God’s Good Creation - Blue Ridge Style & Beyond

January 7, 2020January 25, 2024

But, I Love That Body!

The young mother was looking down at the body of her two year old daughter when a friend wrapped her arm around the grief stricken mother and whispered: “Remember Jill, that’s not really Becky, it’s just her body.” Jill’s outburst rattled the windows of the small church. A mother who had lovingly nurtured that body for nine months and two years, shouted: “BUT I love that body!! I love holding that body!” She sobbed. “I love kissing that body.” Turning away from her friend and bending down to kiss the cold fingers of her little girl, she was inconsolable. And was having none of that well-intentioned “wisdom.” It would not, could not, assuage her grief. Or minimize her great loss. There was a fresh round of weeping by all, the “wise” friend too.

How did we get to the place in Christian culture where we say such things? Jill may not know what the sweeping narrative of scripture teaches about our bodies, about death, and the afterlife, but she knew in her gut, deep inside, in a place only a mother knows, that something was missing in that loving remark, something was radically wrong with that well intentioned “wisdom.” And Mom’s intuition is right.

Sure, as a Christian, I know at the end of a long life or illness, when you are physically broken down, the dying of the body brings release into the presence of God, for all who believe. I’ve personally witnessed that kind of release three times. It is a great comfort knowing “to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord,” as Saint Paul said. And I’m sure Jill’s friend only meant to say her little girl lived with Jesus now. But something vital was missing and mom knew it.

When we deny the importance of the body, we deny God’s good creation.

We know this important truth, as we say, in our bones. We were created with bodies because we were meant to have them. Death does not alter that truth. The departed dead are no longer fully present with us. Nor, please note, are they fully human without their bodies. That may sound odd to many who believe our “real self” lives on after death. Our “soul” or our “spirit” as we typically say. The implication often being that we have “shuffled off the mortal coil” which limited human flourishing. And good riddance!

But this won’t do for the Classic Christian. No matter how much we massage the moment with “spiritual insight” physical death screams a big fat NO to God’s good creation. And God commits to us in Scripture that this recurring death-scream will one day be silenced. How? Wholeness will replace brokenness as unity returns to God’s creation. Earth and Heaven. Body and Soul. Matter and Spirit (We humans, we image bearers, are a mysterious unity of matter and spirit.) Unity returns when heaven and earth come together in a fresh act of new creation.

I’ll continue to develop that point of view and its implications later. But first, one more reason, along with the three I gave in my last post, for why Westerners deny the importance of our bodies, and in so doing have moved away from Classic Christianity.

And that reason is Plato.

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A mounting spirit caged in a bone house. Imprisoned by body.

That’s what Plato thought. And his disciples. Plato is the Western world’s homegrown advocate of disembodiment. Like the Far Eastern Hindu and the Buddhist, that I wrote about in my last post, Plato taught that our bodies are dispensable and worse, imprisoning, and something we should escape.

In the Western world a sustained reflection on the nature of things is, consciously or unconsciously, in dialogue with Plato. This man who lived approximately 400 years before Jesus cannot be avoided. All students of Western culture would agree that Plato’s influence on us, both good and bad, is enormous. The 20th Century Mathematician & Philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, once said the safest way to characterize Western Philosophy “is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”

Plato asked many of the right questions. What is Truth? What is Goodness? What is Beauty? How can we know? What is Justice? What is Virtue? How do we build a just society? How do we train our children? Plato wanted to see the world as it really was. He wanted to cut through the darkness created by false impressions, and cunning, deceitful rhetoric. Though some would say his pupil Aristotle got the better of his master in that regard. And perhaps that’s true. But we more readily turn to Plato and his readable style. Dramatic dialogue wins over dense prose every time. Plus, Plato looked to the heavens. Aristotle pointed to the earth. His method and manner pulled you in. Using allusion, irony, humor, Plato invited us to join a great conversation about big questions followed by big answers. And we did.

The School of Athens – Raphael
Zoom in and you will see the difference between Plato and Aristotle.
In our quest for Truth, Plato points to the heavens, and Aristotle to the world below.

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Susan and I stood in front of this giant fresco when we toured the Vatican Museum a few years ago. We found this masterpiece inside the Room of the Segnatura, one of Raphael’s Rooms, right before we were whisked away to spend our 30 minute allotment gazing up at Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. It was quite a day.

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I remember the first time I read Plato’s Dialogues and entered the world of his teacher, Socrates. Unlike many philosophers whose writings are virtually unreadable, Plato’s writing was simple, clear, accessible.

He taught us through the voice of Socrates in a series of 30 philosophical dialogues. In those dialogues we find the wise and righteous Socrates debating the leading thinkers of the day. Socrates was eventually regarded as a troublemaker by the establishment because he questioned everyone about their beliefs. He probed their deeply held convictions. About Life. Death. Truth. Justice. Virtue. Happiness. Creation. The gods. You know, The Big Questions. But at some point, after constantly probing, and showing important people the error of their ways, you can make enemies. Socrates made big enemies in the city of Athens. And paid with his life.

