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Introductory Drama

Characters:
Man
Woman

(Scene: The entrance to eternity. A man sits at a desk, papers before him. Woman enters. She goes to the man and stands quietly. The man looks up.)

Man: Heaven on your right -- hell on your left.

Woman: (Looking at the doors, in awe) You mean that door leads to heaven ... and that one to hell?

Man: That is correct. Please don't take too long. There are others waiting.

Woman: But ... what do I do?

Man: You go through one of them.

Woman: You mean I have the choice?

Man: That is correct.

Woman: (Craftily) Oh, well, I'll take heaven.

Man: (Motioning) Over there, please.

Woman: Well, thanks ... (She starts toward heaven gleefully. As she is about to go through the door, she stops a moment. She turns and comes back) Now look. I don't want to make any mistakes at a time like this. You're giving me my choice ... I can go to heaven or to hell. That's what you said, isn't it?

Man: That is correct.

Woman: I mean, if I choose heaven, it's not some sort of ... er ... test or something? There are no strings attached?

Man: There are no strings attached.

Woman: (Relieved) I had no idea it would be like this. Well, thanks ... (She starts toward heaven. She hesitates, then comes back) Now I don't want you to think just because I choose heaven that I've always been a model of good behavior ... (Hastily) I haven't always been perfect. Who has? (She laughs as though sharing a joke) I'm not trying to get out of anything.

Man: I understand.

Woman: All right, then. Just so long as it's clear. (She starts toward heaven. Hesitates. Comes back) Er ... pardon me ...

Man: Yes?

Woman: I mean, once I go in there, I stay there.

Man: You stay there.

Woman: I mean this is ... er ... Judgment Day?

Man: This is Judgment Day.

Woman: And once I make my decision, it's final ...

Man: Final.

Woman: I don't believe it! That's not the way it is at all! The righteous go to heaven and are rewarded for their goodness ... The wicked go to hell and are punished for their sins! Ask anybody!

Man: Please don't take too long. There are others waiting.

Woman: But this is idiotic! Doesn't everybody choose heaven?

Man: Some.

Woman: Look, have I got it wrong? In heaven the streets are paved with gold, isn't that so?

Man: That is correct.

Woman: And hell is a burning pit where you burn forever. Isn't that right?

Man: That is correct.

Woman: Then I fail to understand why anyone would choose to ... (She starts toward heaven. Hesitates, come back) What's going on here? Don't you know I've lived all my life in fear of this day with the view of getting into heaven and cheating hell? What are you trying to get away with around here? I demand a fair trial!

Man: No trial.

Woman: You mean to sit there and tell me this is Judgment Day and there's no trial?

Man: That is correct.

Woman: This is outrageous! I demand a hearing! My father pulled a trick like this on me once and I never forgave him. I was in the fifth grade. I skipped school one day. I came home later and he asked me where I'd been. I told him I'd been in school. I lied to him. He said the school had called up and asked where I was. I wasn't there. So I told him the truth ... I confessed ... I told him I'd lied and everything! And what did he do? He grinned at me and went back to his paper! (Savagely) What kind of business is that? He should have taken that strap and beaten me within an inch of my life! (More angry) Now I come up here ... Judgment Day ... ready to pay for my sins ... (She beats on the table) I want a hearing! I demand a trial!

Man: No trial. Please don't take too long.

Woman: It's not fair ... you can't do this to me ... I'm innocent ... I never had the chance other people had ... I've had a hard life ... I didn't mean to do anything bad ... give me just one more chance ... (She starts running to the door into hell) Please ...

Man: There are others waiting.

Woman: Father! Father! Help me! (She runs out of the door into hell)

Man: (Looking up) Next, please.

* * *

After seeing this little drama, we wonder how she could have done it. What was the matter with her? Didn't she see the light? How could she have turned her back on something that was so obvious? She had every opportunity to choose heaven. Yet, somehow, she couldn't help herself. She really didn't want to go to hell -- yet she couldn't seem to do anything else.

