The Hope of Heaven

The prospect of heaven has long been a source of hope and encouragement for Christians. Some Christian traditions place great emphasis on heaven. They stress the need to be assured that you’re going there and that this present life is merely a prelude to the eternal symphony of the afterlife spent with Christ and all the saints. Other traditions of Christianity, while acknowledging heaven, place more emphasis on this life. They stress the need to be engaged in God’s reconciling work of love in this present world. Many people, Christian and not, while valuing heaven, are also more focused on this life. For these people, heaven is something that’s nice to know about. That is, it’s nice to know that when you die, it’s not the end. Most people, regardless of their belief about heaven, aren’t in any rush to get there.

There is an old saying in some Christian circles, “don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.” This is a jab at the person whose thoughts are always in the clouds, always elsewhere, and never concerned with the practical realities of life. However, if one did a quick survey of those who are involved with the world’s most neglected and despised people: the poor, the hungry, and the sick, one will typically find a high percentage of people who might be described as “heavenly minded.”

The whole point of being “heavenly minded” is not so that we might disregard the challenges of the present life. Quite the opposite, the Lord’s Prayer tells us that we should live our lives so that things in our world will mirror the realm of God, in other words, “on earth as it is in heaven.” Heaven gives us a picture of how things should be and motivates us to not be satisfied with the broken and hurting world as it is.  One of the reasons that Christians are supposed to live lives that differ so radically from others is because we stand with one foot in heaven and one foot on earth. Heaven is something we experience on earth when we do God’s will.  Going to heaven then, is simply placing both feet into that mystery which we have already experienced in small glimpses and small tastes while on earth. 

Getting Ready to Die

Death is not a popular or comfortable topic in most of North America. Our popular culture is obsessed with unnatural youthfulness and everything is done to keep death hidden away from our minds, our eyes, and our ears. Death must be acknowledged if our lives are to be lived meaningfully.

The greatest preparation for death is to live a full life here on earth. For the Christian, fullness of life is found in loving God and loving our neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40). Some people die without warning, for them the only preparation for their death is the content and character of their lives.

However, many people are aware that they are coming closer to death. This could be because of illness, advanced age, or violent circumstances. When we know that death is coming we should prepare ourselves as best we can.

This involves four basic steps:

#1 Trust in Christ. Be assured that you have professed belief in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Recognize it's His death and His resurrection that gives you the guarantee of your resurrection to eternal life. It’s not unusual for people to have attended church their whole life yet never made a personal commitment to Christ.

#2 Wrap Your Earthly Affairs. When you know that death is coming soon it’s important to take care of your earthly affairs. Hopefully, you’ll have already written a will and made your wishes known to your family. But at this point you need to finalize these matters so you can focus on the final transition from this life to the next.

#3. Make your Confession. It’s important as death approaches to come clean with God, with friends and family. Seek to make amends where possible. Make sure to tell the people in your life that you love them. Also, many Christians have benefited from making a final private confession with their parish priest. This is a way of spiritually cleaning house before you enter into the fuller presence of God.

#4. Receive Holy Communion and Prayer on a regular basis. Plus seek encouragement from your pastor, church, and family. Seek to accept that your time here on earth is done, and that you are now moving on to the nearer presence of God. Relish the time you have remaining. Make a point to bless others each day.

Christians believe that Jesus overcame death through His life, death and resurrection. This is a great consolation for the believer. It does not, however, remove the necessity to prepare ourselves for death.

The Doctrine of Creation

The doctrine of creation refers to the Christian belief that God created the universe out of nothing. All aspects of creation from the smallest particles to the mightiest of mountains are believed to have their origin in the will of God. All inanimate objects, as well as all animate beings, were created by God. The exact mechanics of how God created the world have been hotly contested over the last one hundred years. Christians of serious faith and capable mind fall on both sides of the evolutionary debate, some embracing theistic evolution, others embracing a literal six-day view of creation.

The doctrine of creation’s major claim is that God is the creator of all things. Churches around the world affirm belief in this doctrine every week when they recite the following words from the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God,

    The Father, the Almighty,
    maker of heaven and earth,
    of all that is seen and unseen. 

The doctrine of creation affirms the goodness of creation, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). The goodness of creation carries serious implications for understanding our selves, and especially our bodies. The Christian Church has had a checkered past when it comes to dealing with the human body, especially as it relates to sexuality. Our bodies are good. Sexuality was a gift given to us by God. Sex as God intended it was meant to be a beautiful, vigorous expression of life, union, and procreation.

The Church has often given people the impression that sex is dirty and thus our bodies are dirty, particularly the female body. This is wrong. This is in direct opposition to the doctrine of creation. We are told that “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, the physical aspects of being male and female are also good and intended by God.

