Sermon Delivered at Church of the Good Shepherd
Fort Lee, New Jersey,
Thursday, April 11, 2021, at 10:00 p.m.
By the Rev. Stephen C. Galleher
Have You Died and Gone to Heaven?
“With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:32-35)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!
Yes, the Lord is risen. Indeed, that is one wonderful half of our Easter celebration. That this individual, Jesus the Christ, lived a life so free of ego that he was liberated to live without reserve, with no holds barred. As a friend’s rewording of today’s collect goes, “Jesus’s life was so trusting and true that death could not hold him.” Christ showed in his resurrection appearances that God does not and will not abandon us. And he delivers his peace by showing that being in a resurrection environment is a place where peace reigns—a peace that passes understanding.
But where does that leave us? Without some impact on my life here and now, it’s just a charming and dramatic history lesson from a long-ago time and place.
I am sure that we all know that old saying, “I’ve died and gone to heaven!” I don’t know if there is a Korean equivalent for this; but it indicates, does it not, that our life is going so well that things just couldn’t feel better for us. We say it, do we not, when we are in a state of relative bliss? We just didn’t know we could feel this good and still be alive! But when things slip, when our lives meet challenges, then our wings are clipped and we usually stop saying it.
But my question this morning is, “Have we, in fact, or have we not, in fact, died and gone to heaven?”
For this question gets to the heart of our life, goes straight to the meaning of our Baptism, and challenges us to listen again to one of the final statements of Christ: “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
So, we ask in a more somber vein, “Have you died and gone to heaven?” Have you really died and are you now in heaven? Of course, many of you will object, “Of course not. I am not dead, nor have I gone to what’s next in store for me!” Ok. If you want to be that way! If you want to think that you live, then you die, and then you go someplace else. That’s a pretty literal picture; and if you feel comfortable in that rocket ship, enjoy the voyage. I fear that many of us cannot come along with you. Many young people reject their religious heritage because they find that view of their lives to sound far-fetched. They just can’t relate.
But we Christians, whatever we think about what happens to us after we die, tell another story. And that is that our lives are presently transformed, shot through now with a new perspective, a new reality, the reality that we have died and been risen with Christ. To me, this means that our lives now are lived in eternity, in the bosom of Abraham, in the arms of the risen Christ, we are in the presence now of this God who never leaves our side, who is closer to us than our very breath. In fact, this God is the very breath of our lives.
Paul, in one of his most ecstatic passages, says in poetic language what I am getting at. He writes, “Since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated, at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Colossians 31-4)
I do not believe that this writing is as abstract or impractical as we might at first think. It is borne out in our life experiences. When we are in the presence of the death of a loved one, for instance. Do we not in some sense feel that we are still present with them, with their love? Our love for them and their love for us has not disappeared. We witness near and far unbelievable acts of service, bravery and sacrifice, like the thousands of health care professionals who show up for work during this time of COVID and do their duty and yet save the lives of those they are waiting on. In fact, all similar service workers, grocery store clerks, sanitation workers, bus drivers. Are we not in the presence of the holy? Are these not sacred people doing holy things?
Paul says, “Since we have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,” and a bit later, “Set your minds on things that are above.”
Is that “setting-our-minds-on-things-that-are-above,” about love? After all, that is Christ’s final commandment, that we love one another.
The beauty, but also, the challenge of this commandment is to love absolutely everyone, with absolutely no exceptions.
So, have we died and gone to heaven? Heaven is not just a place where we are loved unconditionally. It is also a place where we love unconditionally. Whoops. Thereby hangs the problem.
Yes, how do I love others unconditionally? Can I say that I do this? I know that we will confess that we do not do this in anywhere near a perfect way.
But, being in heaven, we need not despair. For heaven is where love is, we are, remember, in the bosom of Abraham. The risen Christ said that where we are, Christ will be also. His love infuses, embraces, encourages, uplifts us into God’s love.
How broad is the heart of the ocean? If you think of the ocean as one big heart, where are its boundaries, where does it cease to be heart? There is no outside of the ocean. Similarly, there is no outside to God’s love since we are never outside it.
The Resurrection tells us that we have died and are in heaven? Does that mean that our bliss should remain undiminished? Of course not. We are human beings and we deny the reality of pain, suffering, loss and grief at the peril of our mental health. But resurrection does tell us that nothing need diminish our sense of joy, as difficult as the circumstances may be. Being outside of the world but still in it, we are outside time in a sense also. We are free to do as we please. And all there is to do is what Christ commanded us to do, that is, to love.
A friend said something very simple to me the other day, but I took it as a sign to preach on the theme of dying and going to heaven. He said, “I have nothing but time to be kind.”
Paul said it, “Love never ends.” Love is like the width of the ocean.
Life begins with love, is maintained with love, and ends with love.
Resurrection is now. “Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed.” Christ is risen and we are risen indeed!
Amen.