Psalm 78.1-7; 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18
Where are the dead?
Are they anywhere?
Somewhere?
No where?
Are they gone forever?
Or is there something more?
I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life ever lasting, says the Creed …
And all that precedes that statement of faith:
I believe in the Holy Ghost.
The holy catholic church
The communion of saints
The forgiveness of sins
and only then:
The resurrection of the body
and the life everlasting.
A whole sequence of God’s mighty work … call it grace, call it mercy … call it love … call it hope!
Paul writes to the church in Thessaloniki: we do not want you to be uninformed.
Uninformed about the dead … their place in the scheme of things … the dead are not forgotten, nor are the dead simply dead … they have a place in the heart of God … and then, as Paul says, so that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope.
Paul doesn’t say: Don’t grieve … which would be impossible anyway … we grieve, do we not?
When something is taken from our life - a child’s blanket lost, a bicycle broken, our first love skips out on us, the death of family members and friends … with every loss, we grieve!
Paul accepts the reality of grief … and then adds hope to the story … the dead are not just dead … the dead belong to God!
I came to grips with this question some years ago, in a spiritual retreat … I was on the floor with 15 others, a small pillow beneath my head, comfortable, in a guided meditation … for some reason, the question came to mind: Did I want my mother to be in heaven?
It troubled me … for reasons beyond the scope of this sermon, I had no interest in ever seeing my mother again … as the meditation moved on … the question rolled around in my head … and then - the answer: Yes, I want her in heaven, to find the peace that eluded her in this life.
And with that, some peace of mind … I could wish her happiness in the sweet by-and-by … whether or not I ever see her again, who knows … God knows …
Is there life after death?
It’s fascinating to track the story … in the earliest days of the Bible, there was only this life, and then, the land of the dead, Sheol … where the dead went - the good, the bad, and the ugly … with some degree of consciousness, but dead is dead, and that’s that … and apparently the dead didn’t want to be disturbed …
What’s crucial here is this: the earliest Jews were content with this life alone … whatever it was.
But events have a way of shaping us with unexpected directions …
The Jews lived in Egypt for a long time, as a people enslaved … centuries later, defeated and exiled, they lived in Babylon.
The Egyptian and Babylonian cultures believed fervently in the afterlife … with all sorts of rituals and burial rites, pyramids and embalming, in the hopes of an afterlife …
The Jews began to incorporate this into their story … the love of God extended … beyond the reach of our years.
Death does not have the last word … the end is not the end … because the story of God’s love is never-ending … love is eternal … that which love loves has eternal life.
Life after death takes hold in the Jewish faith, and when Jesus is born, he’s born into a world of hope - the resurrection of the dead.
When Paul speaks of the resurrection of Jesus, Paul’s not at all surprised, because Paul believed in the resurrection of the dead … at the end of time
The resurrection of Jesus is sort of an intermission surprise … early evidence of what will come … God’s love at work in all of creation, for all of God’s creatures, great and small.
For Paul, the soul goes on to be with the Risen Christ, the body returns to the earth … and then comes the end … when all shall be made new … the final trumpet, the cry of the archangel, the resurrection of the body … and the life everlasting.
The body - without the soul - is dead … the soul - without the body - is incomplete … the body is cared for by the earth, from whence it came - earth to earth, dust to dust … the soul is cared for in the heart of God … body and soul - waiting, waiting … longing for one another … the soul for the body, the body for the soul … to be complete again … to be you, to be me, once again.
And death will be no more!
That which has been separated by death - mother from child, friend from friend, wife from husband … family from family, nation from nation … we’ll be reunited, made new, transformed, glorified … don’t ask me how it’s done - God will manage it just fine … if God can invent Black Holes and butterflies, I think God can handle this just fine.
And don’t ask me what we’ll look like … but we will see God, and in God, by God, with God, we will see one another … because love is eternal.
Many years ago, a prominent Christian minister said: “I was satisfied with this life, and this life alone. If there’s nothing beyond, that’s ok with me.”
Then he tells of a trip to some of the most troubled parts of the world - he saw children, bloated bellies, beseeching eyes … his heart cried out - if we can’t make this world better for them, if we can’t or if we won’t make it better for them, God will have mercy on them, and they will be given the life denied to them here … this minister could no longer be satisfied with only the here and now … for the children, he prayed mightily: there must be a heaven.
But for heaven’s sake, let us never defer what must be done now, until heaven gets here … if there is justice in the end, yes, those children will have a life to live, and perhaps those who might have done something and didn’t … or those who simply sent “thoughts and prayers” to the little ones, well, there may be a tougher time ahead … but that’s a story for another day.
In the meantime,
Some of you know Bobby Darin’s song, “Artificial Flowers” - a little nine-year old girl, an orphan, making artificial flowers for society ladies …
With paper and shears, with some wire and wax
She made up each tulip and mum.
As snowflakes drifted into her tenement room
Her baby little fingers grew numb.
From makin' artificial flowers, those artificial flowers
Flowers for ladies of high fashion to wear.
She made artificial flowers, artificial flowers
Made from Annie's despair.
They found little Annie all covered in ice
Still clutchin' her poor frozen shears
Amidst all the blossoms she had fashioned by hand
And watered with all her young tears.
There must be a heaven where little Annie can play
In heavenly gardens and bowers.
And instead of a halo she'll wear 'round her head
A garland of genuine flowers.
A new heaven and a new earth … final purpose - in how we live … ultimate hope - in what we believe …
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven
I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
For Little Annie, and all the children of the earth … for the butterflies and the mice, the fish of the sea, the birds of the air … all of God’s creatures … so we should care.
Hallelujah and Amen.
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