Heaven without a trial? Heaven without an opportunity to prove herself? It just didn't seem right. It's not what she expected. It's just too shocking to be true. Everything gets turned upside down. Nothing is as it should be. Right becomes wrong. Good becomes evil. And yes, as we just saw, heaven becomes hell.

We wouldn't have made the same mistake, would we? Or would we?

I hope this little drama has helped to reveal how shocking God's ways are when compared to our human sensibilities. If we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that we would have had just as difficult a time as the girl in the drama when it comes to accepting the way that God wants to deal with us. We and so much of the church with us have a very difficult time believing that God could be so gracious and merciful. And so, we look for substitutes, for ways to pay for our sins, to earn a hearing, to get a fair trial, because ultimately, deep down in our hearts, we believe that we have earned our piece of heaven.

But God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He turns our world upside down and inside out. What we think is important, valuable, strong, and enduring is trivial in the eyes of God. And what we think is weak, foolish, and insignificant is in the eyes of God powerful, wise, and important.

A popular tourist attraction in Washington, D.C., is the magnificent National Cathedral. This great structure is indeed a sight to behold. It is immense, imposing, enduring. Why do so many come to visit? Maybe because in this world of disposable diapers, non-returnable soft drink bottles, throw-away cartons, biodegradable shopping bags, and plastic everything, it is reassuring to encounter something so substantial. So much that surrounds us is too transitory, here today and gone tomorrow. Everything changes, decays, and is tossed on the garbage heap of history. But the National Cathedral, eternal-looking, immense and imposing, with stone upon stone, arch upon arch -- it surely shall last. Or so it seems.

In today's Gospel we meet "tourists" of another time, the disciples, who were walking by the temple one day in Jerusalem, admiring its massive beauty. So many stones. Arches upon arches. But when the disciples shared their admiration with Jesus, he did not respond with the same enthusiasm. Instead he said, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown away."

It must have been difficult for the disciples to conceive that Herod's great temple, one of the wonders of the ancient world, would be torn down, stone by stone, until it was nothing but a heap of rubble. Such a thing was unimaginable. The temple, the very center of national life and pride, the very seat of God, destroyed? Unthinkable!

Yet, that is what Jesus told the disciples about this supposedly eternal temple of God, and barely forty years after he spoke these words, it would lay in ruin. Jesus' words came true: "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places, there will be famines."

We are not used to hearing such talk in our churches these days. Today many of us want a religion that will affirm and confirm the present order and current world rather than a religion that will speak of the future and Judgment Day and the end of this world as we know it.

In the last generation the churches have become increasingly aware of the fragility of life in this world. Even though many have said that we no longer face the same dangers with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, we still live in a world that is very dangerous.

We hear of numerous third world nations, Iraq most recently, trying to improve their status in the world by building their own nuclear weapons. I recently read an absolutely frightening description of what might happen in a nuclear attack that could devastate not only this country but much of the world. There would be an "incredible firestorm in which hundreds of tons of sooty smoke would absorb so much of the sun's rays that only five percent of the normal amount of light would reach the earth ... all land plants would be damaged or destroyed ... temperature would plummet for several months ... all biological life on the planet would be gravely threatened."

Such a description makes me shudder and I begin to wonder if the end of this world isn't all that far away. Add to that all the concerns about the environmental problems we are creating (air pollution, depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, and so on) and it is easy to start thinking of giving up.

But there is a strange irony in all of this. The supporters of nuclear weapons and the critics, the environmentalists and the disciples of big business, the hawks and the doves, all have one fundamental assumption in common: Survival of this world and this life is all that matters. Fearful about the water we drink, the air we breathe, the great mushroom cloud looming over our heads, we get by as best we can and grab what we can. And when we are very frightened, we tend to hold on very tightly -- even to the things that do not last.

That's why Jesus' words in today's Gospel are so unwelcome. When he was asked about possibilities for the future, about prospects for tomorrow, Jesus responded frankly, saying that there will be an end, stones cast down, famine, terrors, wars, nation rising against nation. But what does Jesus really mean? The doomsayers and prophets of nuclear holocaust or environmental disaster would have us believe that Jesus' words may be fulfilled very soon.

