Our hope
Readings: 1 Peter 1. 3-9, Revelation 21. 1-7
Where are we going? At the end of life is there a destination? What’s our hope at the end of all of this? For many it’s a question they’d rather not think about, but for us who are in Jesus, who have put our faith in him, it should be something we dwell on, that drives us onwards.
This week as many of you will know I’ve been on the Diocesan Youth Pilgrimage. Teenagers from across the Diocese gathered in the city of St David’s for a week of fun, fellowship and faith. It’s been a fantastic week, but it did involve a lot of walking. On the second day of the pilgrimage we walked 10 miles. To some of you that sounds like a walk in the park, to the pilgrims, and some of the adults, myself included, that’s a long, long way. Up hills, down hills, on a route so winding I think if the leaders had suddenly vanished we’d all have been completely lost. So what kept us going? It was where we were headed. To the tour of the lifeboat station at St Justinian’s, to the beach for swimming and games at Whitesands, to the Cathedral for worship. The destination kept us going, we knew it would be worth it in the end. And that’s what we kept encouraging the pilgrims with, we’re almost there, keep going, we’ll soon be at the thing, and then you can have a sit down or think of the fun we’ll have. The destination kept us motivated.
And the same is true for us as Christians. Reflecting on our future hope, our inheritance as Peter calls it in that passage from his first letter, will keep us going through the trials and challenges of this life, challenges which in many ways are more difficult because we’re Christians. Keep going he says, it may be rubbish now, but your inheritance is coming, and it cannot be spoiled or perish or fade, through it all God is working out your salvation. And so that’s how the Nicene Creed ends, by pointing us to our hope: ‘we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come’.
And I could talk about so much here, so much about our hope and eternal life and the wonder the gloriousness of it all, but I just want to focus on three words really; resurrection, life and world.
We look for the resurrection of the dead. Our hope, our true and living hope, is that God will resurrect us. We will be raised just as Jesus was raised. Jesus is sometimes called the first-fruits of those who will rise from the dead. When you’re harvesting, the first bit of the crop that you harvest gives you a pretty good idea of how the rest will turn out, so I’m told. And that’s what Jesus is for us, we look at his resurrection from the dead, and we get an idea of what is coming for us, a resurrection. The resurrection of the body as the Apostle’s Creed puts it.
Our bodies are not something we need to escape from, we’re not spirits or souls trapped in flesh that we need to be liberated from, rather we have bodies that need to be resurrected, renewed and restored. I spoke about this way back in the second of these sermons, that God the Son become human is an affirmation of the goodness of the physical world, and here again at the end is that same affirmation. When we die we don’t become disembodied spirits, or turned into angels as some in our day assume, instead our physical humanity is redeemed and restored. Our belief in the resurrection is a belief in a physical reality after death.
Now the physical reality of the now is not the same as the physical reality of the age to come. You may be thinking, I’m getting older, things don’t work as they used to, I don’t really want a physical body, I want release from it. But in the resurrection our bodies are restored, renewed, we won’t age or get sick in our resurrected bodies, they won’t wear out. Which means our lived lives now are in continuity with the lives we will live when we have been raised, you won’t have wings you’ve got to get used to, or just float around disembodied. God created us as physical beings, he’s not tearing up the design, rather our physicality will be perfected.
Our lives in the age to come are in continuity with our lives now. In many ways, if you’re trusting in Jesus eternal life for you has already begun, you’re not in it fully yet but it’s already started for you. And for many of us that will be a great joy, but for some of us that will be a worry, there’s so much pain from our lives now, deep wounds and scars that we carry. Do we really want eternal life to start now, to spring from this life?
And in answer there’s a line in that passage from Revelation that I know is a great comfort to many ‘he’, God, ‘will wipe every tear from their eyes’. And in preparing for this sermon I was listening to a talk from American pastor Gavin Ortlund and he was commenting how this verse isn’t just about how heaven ends our pain, although it does, there will be no more reasons for tears of sorrow or pain or grief in heaven. God wiping away the tears from our eyes is a wiping away because that is the end of them, but it’s deeper than that, heaven doesn’t just end our pain, it mends our pain. The passage talks about how there will be ‘no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away’. Earthly sadness will not enter heaven, it is finished, done, over with. Earthly sadness will not enter heaven, it cannot follow us there, but more than that heaven will enter earthly sadness, God will meet us there, bringing healing and wholeness and renewal. Heaven will come into those wounds and scars and pain like a soothing balm, bringing relief and restoration and peace.
