Transcript Heaven - Diocese of Lichfield

Heaven
12th October 2013
Imagine there is a heaven…
it’s easy if you try
What the New Testament
says about the reality of
heaven.
The first feature of New Testament teaching about
heaven is that it belongs to a much larger picture. The
Christian hope is cosmic in scale – it involves God’s
renewal of the whole of creation.
The second feature is that God and intimate
relationship with God are at the heart of heaven.
The third feature is that heaven is a corporate experience.
A fourth feature is that heaven has a certain conviviality to it.
A final feature heaven is that it transcends all the difficulties
of life on earth.
It is a sphere where the final and irreversible victory of
God’s love over all that was devilish and divisive and
destructive in the first creation is reaffirmed and rejoiced in.
So, the Biblical portrayal of heaven sees it as part of a
cosmic renewal by God; centred on God’s presence;
corporate in nature; possessed of a certain materiality;
and filled with conviviality.
The central portal of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
The God-centred interpretation of
heaven.
Thomas Aquinas gives the classical definition in these
words:
“The fulfilment of man consists in his attainment of his final end,
consisting in the vision of God. The vision of God results in the
immutability of both intellect and will…………. Our final fulfilment
is perfect stillness or immobility”
The second major interpretation – the anthropocentric
or human – centred.
The name most strongly linked to this interpretation
is Emanuel Swedenborg.
Swedenborg believed that heaven was very close to earth and
the dead entered into it immediately.
Heaven is a continuation and fulfilment of material existence
and the occupants of heaven are engaged in lots of activities,
experience spiritual progress and are caught up in a motionfilled environment.
Finally, a focus on human love expressed in communal and
family life becomes more and more prominent.
C.H. Spurgeon the great Victorian preacher saw work as one
of the keys to this soul-making.
‘The idea of heaven as a place of rest will just suit some
indolent professors’, he wrote.
‘A true idea of heaven is serving God day and night in his
temple and never to know weariness and never to require
slumber.’
The anthropocentric or human-centred interpretation of
heaven much of the fulfilment of being there has shifted
from the enjoyment of God in contemplation and stillness to
the enjoyment of one another in an environment which not
only strongly resembles but in many ways gives continuity
to life on earth.
The main legacy of the late 20th century is that belief in
heaven has largely collapsed even among church people.
The details of heaven have become less and less definite.
“Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the
next room. Whatever we were to each other that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name. Speak to me in the easy
way which you always used. Life means all that it ever
meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is absolute
unbroken continuity. All is well. Nothing is lost.”
Death is.
Death is. Nothing at all
can quench the pain.
We can only hold out,
enduring the loss,
to see if time does heal.
Death is. Nothing at all
can fill the gap.
God doesn’t attempt to;
God perhaps keeps it empty
for the space preserves our communion.
Death is. Nothing at all
can defy our mortality.
We are framed by it,
our constant companion,
and its shadow illuminates our path.
Death is.
But nothing at all
can alter our natality;
that we are born
and blessed to live
and love.
Matt Vernon
Q. Which interpretation are you most attracted to?
Q. Has this lecture made you think differently about your
picture of heaven?
Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth
…
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the
first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and
the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the
new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’
5 And the one who was seated on the throne
said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he
said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy
and true.’ 6Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am
the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and
the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift
from the spring of the water of life. 7Those who
conquer will inherit these things, and I will be
their God and they will be my children.
What is the passage about?
What is promised? What is not promised?
What does it mean to you?
Behold, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more."
(Isaiah 65:17-19)
• Parallel with Isaiah 65 and other places in the OT
• Sea represents chaos, unordered creation,
perpetual unrest
• The Bride is not just the church but the whole
renewed world
• God used to dwell in the temple in Jerusalem,
now God dwells in the new Jerusalem – the
redeemed and transformed world
“It is one thing to think that God is
preparing a place for us ... It is an entirely
other thing to look around at the very place
in which we live, the injustices,
improprieties, and problems, and get ready
for God to come here, transforming all of it
into the new beginning and end that God
is.”
• Heaven and earth are no longer separated
• Belief in heavenly Jerusalem was widespread
(Gal 4:26, Lord’s Prayer?)
• The people are not ‘taken up’ rapture style,
but God makes God’s home on earth
• It is a vision of life with God after judgement.
Judgement is primarily purposeful not
punitive
• Importance of ‘new’ - New Israel, the new
covenant, the new commandment, the new
wine, the new man, the new Adam, the new
age and so on.
- God is establishing a new heaven and a new
earth.
• The promise of newness is not made through
the angels, but by directly by God
Newness is about continuity
and discontinuity
• Interactions of the raised
• Reading the words on the gravestones
• Both wedding and birth are evoked – the roses
over the door, and God holding the Christ
Child in his arms
• Ordinary and Extraordinary
Stanley Spencer:
• “The ordinary everyday meaning of things,
and the imaginary meaning about it all”.
• Full of as “little ordinary intimate happenings
which bring me to a new state of awareness.”
• “Nobody is in any hurry in this painting, those
men lying on top of the tombs I like very
much, they gave me the feeling that the
Resurrection is a peaceful occasion, and very
positive. I like the happiness, that's the main
idea of the picture.”
• Continuity: the lives and relationships of the
old world, being renewed in the next, the
familiarity of place and person.
• Discontinuity: the laws of nature are
overturned, transformation of the familiar.
• Spencer recognizes, and beautifully conveys,
that when all things are made new- it will be
the renewal of the familiar.
• In the Christian community, it is the fulfillment
of relationship, the perfecting of the ordinary,
that is the context of the life to come.
• The promise of new life is part of our present,
and not just our future reality.
• It is the consolidation of the moments of
beauty that we experience in this life
1. There will be continuity in heaven. We will
still be the people that we are, but fully or
completely so.
2. The perfected beings that we will be will have
the capacity to see God face to face, not in a
mirror darkly as we currently do.
3. We will be perfected in Christ – the version of
us that God already sees
Heaven, Funerals and
the Bereaved
Frequently Asked Questions:
• Do you think X has gone to heaven? / Where do you think X is now?
• Will there be dogs in heaven?
• Can I play golf in heaven?
• Do you think X is a star / raindrop /snowflake etc?
• Will I be reunited with X in heaven?
Pick one of these questions and consider how you might respond to it in
light of what we have talked about today.
Why does the Christian teaching about heaven
matter?
Can teaching about the afterlife be separated
from other teachings of Christianity?
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead,
how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the
dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then
Christ has not been raised; 14and if Christ has not been
raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and
your faith has been in vain.
15We are even found to be misrepresenting God,
because we testified of God that he raised Christ—
whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not
raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has
not been raised. 17If Christ has not been raised, your
faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18Then those
also who have died in Christ have perished. 19If for this
life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people
most to be pitied.
1 Corinthians 15
• A 46 year old man has been killed in a car accident. The family
are very well known in the community and they have asked to
have the funeral at your Church. They want to play some of his
favourite music and have his friends give eulogies. They ask not
to have any of the “religious bits” as he never went to Church
and they don’t want to be hypocritical.
• What might you say? Why?
• A 14 year old girl in your church died of leukaemia. One of the
youth leaders told the young people that Annie was to special to
stay on earth, she was so special that God couldn’t wait any
longer for her in heaven. One of the parents has complained.
• What might you say? Why?