11th Sunday after Pentecost 4.8.13 Resurrection
The stories we heard in childhood end with ‘and they all lived happily ever after’.
After a few years of bruising by this earthly life we might be tempted to think that only in fairy stories do they find such happiness. But in fact we are promised the same thing, only a much better and longer happiness – eternal life in heaven.
We believe this, not just because we want to believe it (as we are accused) but because it is true. In the light of today’s epistle reading (1 Corinthians 15) let us review the reasons for our hope of eternal life.
If we believe that God created the world and keeps it in being it stands to reason that the same God would love His creation and that what He creates expresses something of His own nature. He himself is Life; He cannot die. He is eternal, immortal, indestructible. There is a certain vitality about Him. He cannot be sick, or deteriorate over time. He is above and beyond all that. Immutable.
He would not like death any more than we do and the book of Wisdom tells us that.
Death was never of God’s fashioning; not for his pleasure does life cease to be; what meant his creation, but that all created things should have being? No breed has he created on earth but for its thriving; none carries in itself the seeds of its own destruction. Think not that mortality bears sway on earth; no end nor term is fixed to a life well lived (1,13-15 Knox)
Ultimately death is the absence of life. Death is what you get when you don't have God.
If we believe that Jesus Christ came as God among us we see the same affirmation of Life. He demonstrated His power over sickness and death. If He could raise others from the dead could He not raise Himself? There is a certain very powerful vitality evident in Him.
Then there is proof from the historical record. There were witnesses to the Risen Jesus. These witnesses have spoken and written of their experience. They could be making up a story, the sceptics will say. But see how these first believers lived. They were transformed from timid to bold so quickly.
In proclaiming the Resurrection they would be far more likely to lose their lives. Who would take that risk for a made-up story?
Yet they took on the whole world with this extraordinary and unpopular message And then, despite all odds, the belief did spread. By their fruits you shall know them. So much success could not come from a lie.
Why did Our Lord not appear to everyone? He wanted to invite faith through love. Only those who loved Him could perceive Him. He was saying, in effect, If you want to experience this new life you have to be united with Me; you have to love Me. You have to believe first.
It is not: I will believe it when I see it, but I will see it when I believe it.
Piece all these things together and we can see the reasonableness of our faith. Is it so unlikely to be true when it makes sense from every point of view?
And if we live out this belief in our own lives we will see that it is true. We will discern the life-giving power of God at work in our lives and in the world.
And we will discover something else. While it is nice to think that we will live forever that is still not the main point. With all the delights of heaven our greatest happiness is being with God, dwelling in love. Being alive is great; but living in this divine love is what makes that life worthwhile. It is the fulfilment of our being, the whole reason that God created us in the first place.
Next time we go to a funeral, or stand around a sick bed, we can take comfort from this. That we will live forever if we hold firm to this belief.
May the Lord of life bring us through all doubt and confusion to that glorious state.
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