In addition, the doctrine of creation reminds us of the importance of all life, and the necessity of being good stewards of the earth. Adam, who is representative of all humanity, was given a job, a job which we inherit as children of the human race, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). The doctrine of creation reminds us of our divinely ordained role as stewards of creation.

The doctrine of creation also unites philosophy, science, and theology into friendly disciplines seeking truth from the same ultimate source: God. The doctrine of creation also reminds us that nature itself points people to the existence of God and often leads them to an experience of God, “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made” (Romans 1:20). More could be said about this doctrine but it is one that deserves greater and more comprehensive attention than it normally receives in our churches today.   

Living life with Jesus

Disciples of Jesus strive to integrate their faith into every aspect of their lives. This does not mean that every moment of the day is dedicated to overtly spiritual or Christian activity, but it does mean that every moment of the day is colored, saturated, informed, and contained within the framework of a commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Often people will speak of priorities and will say that God comes first, followed by family, followed by church, followed by work, etc. This can be a helpful way to evaluate and order one’s life, but discipleship-based Christianity approaches things differently. Every priority in life is understood through the lenses of one’s faith. Alan and Debra Hirsch,  in their book “Untamed: Reactivating  A MissionalForm Discipleship,” put it this way, “Discipleship means loving God first and foremost, and loving everything else in light of that love.”

In other words, the question for the disciple is how does my faith in God shape how I treat my family and friends, how I approach romantic relationships, how I do my job, how I spend money, how I use my free-time?, etc. This sorting out of how faith relates to practical life is the heart of discipleship. Following Jesus is more than accepting a certain intellectual truth or having a warm feeling it requires living differently, day in, and day out.

Local churches should be schools for discipleship, helping people to wrestle with how they can live their faith outside of the walls of the church building. Often churches are only communities of religious activity, but not communities where people of all ages (children, teenagers, adults) and people in all circumstances (single, married, divorced, healthy, sick, addicted, stressed, lonely, etc) can find practical training in being disciples of Jesus in their daily lives.

This is the challenge of the Church in every age, but it is particularly the challenge of the North American Church today. Increasingly the Church will become a minority institution and increasingly society will hold to values that are in conflict with the values of the Gospel. This means that individual Christians will have to learn (or re-learn) what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, that is how faith integrates with every aspect of life. This means that local congregations will have to learn (or re-learn) what it means to be a disciple making community in 21^st century society that is post-Christian and post-modern.

Membership vs Discipleship Based Christianity

A crippling blow to Christianity over the centuries, and to our time in particular, has been the whole-sale adoption by the Church of membership-based Christianity versus discipleship-based Christianity. This shift has hurt the Church more than the sex scandals, the financial scandals, the debates over sexuality, and just about anything else you can think of combined.

So what’s the difference between discipleship-based and membership-based Christianity? Well, in a nutshell, discipleship based Christianity is about a way of life, whereas membership based Christianity is more of an event-based religion (i.e. going to church). Let me illustrate the differences between these two by some general truths about disciples and church goers. This list was compiled by an Episcopal priest who has spent thirty years studying the differences between discipleship and membership based Christianity.

1. Church goers are more influenced by culture; Disciples are more influenced by the Kingdom of God.

2. Churchgoers are more connected to God by ritual and the institution; Disciples are more connected to God by a relationship.

3. Churchgoers tend to be autonomous in their faith journey; Disciples tend to be held accountable in their faith journey.

4. Church goers view their faith as a matter of individual convenience; Disciples view their faith with a high level of commitment.

5. Churchgoers remain individualistic, independent, and self-centered; Disciples pursue community, interdependence, and are Christ Centered.

6. Churchgoers focus on church work as the major emphasis; Disciples focus on the ministry of the church in the world.

7. Churchgoers are governed more by the natural realm; Disciples are more governed by the supernatural realm.

8. Churchgoers are content with maintance; Disciples are driven by mission and the great commission.

9. Churchgoers are dependent on clergy for ministry; Disciples are dependent on the body of Christ for ministry.

10. Churchgoers look to develop programs; Disciples look to develop ministries.

11. Churchgoers consider themselves owners of material possessions; Disciples consider themselves stewards of material possessions.

12. Churchgoers are content to give according to their own standard; disciples are committed to the tithe and get there.

13. Churchgoers stop with Jesus as Savior; Disciples follow Jesus as Lord.

14. Churchgoers are Sunday only Christians; Disciples are lifestyle Christians.

Hopefully, those contrasts between disciple and church goer are helping you to get a better understanding of the difference between membership-based Christianity (which is typically only about going to church) and discipleship-based Christianity (which is about your whole life). Most serious Christian thinkers and writers claim that membership based Christianity isn’t Christianity at all, but rather something more like “churchainity."