So we’ll be physical, renewed and restored, but what will things be like in this resurrected body? Well that brings me to my second word; life. ‘The life of the world to come’. This life isn’t all there is, there is more to come. But there can be this misunderstanding that heaven, eternal life, is just one big worship session. If you just read certain parts of Revelation you can get this idea that all we do for eternity is sing around God’s throne. And some of our hymns and worship songs don’t help us in this either, some give this same idea, perhaps worship song writers have a bit of a vested interest in the idea. But whilst there certainly is worship and even singing in the age to come, in heaven, what’s coming for us isn’t an eternity singing songs, it’s life.
St Anselm, the 11th Century Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote that heaven is filled with what delights us. He writes ‘If it is not any impure, but pure, pleasure, thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures, O God’. So he talks about how if wisdom delights you, learning and knowledge, you will find much to dig into in the very wisdom of God. If it is in running, athleticism, we will be able to run faster and further in our resurrected bodies than we can now. He talks about how there will be friendship in heaven. If it brings us joy now, how much more joy will it bring us in heaven.
Again, our life in the world to come is in continuity with our life now, why would we think that life would contract, shrink, in the new creation than what we have now. If God is making all things new, if he is reneweing and restoring creation, what we are looking forward to is an expanded and more wonderful life than the one we enjoy now. Why would creation be more interesting and more generous than heaven? The world as it is now be better than the one to come when God recreates and renews all things.
And finally that last word; world. ‘The life of the world to come’. The universe isn’t simply governed by the forces of entropy, slowly fragmenting, drifting apart into ever greater chaos, or slowly heading towards heat death or a big crunch, God is making all things new. But again there’s this misconception that eternal life is about leaving creation and heading off to this place called heaven. We leave all of this behind and enter a new reality floating. And in some ways that’s right, we certainly leave behind the sin and pain and suffering of this life but we’re not floating on clouds or the like. Look at that passage from Revelation, John sees a not just a new heaven, but a new earth.
Just as we are resurrected, so too is all of creation with us. And we see in that passage heaven no longer separated from earth but eternally connected, God dwelling with his people. What we look forward to at the end of this age is not just heaven, but a new heavens and a new earth, all of creation resurrected with us. Peter in that letter roots our hope in Jesus’ resurrection, because Jesus has been resurrected, so will we, and so will all creation, this is our living hope. It is coming from heaven, he says, but it will not stay there, instead we look ahead to a whole resurrected universe. Which means there will be grass, and animals, and birds and sunsets and stars in the sky. There will be progress as we learn and grow, and because God is infinite, as we grow in him there is no end to that growth, we will never reach the end. One recent theologian even argues there will be space travel in the age to come, again arguing from that principle of continuity, why would life now be better than the life to come.
When we talk about heaven, what we’re really using it for is shorthand for eternal life. I actually try to avoid the word heaven when talking about eternal life because I think for many people it’s confusing. We’re not looking ahead to an escape to a new place, we’re looking ahead to a redeemed creation, a whole universe.
We don’t belong in this world, we live in it as strangers and aliens. But, as it says in a song by Switchfoot which I’ve chosen for my funeral, yes I’ve already started planning my funeral. I think we all should start planning our funerals because it’s not a morbid thing, it’s a hopeful thing. We’re looking ahead in hope and joy so why wouldn’t we be thinking about what we’re going to leave our loved ones when we’ve gone to remember us by and rejoice in the hope that we have. That song by Switchfoot that I’ve chosen reminds us that whilst we’re strangers and aliens in this world, we’re getting ready for a world where we belong. At last a world where we belong. That’s what we’re looking for.
But the very best part is this.
It’s not being reunited with our brothers and sister Christians who have gone before us through death although that will be truly joyous. It’s not the perfection of the universe although how wonderful will that be. It’s not that all that is wrong with our world will at last be behind us and an end to all pain and suffering and death and sorrow, although what a hope that is. It’s this. God will be there. God will dwell with his people. The God of the Universe whom we have been growing in both the knowledge of, and I hope the love and praise of, these past 7 weeks, he will be there. The Father who created you and sent his Son so that you can be his child. The Son who has died for you that you can be raised with him. The Spirit who even now assures you of this hope, and has begun that work of renewal in you even now. God will be there. And because he is he very source of all goodness and joy and love, what a gloriously good, joyous and love infused new world that will be.
My brothers and sisters, when life gets tough, and lets be honest, it really does at times, what keeps us going, what keeps us on track is the knowledge of the destination we are heading towards. And whilst we may want an escape what we have ahead is far better; the resurrection, life in all its fulness, and all of creation redeemed and restored. What is coming is far greater than we can imagine, but it is not alien to us, rather in the very best of life in this age you are getting a mere glimpse of the joy of the age to come.
So ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’. And for that hope may all glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and shall be forever.
Amen.