Rev. Richard Smith
Eastertide: Celebrating The Impact Of The Resurrection
I Corinthians 15:42, 44 Words of Paul
‘So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable…It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
With the resurrection of Jesus there can be no doubt, there is life beyond death. We will live again. In God’s raising of Jesus from the dead, we receive God’s grand gesture of the gift of eternal life.
In my December 6, 2021 blog, I highlighted some key suppositions about heaven; tenets which I believe have Biblical, theological, and spiritual merit. Here is a summation of that earlier offering:
- We will be changed. As Paul notes, our natural bodies, our physical bodies, will by God’s divine action become spiritual bodies. What these spiritual bodies are is open discussion.
- We will know each other and be able to communicate with one another.
- We will remain connected to one another in the most important relationships of our lives, though our connection will not be physical. Rather, it will be spiritual and emotional.
- We will grow. Each of us has areas of life needing spiritual advancement and I believe that opportunity will exist beyond this life. There are great teachers whom I will treasure for what they can teach me…Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, etc.
- We will have God-given responsibilities. I believe God’s community of diverse souls will be a context in which we each can serve; can have some specific venue for helping God’s eternal community be all He intends it to be. We might also say we have a purpose beyond this life. Just as having a purpose gives us true joy here, our purpose can evolve as we live eternally.
Now, even as we celebrate this grand gift of grace from God, we also acknowledge that our primary life focus is to be on sharing the witness of Jesus here and now and not getting lost in wishing for heaven.
Note Matthew 28 wherein Jesus reminds the remaining elven apostles that he has work for them to do. It’s clear that after he leaves earth (Acts 1), his followers are to get on with the work of witnessing, teaching, and preaching. Yes, he will come again; yes, they will know the blessing of heaven (John 14:1-4); but, in the meantime, he wants us to focus on the fields ripe for the harvest of love, peace, and joy!!
I have to admit that I pray for patience with those Christians whose focus on heaven, on eternal life, keeps them from diligently and passionately doing all one can to help the life and person of Jesus change our world here and now!
It was Olive Wendell Holmes, Sr., who said, Some people are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good. Preach on, brother! We can do both…serve Jesus here and give thanks that someday the gift of heaven is rea
