Eternal Life -- What Is It Like?
Sermon
Novels about science fiction have been popular since before the days when human beings first walked on the moon. Since the earliest days of television and Dr Who, sci-fi has held an important place, and on Sky television there is now a complete channel dedicated to sci-fi.
But over recent years there's been a huge increase in drama about supernatural characters, such as vampires and angels. It may be partly to do with the ongoing love affair with super heroes like Batman or Superman, but I wonder whether it's also something to do with the never ending human fascination with life after death.
There have always been almost as many opinions about life after death as there are people, and opinions amongst Christians vary enormously. I know a number of Christians who have a sneaking feeling that reincarnation makes a lot of sense, and many more who are unable to believe in any form of life after death at all.
But Christian doctrine does not believe in reincarnation, and it does believe in life after death, in some different dimension that we call heaven or paradise.
Jesus didn't have a huge amount to say about life after death. He was more concerned with the coming of God's kingdom in this life, and with helping people to usher in the kingdom. He wanted people to experience the Kingdom here and now, and in his life and death he showed them the pathway to follow to do this. Basically, anyone who wants to experience God's kingdom in this life needs to mirror Jesus' life, for as he said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)
The doctrine of life after death is much more fully developed by St Paul than by Jesus. Perhaps this is because St Paul had the advantage of knowing at first hand many people who claimed to have seen and conversed with Jesus after he was quite clearly dead. But what really convinced St Paul of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus, was that on the road to Damascus he himself had a mystical and spiritual experience of Jesus, and he then knew for himself that Jesus was still alive, somewhere, in some different dimension.
But even in those early days of the Christian church, very soon after the events of Jesus' life, there were still plenty of people who were unable to believe in any sort of existence after death. It was to these people in the church in Corinth, steeped in the world of Greek myths and legends, that St Paul was writing in today's epistle reading.
Paul goes out of his way to prove by logical argument that there is life after death because Jesus died and rose again and promised the same for us; that we too would die, but rise again in some way. Anyone who disbelieves in life after death, says Paul, is calling into question the resurrection of Jesus. And he goes on to say that since the resurrection is at the very heart of our gospel, if the resurrection isn't true then Jesus can't have died for us, in which case we'd still separated from God by sin and our faith would be a complete waste of space.
But the problem is that neither the resurrection of Jesus, nor life after death, can be proved by logical argument. We're forced to take life after death purely on faith, and since we're now 2000 years away, we also have to take the resurrection of Jesus purely on faith.
Andrew Harvey, in his wonderful book, "Son of Man", describes the resurrection as "mystical fact." He says even the wisest mind or the deepest learning can't understand the resurrection, for the resurrection can't be understood in scientific terms, it can only be known and experienced. It's beyond dogmas, or words or theological formulations, but it can be experienced by the humbled and mystically awoken heart and through direct divine grace (pg. 84).
The resurrection can be experienced in this life, every time we are willing to "die" a little. There are occasions in every life when we're stripped down to bare essentials, and have to concentrate only on surviving. If at these times we're able to follow Christ's path, trusting, believing, loving, hanging onto God, maintaining our integrity, then we discover resurrection for ourselves. Every time we die a little, we discover a little more resurrection, and those who are willing to lose their lives will find them.
Since that is a common experience in this life for many Christians, and can be an experience for all Christians, it seems at the least extremely likely that something similar happens after physical death. If there is a God, then that God is beyond time and space, and has existed since time began. So there's no reason to suppose that human life will be snuffed out like a candle at one particular moment. It's much more likely that human beings will continue to live, with God, in some different dimension after death. On the basis of experience in this life, experience in a God within as well as "out there", and the testimony of the New Testament, it seems to me to be much more likely that there is life after death than that there isn't.
What is that life after death like? Again, we can't possibly know or understand, for it's in the realms of a mystical experience. Throughout the Bible there are various pictures of life after death, all described in terms of the highest and best that could have been imagined when the Bible was written. So sumptuous feasts feature quite heavily, as do wonderful cities dripping with precious gold and jewels. The 23rd psalm pictures an idyllic rural landscape, but includes the sumptuous feast as well. St. Paul himself devotes chapter 15 of the first letter to the Corinthians, part of which we read today, to the subject of resurrection. And from verse 35 onwards, he launches into considerable detail about resurrection "bodies". When this chapter is read in a modern paraphrase, such as Eugene Peter's "The Message", it can be quite stunning and very powerful to modern ears.
It also seems logical that the more we're able to "die" and experience resurrection in this life, the greater will be our experience of resurrection in the life to come. In this life, if like Jesus, we learn to pass through zone after zone of death and surrender, always daring to go deeper into the furnace of divine and purifying love, then we'll become, as Jesus has, one with its fire in all possible dimensions, now and forever (Son of Man, pg. 85).
That may mean being prepared to excite and suffer derision, persecution, betrayal, and abandonment. It may mean being prepared to surrender position, status, friendships, and wealth. But the result will be an amazing and incredible experience of resurrection in this life. And this is but the foretaste of things to come, so in the next life after death when we see not through a glass darkly but face to face, resurrection will be way beyond anything we can begin to dream or imagine.
