Life death
and the hereafter
What could
possibly be more important or more baffling?
In
this month of remembering we have already
celebrated the saints, revisited
thankful memories
of our own beloved dead and today engage in
a very particular kind of commemoration as we focus on those who have
given their lives in the service of others...
As we do
at any funeral, we need to spend time looking back with loving
gratitude...we need to hear the stories of the battlefields, read
poetry replete with the pain and pity of war and spend our 2 minutes
of solemnity lest we forget - but then we need also to raise our eyes
and look forward with hope, even against a background of continued
conflict. We look forward, collectively, to the hope of peace – but
we also look forward, as the Nicene Creed puts it, to “the
resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come”
And
that is quite a challenge...because try as we might we have no clear
picture of what we are looking forward to. And this can lead to all
sorts of wild and unhelpful speculation,- just like the conversation
we overhear in this morning's
gospel. It might be good to remind ourselves that the Saducees, who
open the discussion, start from a place of scepticism.
They are asking a ridiculous question
because they don't believe in any
resurrection at all. They expect a
ridiculous answer...because for them this is all cloud cuckoo land.
Their
scenario is clearly an invitation to wander
up a blind alley, as we hear this
tale of a
much-married
woman,passed on from brother to brother like a family heirloom of
dubious worth. Its tempting to join in with
the prevailing flippancy
and suggest that the one thing the poor lady will want at the
resurrection is a break from every last one
of them!
But, as
Jesus makes clear, to focus on that that would be missing the point.
The
sad thing is, though,
that some of the questions, ideas and
conversations that I listen to, both within the church and outside,
seem to be based on very similar expectations. People
talk about Grandma having the kettle on ready to greet Gramps
when he comes, about
Uncle Jim enjoying
a pint of Guinness
with the lads while
he waits for the rest of the family to
arrive...
Being
human,with our all too limited, finite perceptions, we want to use
familiar landmarks as we set out to explore the unknown. So it can
seem at times as if all we expect of the hereafter is some kind of
gigantic family reunion – like our
childhood Christmasses but better, as
nobody will fall out, which is just as well since it's going to last
forever.
Is
that it? Is that really all we have to look
forward to??
Please
no!
Don't get
me wrong.
I
absolutely believe that all those whom we love but see no longer are
safe in God's care.
And
I believe that the 'joy of human love' is not lost or obliterated by
death...
God
made us for relationship. -with him and with one another and it
is,for me, inconceivable that this amazing transformative
gift of love which inspires human beings to
acts of courage and self sacrifice beyond our rational capacity
should ever be lost or wasted.
Love never
ends, said St Paul, in one of his wisest passages...and to that I
would want to add a resounding Amen.
But
I really don't expect heaven to be a perfected version of earth. I
know that we might welcome the safety and familiarity that such
a vision represents but honestly who wants
familiarity when the alternative is to be changed from glory into
glory?
Agreed
we cannot investigate, weigh up the evidence, establish
beyond all doubt just how it will work. We
have no idea how it will be, because we are
dealing with matters of faith and hope as well as love.
Faith
that it will come to pass and hope that when it does everything will
be transformed.
What we have
now – even at its best-
is not what we are waiting for... but we
look forward with hope because we believe
we ARE waiting for something.
Remembrance
Sunday exists to ensure that the mistakes of the past will not
forever shape & dominate the future...that we break out of that
depressing cycle that insists “History repeats itself. It has to.
No-one listens” - but even beyond this we know that we are not
caught in an endlessly repeating cycle of error but traveling
on a purposeful journey from past to future...
History
will run its course and then will come
the final fulfillment
of God's purpose,
creation restored in the life of the world to come. Swords
WILL be beaten into ploughshares...there WILL be a new heaven and a
new earth...
We
cannot grasp how this will come to pass -because we live in the
limited perspective of our time bound physical bodies. We cannot help
but see through a glass darkly, our best guesses just that -
guesses – based on our knowledge of here and now.
And
language is inadequate...and our frame of reference always, ALWAYS
too small...so let us turn,
briefly, to our Old Testament reading.
Job
has been confronted with the problem of pain...with the misery of
human existence at its very worst...with the loss of all that he
loved and valued...and finds equilibrium, finally, in the realisation
that God is God...that his ways are not ours...
His
words are a triumphant assertion of hope in the face of suffering –
and their setting by Handel in Messiah gives them an added impact for
today – in the reminder that when words and ideas fail, sometimes
the arts can offer the faintest echo of the
beauty of eternity. Listen
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