously in the presence of God or else beginning our eternal punishment as soon as we die. Because of my confidence that Mercy is God’s other name, because I believe there is always more mercy in God than sin in any of us, because I believe with God all things are possible and grace is unlimited, I don’t believe in hell. But I don’t want to sound haughty or flippant. I understand my personal view has been declared heresy at points in Christian history and still is in some quarters today. I know there are passages especially in the New Testament supporting both heaven and hell. I humbly hope that in the end no one will be lost.

Again, because I believe in the God of Jesus I simply come out on the side of hope. But I do so with humility regarding my own perspective. What I believe is that in life and in death, we belong to God. Even in the presence of death in homes, and hospitals and nursing homes, at the scene of car wrecks and on battlefields, in the face of wildfires or tornadoes, the followers of Jesus are those who still see life.

Do I believe easily? No. Absolutely not. With no element of doubt or questioning? Absolutely not. My belief is always a mixture of belief and unbelief. Is my belief this mixture because you and I are evil? No. It is this way because you and I are small. We are creatures made of star dust. We know the meaning of the passing of time, and it makes us anxious. Yet, we are the only life forms who hope. I believe we star dust creatures are in a process developing toward a goal.

Just as the development of the universe has led to the development of human beings, I believe human development will eventually lead to what the Roman Catholic evolutionist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin called a spiritual “Omega point.” This “Omega point” is a culmination of grace so amazing, grace so divine that all that is, was, and ever has been unites in dance where all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well. And all shall be well! Will this come about because we human beings will achieve perfection by our own efforts or technologies? No, it will come about only by the loveliness of God’s grace which in the end will woo and guide and transform all life forms to some good end.

I believe in this future dance called heaven because I trust in the promises of a personal God, a sovereign Ruler who, yes, frightens me with the backbone God exhibits in Jesus while at the same time overwhelms me with the beauty of a love that will not let us go.

Ok, my friends, declaring the truth of my soul to you, what is the primary source of my hope? Christ Jesus. I believe that the one who judges me in this life and in the life to come is the very same one who has before offered himself up for us all—in the cross absorbing all so that nothing can separate us from God’s love not in the end and not even the end.

My heart still hurts and is like a torn sail from the deaths in our church since this day last year. With eyes open to the cruelty and evil that do indeed show themselves in the midst of this life, with a tip of my hat to Freud about the unknowability of the unconscious and therefore the wisdom of humility when it comes to my claims of truth, and with an acknowledgment that Marx had an insight that my access to the powers of production affect and shape my knowing--still I do not find myself mired in an agnosticism fearful of belief. Rather, I believe in the goodness of the God who holds all our individual and personal destinies in hands that out of love for us all were pierced with nails themselves at Calvary. This is why I believe in the reality of what this day promises: the communion of saints. That is, in life and in death we belong to God. I believe God is as good as the good news promises.

 

 


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