10.15 Holy Communion 20th December 2009 - Advent 4

Micah 5:2-5a and Luke 1:39-45

Heaven

This is fourth and final sermon on the four Last Things. We started with Judgement, moved on to Death, then last week Frankie took us to Hell and back, and this week we’re off to heaven! If you were here for Hell, you’ll have seen the paintings Frankie brought us by Hieronymus Bosch. What about Heaven? Many artists have attempted to represent heaven but I’m not going to use any of them. I wanted to offer one image and one only. Before I do, a question: What is the most abundant element in the universe? (Clue…not carbon). Hydrogen! And if you combine two parts of Hydrogen with one part of Oxygen you have? Water! So here is my image. (You may forget everything I say, but may remember this… and possibly why!)

(Pour water from can over pulpit into bucket.)

Water. This is the best image of heaven I could think of, and before you get disappointed let me explain why.

Firstly, yes, it IS ordinary and that’s the point! Water is essential to life. When scientists look for life on other planets, they begin by looking for water. Heaven is our human way of talking about that dimension of existence where God, the life-giver is present without measure or restriction. And without the Life-Giver there is no life. Heaven is all around us.

Secondly, the word itself has something to tell us. The Greek word translated ‘heaven’ appears 272 times in the NT. It is the word ‘ouranus’ and the word appears to come from an Indo-European root, meaning water, rain; ouranus’ - that which moistens or makes fruitful; more a verb – not so much a place of abundance, but the life-force, the action, which brings about abundance wherever it acts. This may remind us of some of those prophecies in the Jewish Scriptures. The prophets had a vision of what it would mean for God’s power to be fully released: here is one from Isaiah 41: “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, I the Lord will answer them, I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, and the pine together,so that all may see and know…that the hand of the Lord has done this.” Water brings things into being that otherwise would not be; and water changes what is there - a picture of God at work. Even in the most desert places, God brings the water of life. Jesus says in John 7 that when the HS is at work in a believer’s heart it is as though rivers of living water are able to flow.

Thirdly, water is a good image because water is all around us. We don’t have to go to another planet called ‘Water’ to experience its nourishing power. It’s around us and within us – indeed our bodies are roughly 2/3rds water. (No wonder in weather like this we say we’re freezing!) In the same way, heaven is not a place we go to. Scripture teaches, not that we go to heaven but that heaven comes to us. Indeed it already has come to us. Christmas is not just about Jesus bringing himself to earth, to live among us; it is also about him bringing heaven to earth. His Coming, and particularly his death, has torn open the curtain that divided heaven and earth. Yes, it’s true that heaven had been glimpsed by God’s people in the past, as in Isaiah’s vision in the Temple, or Elisha’s vision in 2 Kings 6 when he saw an angelic army on the mountain come to protect them against the Arameans. But now, with Christ, a new age has dawned and the gap between earth and heaven is a thinner one. Suddenly heaven is upon us. Angels and stars appear, 1 man is struck dumb and another speaks out words of salvation; a woman whose womb was a desert is now fruitful. And we see heavenly activity in the ministry of Jesus – his healings and miracles. And we see it in his teaching. ‘The kingdom of God is not here or there, it is within you.’ ‘Pray for the kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.’ Jesus came not to collect us up and escort us back to heaven, but to bring heaven to earth. Heaven is that dimension of reality where God already rules and His will is done. Jesus came to transform this world, to bring the beauty and abundance of heaven to earth. One day that will happen in fullness – his Rule will be universal; for now, He invites those who trust him to live by this rule.  St Paul picks this up and says we are already citizens of heaven. We live in this world now, but with the heavenly dimension within us. Eternal life means a reality which begins, not when we die, but as soon as we allow Christ to be our Saviour and our Lord, marked by our baptism. And if Jesus IS our Lord, we will love this world as He does, we will love the people of this world and will care for the earth itself. We will do what we can to bring heaven to earth.

This perspective may be quite hard to get hold of. We have been infected with unhelpful thinking. That includes all those jokes about St Peter at the Pearly Gate. They come of course from Jesus’ promise to give Peter the keys of heaven. I can’t resist telling you one, just to illustrate the point of course.

A well-known surgeon died and went to heaven. At the pearly gates he was asked by the gatekeeper: 'Have you ever committed a sin you truly regret?' 'Yes,' he said 'When I was a trainee Doctor at the hospital of Saint Luke’s, we played football against at team from another hospital, and I scored a goal, which was off-side. But the referee didn’t see it so, and the goal won us the match. I regret that now. 'Well,' said the gatekeeper thoughtfully. 'That is a very minor sin. You may enter.' 'Thank you very much, St Peter,' the surgeon answered.

'You’re welcome, but I’m not St Peter,' he said. 'He is having his lunch-break. I am St Luke.' That illustrates exactly the wrong kind of Theology of heaven!

What Jesus promised was that Simon Peter, the rock, would be the 1 on whom He would build His Church on earth. On the Day of Pentecost Peter started to do that. In God’s power Peter took the keys of truth, preached God’s Word and 3,000 walked in to heaven, or more accurately, allowed the Kingdom of heaven to take up residency within them. A few days later, Peter loosed a lame man from his bondage and bound the work of evil in him. THIS is what heaven looks like. It is about people being set free to enjoy the abundance of life, here on earth. It is about the proud and arrogant being scattered, the mighty being put down from their seat so that justice can come. It is about the humble being exalted and the meek inheriting the earth (the earth, note, not heaven); and it is about the hungry being fed, the thirsty being watered and the homeless being sheltered.

Mary’s Song. And it began with Mary. Because for Heaven to come to earth it needs our ‘YES’. Mary gave her Yes and heaven came to earth through her. Every time a person gives their Yes to God, Heaven can break in, and it does! God is allowed to rule as King. In fact, if every human being said to God ‘Let it be with me according to your word’ and meant it, then earth would look very much like heaven and there would be no need to pray the Lord’s Prayer because it would have been answered. Frankie ended her sermon last week by saying this: ‘Ultimately, it’s up to us – each one of us – to allow God’s love to nourish our souls. For then we shall tend towards heaven.’ God’s desire to nourish, to water, our souls with his love is so much greater than our willingness to trust Him and allow His rule in our lives. In terms of water, H2O, it is as though the ‘H’, the Heavenly, is two parts to our ‘O’, to the Ordinary; Heavenly Love is twice as abundant as our willingness. But both are needed; for the heavenly to transform our world then earthly co-operation is needed. To say “not my will be yours be done” brings the rule of God to earth, but you and I shy away from the cost of that. And that brings us to the end of the story, to the finale, the consummation. Not when we go to heaven but when Heaven comes to us. This is the time, when as St Paul puts it, creation itself will be set free, renewed fully and no longer groaning in decay; it is the time when the full reign of Christ is established so that everything and everyone in Creation is transformed and made new. It is expressed beautifully in the Epiphany hymn: Hail to the Lord’s anointed (87) and we’ll end by listening to verses 3 and 6…