the one about heaven

From abducted girls in Nigeria to unaccompanied children at our borders, we see suffering children.  War persists and the Middle east continues to breed violence. The threat of Ebola virus is becoming a very real public, global health crisis. When the world has gone to hell, people need a word about heaven---a word of hope.  A word of consolation and comfort.  And we have them today.  Do you ever wonder what heaven will be like? I mean since we’re getting closer? There are books about heaven written by doctors and children who claim to have experienced it.  They sell and become movies because people are craving a word of hope in an age full of despair whose only consolation is the next three-day sale at Sears.  People ask me, pastor do you believe in heaven?  What do you think it’s like there?  I’m not sure, actually. I haven’t given it much thought.  Maybe because I enjoy my life, my place in this world…I’m not dodging bullets, fleeing armies, starving, living in disease and filth, experiencing horrors and griefs I have read about and seen on TV.  I’m not saying I’m in heaven, but…it certainly ain’t hell. You know? And yet, the conditions under which so many of our brothers and sisters are living, the needs of our neighbors, the struggles of our friends---tell me that we all need something to change.    

So what is heaven like?  How do you see it?  Clouds?  Angels singing? Palaces of gold in the sky?  Eternal golf course?  Eternal all inclusive resort?  A sunny day, a meadow, a gentle breeze, a butterfly, very Little House on the prairie?  Or mountains and rivers and trees and houses?   

How do you get there?  Death?  Morals?  Good grades?  Faith in Jesus?  Is there a pearly gate?  Is St. Peter checking people in? Really?  I believe heaven is more than a nice vacation and a decent weather pattern. It’s something other than a post-death destination.    

Jesus tells stories to open our imagination.  To what shall we compare the kingdom of heaven?  But it doesn’t seem like he is describing the after life at all.  At least, not the way we would.  Instead he seems to image what is it like to live under the reign of God, to live in the empire of God, and to experience the power of God.  As a political perspective, the empire of God exists in contrast to the empires of the world---Roman, American, insert present superpower du jour.  It is a kingdom of peace, abundance, hospitality and welcome, freedom and compassion.  It exists in contrast with every human government because it is does not assert dominion for its own sake.  The language of Kingdom of God or kingdom of the heavens is about a time and a place and a way of life that is greater than any other. What life is like when God is King.  How does this kingship come about?  How will God become King of this world?  Or is God only King of the world to come?  Jesus’ ministry suggests that God is interested in this life, the here and now, at least as much as the life to come.   Healing the sick, feeding the hungry, raising the dead?  That’s the ultimate example of God’s interest in this life---the dead are raised, not taken to heaven, but restored to life on earth.  The kingship of God comes about through the inauguration of Jesus, whose coronation is his death.  Strange way to become king.  But, maybe God’s ways are not our ways.  So what are God’s ways?  What is it like when God is king?  How will it be?   

And so we hear these short stories describing what it is like when God is King:  Like a tiny Mustard seed, like a little yeast, like a small pearl, like hidden treasure in a field.  So first, the Kingship of God is small, subtle, easily overlooked, yet clearly present.  It’s easy to overlook the presence of God when life is hard, when suffering is real, when needs persist and provisions are scarce.  When bombs are flying and people are dying and children are crying.  It’s hard to see God when things are going wrong.  Even when things are going right, we tend not to see blessing, but luck or good fortune or accident or personal agency.  But Jesus suggests that heaven is small and subtle and hidden in the midst of this world.  Within reach.  Near us.  Perhaps unfolding, growing, emerging around us.  It is not somewhere else, but mixed in, deep in the soil, growing within.  It is inside and under and within.      

And active---in the case of the seed and the yeast, which both carry potential energy to activate a process---the first becomes a tree that provides hospitable shelter for birds.  The second activates the dough and compels it to rise to become bread.   God is present and actively engaged in the making of the good life, the heavenly life.  We might say that Jesus suggests that only because God is actively involved might the kingdom of heaven come about.  Not because we did something right or knew something special, but because God is secretly present behind everything good that emerges.  And perhaps in the bad that occurs as well.  Might God be within all things at all times? Like a hidden treasure waiting to be found?   

A nest, a loaf of bread, a field, a single pearl, a net full of fish…How else might we describe it?  A glass of cold water on a hot day.  A place to sit and rest after a hard day of work.  A meal prepared for you after a long journey.  A friend who comes to visit you when you’re sad.  A new job.  A new backpack for school.  A fresh towel and soap.  A comfortable and safe bed.  The sky after  a storm passes.  A phone call that prevents a person from entering dark despair.  An unexpected gift.  A hug from a stranger.  

How might we imagine the kingdom of heaven? Small, subtle, unexpected. Yet of unprecedented value when it is discovered.  Is that not the secret of faith? When one has faith in God and hope in His promises, nothing else matters as much.  Nothing is worth more.  Because with it and through it all things, the good and the bad, are under the influence and power of the God who loves all things and intends to restore all things to beauty, truth, and goodness.             

The heavenly comes in the form of a man: A 1^st century, itinerant Jewish Rabbi whose teachings about nonviolence and compassion, and his ministry of healing the sick and feeding the hungry  led to his crucifixion by the Romans in about the year 37 AD is the King of the Empire of God, having come to destroy the malicious forces of corrupt power threatening to destroy the good creation.  He dwells among us.  In piece of bread, in tiny cup, in your life and mine.  As insignificant and small as we might feel. Heaven is not a place, but a people in communion with the God who raises the dead and promises that our destructive ways will not be the grand finale in his creation project.  There is something more. It is a promise.  Nothing on earth or in hell will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. The Kingdom is ours forever.  Amen.