Practical Spirituality

Think Resurrection and Think Eternity

A Sermon Prepared for the Hollywood Presbyterian Church

Luke 20:27-37

Rev. Stephen A. Herring

November 7, 2010

“The children of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those of this age who are found worthy to attain unto the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, nor are they able to die again.  They are like angels.  They are children of God, being children of the resurrection.”  (Luke 20:35-36) 

Oh what a mess we sometimes find in this life!  Here in this world we enter into all sorts of commitments and contracts.  We get tangled up in relationships of various qualities, some great, some not so good.  We have things we need to do, places we need to go, and people we need to see, but the things, the places, and the people do not always measure up.  Things are disappointing.  Things are amazingly imperfect.  This whole set of arrangements and commitments define our reality.  It defines the nature and quality of our lives.  It defines who and what we are.  When things measure up to our demands and expectations we are relatively happy.  When things do not measure up to our demands or expectations, we can become downright miserable.  Often, when something is not quite right, and we struggle day and night to fix what is broken, only to have whatever it is mess up again.  Our frustration builds up, and we get even more wrapped up in whatever our problems might be.  Most of us swing on a pendulum between having things work for us fairly well, and having things not work well at all.  Most of the time we are someplace in between these two extremes.  We swing between our world being more or less OK, and it being not so good.  We get along wherever we are, and we make the best of it, but such is the world we live in. 

This is the scenario the Sadducees presented to Jesus in Luke 20:27.  The Sadducees were a group of Jews who were especially concerned with problems and solutions with regard to the Torah in the here and now, in this physical world.  A woman is married to a man, but he dies, and she marries his brother.  This process continues until she has married and buried seven brothers.  So who is she married to in the afterlife?  This scenario describes the world where we are now.  We are in the world of tangled relationships, failed, and confused commitments, life and death, grief and recovery, things ending, and things starting over again.  We move from situation to situation, just like the woman married those seven times.  Each time we might think things will finally work out in the right way, but each time loss, grief, and disappointment have their way.  This leaves us wondering how things will ever work out.    

This story reminds me of another place in the scriptures where a woman was married to a bunch of men.  The Samaritan woman at the well had been married to five men, and the man she was living with was not her husband.  Jesus was once traveling through Samaria when he arrived at a well, thirsty with traveling.  He asked a woman for a drink, and he said to her; “If you had known the gift of God, and who it is that is asking you; “Give me a drink.”  You would have asked him and he would have given you living water…For all who drink of this water will thirst again.  But all who drink of the water which I will give to them will not thirst for eternity, but the water which I give them will become within them a fountain of water welling up unto eternal life.”  (John 4:10-14) 

In both scriptures, Jesus teaches us to compare the world where we hunger and thirst for righteousness today, the world of complications and complicated commitments, with the world we will enter by his word.  We have a comparison between this immediate physical world and the world we will find on the other side.  We have a comparison between physical life and spiritual life, between worldly life and heavenly life, between temporal life and eternal life. 

In order to see this comparison more clearly, les look at a few scriptures which describe life on the other side.  

First, the response Jesus gives to the Sadducees in Luke 20:27-32

“The children of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those of this age who are found worthy to attain unto the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, nor are they able to die again.  They are like angels.  They are children of God, being children of the resurrection.” 

Then we have Paul’s mystical vision of eternity found within a moment of time, in First Corinthians 15:50-53

“This I say, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood are not able to inherit the kingdom of God, nor is the corruptible able to inherit the incorruptible.  Behold, I tell you a mystery.  All will not sleep, but all will be changed in an indivisible moment, in the flash of an eye, at the final trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.  For it is necessary for the corruptible to put on incorruptibility, and for the mortal to put on immortality.” 

Then we have this visionary scripture from Revelation 3:12-13 

“The one who is victorious I will make a column (a pillar) in the temple of my God, and that one shall not go out of it anymore.  And I will write the name of my God upon that person, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God, and my own new name.  Whoever has ears to hear let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” 

 

Each of these scriptures offers some form of description of life on the other side, life beyond this world of problems.  Based on these scriptures, we can describe our life on the other side in the following way.    

·         We will no longer be engaged in the webs of entanglement, commitment and imperfection which determine our earthly lives.  We will neither marry, nor be given in marriage. 

·         We will be like angels. 

·         As children of God, we will be children of resurrection. 

·         Some will have fallen asleep and some will be fully awake. 

·         We will all be changed. 

·         We will exist in a state free from corruptibility, without degenerative change. 

·         We will ourselves be part of the structure of heaven.  (Pillars) 

·         We will not leave that place again, being unable to die again. 

·         We will possess the name of God. , (I AM.)  This is ultimate, absolute permanent reality.    

·         We will possess the name of the eternal temple, a new, heavenly Jerusalem. 

·         We will possess the new name of Christ.  The new name of Christ will be ours once we enter into complete unity with Christ. 