And that is eternal life.
But over recent years there's been a huge increase in drama about supernatural characters, such as vampires and angels. It may be partly to do with the ongoing love affair with super heroes like Batman or Superman, but I wonder whether it's also something to do with the never ending human fascination with life after death.
There have always been almost as many opinions about life after death as there are people, and opinions amongst Christians vary enormously. I know a number of Christians who have a sneaking feeling that reincarnation makes a lot of sense, and many more who are unable to believe in any form of life after death at all.
But Christian doctrine does not believe in reincarnation, and it does believe in life after death, in some different dimension that we call heaven or paradise.
Jesus didn't have a huge amount to say about life after death. He was more concerned with the coming of God's kingdom in this life, and with helping people to usher in the kingdom. He wanted people to experience the Kingdom here and now, and in his life and death he showed them the pathway to follow to do this. Basically, anyone who wants to experience God's kingdom in this life needs to mirror Jesus' life, for as he said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)
The doctrine of life after death is much more fully developed by St Paul than by Jesus. Perhaps this is because St Paul had the advantage of knowing at first hand many people who claimed to have seen and conversed with Jesus after he was quite clearly dead. But what really convinced St Paul of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus, was that on the road to Damascus he himself had a mystical and spiritual experience of Jesus, and he then knew for himself that Jesus was still alive, somewhere, in some different dimension.
But even in those early days of the Christian church, very soon after the events of Jesus' life, there were still plenty of people who were unable to believe in any sort of existence after death. It was to these people in the church in Corinth, steeped in the world of Greek myths and legends, that St Paul was writing in today's epistle reading.
Paul goes out of his way to prove by logical argument that there is life after death because Jesus died and rose again and promised the same for us; that we too would die, but rise again in some way. Anyone who disbelieves in life after death, says Paul, is calling into question the resurrection of Jesus. And he goes on to say that since the resurrection is at the very heart of our gospel, if the resurrection isn't true then Jesus can't have died for us, in which case we'd still separated from God by sin and our faith would be a complete waste of space.
But the problem is that neither the resurrection of Jesus, nor life after death, can be proved by logical argument. We're forced to take life after death purely on faith, and since we're now 2000 years away, we also have to take the resurrection of Jesus purely on faith.
Andrew Harvey, in his wonderful book, "Son of Man", describes the resurrection as "mystical fact." He says even the wisest mind or the deepest learning can't understand the resurrection, for the resurrection can't be understood in scientific terms, it can only be known and experienced. It's beyond dogmas, or words or theological formulations, but it can be experienced by the humbled and mystically awoken heart and through direct divine grace (pg. 84).
The resurrection can be experienced in this life, every time we are willing to "die" a little. There are occasions in every life when we're stripped down to bare essentials, and have to concentrate only on surviving. If at these times we're able to follow Christ's path, trusting, believing, loving, hanging onto God, maintaining our integrity, then we discover resurrection for ourselves. Every time we die a little, we discover a little more resurrection, and those who are willing to lose their lives will find them.
Since that is a common experience in this life for many Christians, and can be an experience for all Christians, it seems at the least extremely likely that something similar happens after physical death. If there is a God, then that God is beyond time and space, and has existed since time began. So there's no reason to suppose that human life will be snuffed out like a candle at one particular moment. It's much more likely that human beings will continue to live, with God, in some different dimension after death. On the basis of experience in this life, experience in a God within as well as "out there", and the testimony of the New Testament, it seems to me to be much more likely that there is life after death than that there isn't.
What is that life after death like? Again, we can't possibly know or understand, for it's in the realms of a mystical experience. Throughout the Bible there are various pictures of life after death, all described in terms of the highest and best that could have been imagined when the Bible was written. So sumptuous feasts feature quite heavily, as do wonderful cities dripping with precious gold and jewels. The 23rd psalm pictures an idyllic rural landscape, but includes the sumptuous feast as well. St. Paul himself devotes chapter 15 of the first letter to the Corinthians, part of which we read today, to the subject of resurrection. And from verse 35 onwards, he launches into considerable detail about resurrection "bodies". When this chapter is read in a modern paraphrase, such as Eugene Peter's "The Message", it can be quite stunning and very powerful to modern ears.
It also seems logical that the more we're able to "die" and experience resurrection in this life, the greater will be our experience of resurrection in the life to come. In this life, if like Jesus, we learn to pass through zone after zone of death and surrender, always daring to go deeper into the furnace of divine and purifying love, then we'll become, as Jesus has, one with its fire in all possible dimensions, now and forever (Son of Man, pg. 85).
That may mean being prepared to excite and suffer derision, persecution, betrayal, and abandonment. It may mean being prepared to surrender position, status, friendships, and wealth. But the result will be an amazing and incredible experience of resurrection in this life. And this is but the foretaste of things to come, so in the next life after death when we see not through a glass darkly but face to face, resurrection will be way beyond anything we can begin to dream or imagine.
And that is eternal life.