On the other hand, we might be tempted to believe that Jesus was wrong. The world did not come to an end during Jesus' generation. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and the Roman empire did eventually fall, but the world did not come to end. Even Saint Paul told early Christians not to marry, not to worry about whether they were slaves or free because this world was soon to end, but it didn't. Was Paul wrong too?

No. Quite the contrary. At the heart of our Christian faith is the belief that we have already seen the end. In a sense the end of the world has already happened. Judgment Day has already occurred in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In his death and resurrection the entire history of the earth has reached its turning point. At that moment, when he was nailed to the cross, the end of history took place. A new kingdom was established, a kingdom not dependent on whether we work out a mutually verifiable arms treaty with all the third world countries of the world, prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, replenish the ozone layer, or halt global warming.

In today's Gospel Jesus tells us not to be alarmed, not to be frightened. We don't have to be afraid of the dangerous uncertainties of this world. We don't have to be afraid of nuclear holocaust or environmental disaster or cancer or AIDS or an auto accident or a recession. We have already experienced Judgment Day. We know how it is going to end up. Therefore we don't have to worry about saving ourselves, our skins, our investments, our possessions, our world.

At the close of today's Gospel Jesus compares this fact to the beginning of the pangs of birth. When a mother begins that painful ordeal of childbirth, there are times when she may feel defeated. The pain is too great. The suffering is too much. But what keeps her going is the promise and expectation of that new life. What keeps her going is the blessed assurance that every other mother has given her. On the basis of their experience she can have peace and confidence. She knows that the blessed birth is about to take place.

Right now it may look like the world is going to hell in a handbasket. The future may not look bright. Danger seems to be around every corner. But we have the blessed assurance that the final outcome has already been determined. Judgment Day has already happened. God's love will triumph.

We get ourselves into trouble when the things of this world become ultimately important. When our survival in this world is all that matters, then we are inclined to accept all sorts of lesser evils. Remember, Jesus was put to death by a politician who just wanted to preserve law and order in Jerusalem. Remember, it was Caiaphas, the high priest, who noted that one man's death was not too great a price to pay for peace in our time.

Jesus once said, "My peace I give to you, not as the world gives peace." This is the peace that God gives to us in Jesus Christ, peace which is showered upon us in the waters of Baptism and offered to us in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Only God can give us this peace, for it is based on the promise from God himself that it is not our job to make history come out right or to save the world or to write the last chapter of history, because in Jesus Christ history has already come out right. The world has already been saved. The last chapter has already been written. In Jesus Christ we have already seen the end. Judgment Day has already happened.

That doesn't mean we should throw in the towel in this world and give up. We can and should still work for peace, for the environment, for a safer and cleaner society, because this is still God's world and through us he still loves it. But we can do it without fear, without living under the burden that it all depends on us. We know where it is all headed. And Jesus has promised to give us his Holy Spirit so that we can be confident about it and be able to speak the truth about what is right and wrong and good and evil and where there is genuine hope and what can be trusted. There will be no confusion of heaven and hell. We know that our hope lies only in the promise of God. It is precisely our foolish trust in our own places, devices, and schemes which turns this world of God's into a living hell both now and forever.

Perhaps some of you remember General Alexander Haig, a great military leader in the war in Vietnam and political leader in the Reagan administration. Now, General Haig was not exactly what you would call a great theologian. He once said something which on the surface sounded utterly stupid, and he was roundly criticized by the media for saying it. He said, "There are worse things than a nuclear war."

That sounds like he stuck his foot in his mouth, but that is exactly what we Christians believe. What is far worse than a nuclear war? Not having faith and trust in God. Not to trust God and his promises means that we are headed for a destiny even worse than a nuclear holocaust.

But to trust and believe the promises of God means that nothing in this world, not even the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb or the ecological disaster of global warming or the insidious attack of terminal cancer or the suffering and humiliation of an economic recession can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.

We can believe that because our Judgment Day has already happened. And we will no longer confuse heaven and hell.