When we look at these characteristics of the afterlife, we need to remember that there was a reason why the Sadducees were so completely concerned with life in the here and now.  We are going to have a problem if we separate our life here from our spiritual life.  We get this strange idea that we can put up with all sorts of injustice and inequality and evil here in this world because we will soon go to another world.  This is a terrible form of hypocrisy.  In this way of thinking we can encourage people to endure anything and to accept anything simply because it will change in some undetermined way at some undetermined time in the future.  For this reason the Sadducees created a set of doctrines which denied that there was a resurrection.  Denying that there even is a resurrection of the dead requires that all of our solutions be focused in the here and now.  That is why the Sadducees did what they did.  They wanted the Jews of their day to focus on their immediate practical difficulties, and not to be distracted by an overwhelming spiritualism by which evil would be tolerated in the hope for eternal life. 

We need to do two completely different things in order to properly develop our faith in this unjust and disappointing world.  We need to apply our spiritual thinking about the resurrection to the immediate practical problems we face today.  Rather than simply waiting to pass away and to enter this promised world of peace, we need to apply these salvation teachings right to the heart of our lives today.  We need to use salvation teachings to empower and to inform our thinking in this practical world we live in today.  We need to think resurrection and to think eternity right here and right now.  With this in mind, let us revisit that list of conditions we will encounter in the world beyond and see what happens if we apply them to this world we live in today. 

·         We will no longer be engaged in the webs of entanglement, commitment and imperfection which determine our earthly lives.  We will neither marry, nor be given in marriage.  If this is the case, we should make the very best and the very most of the time we have together today.  Why waste our time having problems if this whole game will soon be over.  Why not enjoy what we have in this moment while it is ours?  Why not make the best of the commitments, friendships, and relationships that are ours today. 

·         We will be like angels.  If we will be like angels in the hereafter, why not live as angels today?  Angels are the messengers of the truth of God.  The angels are the spiritual beings who bring us the news of God’s spiritual truth.  Right now in this physical world we can do that.  We can convey the good news of the spiritual truth which is the essence of God. 

·         As children of God, we will be children of resurrection.  This means we have the opportunity to live life in full accordance with our true nature.  We were created by God, we belong to God, and we will return to God.  This knowledge allows us to live within the fullness of our true identity.  We can enter every situation, every problem, and every commitment with the knowledge that we are the children of God.

·         Some will have fallen asleep and some will be fully awake.  Our task here is to wake the heck up.  We need to stop living unconscious lives and live consciously.  We need to live with the constant awareness of exactly who and what we are. 

·         We will all be changed.  If we feel that we fall short in this present moment, or that we do not know enough, or that we are lacking in something we need, we will soon be changed.  This knowledge can allow us to move forward with confidence that our needs will be supplied.  Today we do see in a glass darkly.  Today we do know only in part.  We love only in part.  Soon though, we will see and know and love completely.  (See I Corinthians 13)  So let us act with confidence.  Our spiritual credit is good.  We have the power to act with spiritual confidence today. 

·         We will exist in a state free from corruptibility, without degenerative change.  Much of what ails us today are the conditions of degenerative change.  Whatever is bothering us seems to be getting worse.  Each day it seems to be taking a little more of us.  Degenerative diseases and various other disorders are this way.  They take a little more of us each day.  Aging is this way.  It has a little more power over us each day.  Our task as saved people is to not be ruled by the degeneration.  We are called to incorruptibility.  We are headed to a place where such changes will no longer apply.  This place is called eternity and we get there by the salvation of Jesus Christ.  This knowledge can allow us to rise above the deterioration of our physical lives. 

·         We will become permanent parts of the structure of heaven.  (Pillars)  We will belong in heaven like a wall belongs under a ceiling.  We will each be part of the process up there.  Our nature and the nature of the heavenly city will be the same.  We will be an essential part of the spiritual truth of God.   

·         We will not leave that place again, being unable to die again.  By belonging to that place, we will never leave it again.  The vital truth is that if we belong there we also belong here.  We can live and move and act with unconditional confidence here where we are because we know where we belong and where we are going. 

·         We will possess the name of God. , (I AM.)  This is ultimate, absolute permanent reality.   Right now I AM here!  Soon I will say “I AM” in the presence of the GREAT I AM.  By having the name of God we have the essence and identity and full reality of God in this moment.  That knowledge gives us power we can use to overcome, or to accept, or to transcend our circumstances today.   

·         We will possess the name of the eternal temple, a new, eternal Jerusalem.  The New Jerusalem is the new temple, the new standard of relationship with God.  The New Jerusalem is a place of direct and unconditional relationship with God. 

·         We will possess the new name of Christ.  The new name of Christ will be ours once we enter into complete unity with Christ.  If we know we will be with Christ then, in that afterlife, we can see ourselves as being with Christ here in this life.  If we are with Christ in the here and now, we are saved in this moment.  There is no waiting for something else to happen.  We have an immediate and unconditional relationship with our Savior in this moment. 

So let us go forward with confidence to live life and to love life right here in this fabulously messed up world.  Let us live today and act today and think today in the resurrection and in eternity – in Jesus.  Amen.