What do you think?

Is Conversion Optional?

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Peter the Apostle. The feast celebrates and recalls Peter’s confession of faith as recorded Matthew 16:16, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

In this moment the Holy Spirit worked to give Peter special insight, a new understanding (not a complete understanding, just read verses 21-23!), of who Jesus was and who Jesus would be for him. For most people the concept of conversion implies a change from one set of beliefs to another, (e.g., converting from Islam to Christianity). Indeed, conversion involves matters of the intellect, as it does matters of the heart.

Conversion is difficult to talk about because of its experiential nature. You can earn a degree in the historical study of religious conversion and still not understand it. In a way, conversion is a like joke, you either get it or you don’t. You either see Jesus for who He is (as Peter did) or you do not. This is offensive to many people, especially to educated people, who are bothered by the idea that knowledge does not open every door. Within Christian circles the debate regarding conversion has been whether it is a one-time event or whether it is a life-long process.

The answer to this question, in the sacramental tradition, is yes. Yes, there is an event and yes it is a life-long process. This is where the term “conversion of life” comes into play. We may have a moment where we make a “decision for Christ,” but that moment must give birth to an entire lifetime of growing in understanding of who Jesus is and who we are in relationship to Him. Some evangelical Christians stress the necessity of being “saved” and of being able to recall the exact moment of one’s conversion. In fact, there are millions of Christians who are able to recall this moment, but there are also millions of Christians who cannot place the moment exactly.

I think a good analogy here is the analogy of friendship or marriage. When did you first become friends with that person? When did you first fall in love with your spouse? Some people can point to particular moment, but some people can only say “I’m not sure. I just realized that I was that person’s friend or that I had fallen in love with that person.”  I think this also applies to our conversion to Christ. Please don’t misunderstand me, I do believe the Bible is clear that every person has to choose Christ for themselves, there are no grandchildren in the Kingdom of God.

However, the “method” or “occasion” for that personal decision varies greatly by individual and tradition. Some people clearly make that decision at baptism, or confirmation, or in response to an altar call, or by praying a sinner’s prayer with another Christian. Others have always been aware of Christ in their life, but have over the years taken personal ownership of their faith. In other words, Jesus is no longer their parents God; their parents Lord and Savior; He is now their Lord, their Savior. Christians from mainline denominations run the risk of equating church attendance or participation in the sacramental system as automatic guarantees of conversion. Where evangelical Christians run the risk of limiting God by saying that conversion can only happen through a particular method (i.e., altar call). 

However, if you’re wondering whether conversion is necessary, the answer is yes. Have you been converted? Are you being converted?  

Fresh Starts and the Spiritual Life

It has often been said that the Christian life is one of continual repentance. Repentance happens when we recognize our sin, confess it to God, ask Christ into our lives, and start to live differently. The new calendar year is well known as a time where people seek to make significant changes in their lives. Some Christians are for New Year’s resolutions, while some are against them.

It is true that through Christ we have the ability to start again. It is also true that through the forgiveness of Christ our lives need not be entirely defined by our past, or by our present, but that we can look to a future day where our lives will be defined by a new reality. This is good news. However, this is not all the news. There does come a time where we cannot begin again. When the relationship is already lost, when that stage of our life is already past, when we cannot go back and do differently what we have already done or failed to have done.

I’m sometimes dramatically made aware of this when delivering a sermon that makes a heavy demand for life change and my eyes make eye contact with a person who is in their 80s or 90s. Yes, depending on the message they can respond by God’s grace. Other times the message is clearly for a person in another life stage. The Gospel speaks to us differently in the varied stages of our lives.  

Of course, we never know when the end will come, but most of us who – statistically -- have a couple or more decades of life to live tend to fool ourselves into thinking “we have time.” We may not have time to make a fresh start unless we start today. This urgency to respond to the Gospel is seen in Jesus’ own ministry when several would-be disciples give Him excuses about why they cannot follow Him immediately. His response is, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

The fact that our earthy lives are limited is a painful reality for most of us. This means we have to decide what we really need to do, and not simply what we would like to do. If you’re been wanting to do something with your life or change something about your life for years and you haven’t done it yet you need either to get going with God and with other people to make that change or you need to be honest and admit you’re not going to do it and stop wasting your aspirational time.

God’s grace is always extended, but we are not always able to respond. This should cause us to ponder very carefully what changes we need to make in our lives, not later, but now, for our time is limited.