At the age of seventy he was accused of corrupting the youth, and not worshiping the gods of his country, tried before the court of justice, condemned by a small majority of votes, and sentenced to death by drinking hemlock.

Between the verdict and the drinking of the hemlock, he spent one month in deep conversation with his closest friends. Some of them were eager to get him out of prison and away from Athens, which could have been done, but he would not dishonor himself by breaking the law. He had been legally condemned, however unjustly, and he must abide by the sentence. Besides, Socrates desired to break free from the prison of his body. This drove him forward.

In his final days Socrates spoke of the soul and its destiny (recorded by Plato in the Dialogue Phaedo). The last scene of all is one of the great things of European literature. (I’ve included that final scene at the end of this post.)

I remember hearing my philosophy teacher’s husband, a man in his 70’s, roughly the same age as Socrates, narrate that famous scene. It was very moving. He was an accomplished reader. But it was not only the gifted way he read the story, it was the vulnerability in his aging voice that made the reading so poignant. An older man, himself facing death in the not too distant future, read about the second most famous death of the ancient world.¹ At the end, when the cassette player snapped off, a room full of college students filed out in silence. Wondering whether we could face down death as fearlessly and nobly as Socrates did. Would we, bound by our deepest convictions, drink the hemlock too?

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The Death of Socrates – Jacques Louis David – 1787

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In contrast to early Christianity², Socrates believed that death was not an evil, but the highest good and the richest blessing. Here are some pull quotes (in italics) from Phaedo, Plato’s Dialogue about Socrates’ death, his view of the afterlife, and why he welcomed it.

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Socrates believed that if a man was a true philosopher, a lover (philo) of wisdom (sophia), that man would desire to “come after me as quickly as he can.” But given that the gods owned us, he hastened to add, suicide was not permitted. And so we must patiently await our Fate.

Death allows us to “go to the gods, who are good masters.” This fact fills him with hope not grief.

“The soul of the philosopher greatly despises the body and avoids it and strives to be alone by itself?”

“When you see a man troubled because he is going to die, [know] that he [is] not a lover of wisdom but a lover of the body.”

Our goal is to “despise the body and pass [our] lives in philosophy.”

With the exception of true philosophers “all other men count death among the great evils.”

“All who have duly purified themselves by philosophy live henceforth altogether without bodies, and pass to still more beautiful abodes which it is not easy to describe, nor have we now time enough”

“This then is why a man should be of good cheer about his soul, who in his life has rejected the pleasures and ornaments of the body, thinking they are alien to him and more likely to do him harm than good, and has sought eagerly for those of learning, and after adorning his soul with no alien ornaments, but with its own proper adornment of self-restraint and justice and courage and freedom and truth, awaits his departure to the other world, ready to go when fate calls him.”

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For the Classic Christian, as much as we admire the courage of Socrates and his encouragement to think carefully & clearly, his denigration of the body and, by extension, the rest of the material world, contradicts the Biblical Worldview of ancient Judaism and early Christianity and must be rejected on the grounds that God called His handiwork “good” and at the high point of that work, when God created humans, He called that work “very good.”³

God the Creator did not blunder when He gave us our bodies.

But for Plato the cosmos was binary, consisting of two realms. One composed of a transcendent, suprasensory, timeless realm. And the other a sensory realm of changeability and flux. And for Plato, change meant imperfection. Inferiority. Platonic Dualism held the view that the changing world of matter was created inferior to the unchanging world of pure spirit, the higher, divine world of the immortals. Unfortunately, this dualistic view of unequal realms infected both Jewish & Christian Theology as it “developed” down through the centuries. We have yet to fully recover.⁴

We read words in scripture that sound similar to the words of Socrates and we assume they mean the same thing, as if Saint Paul was a disciple of Plato. He was not.⁵

Consider the larger story told in Scripture. Think of the Two Gardens at the beginning and end of Scripture. Think about the Center of Revealed Truth, the person & ministry of Jesus recorded in the Four Gospels; the healings of the body, the miraculous feeding of the thousands, the calming of the storm, the exorcisms, the raising of the dead, etc. These acts were more than mere demonstrations of God’s power, they were symbolic of God’s love for His creation.

The quintessential sign of God’s future intent for His entire creation was the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

Classic Christianity was most emphatic about the importance of this seminal sign, this central act, without which, Saint Paul says we “are still in our sins.” And held captive to a costly, perishing death.⁶

And to be pitied as fools.

1 Corinthians 15:16–19 (NRSV): If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Furthermore, Paul calls the Christian community the body of Christ.⁷ Would Paul spend as much time as he did discussing how believers are the body of Christ if, like Socrates and Plato, escaping bodily life was his driving motivation? Not a chance. Paul’s image here is this worldly and Jewish. Not Greek. Not Platonic. This emphasis on the body was one reason why the Gentiles⁸of the Mediterranean world had great difficulty understanding Paul’s very “earthy” Jewish message about the importance of bodily life, the raised body of Jesus most particularly.

God cares so much for the world He created that He sent His own Son to become part of that rebellious world by first joining His nature with that of a young woman, Mary, (after receiving her permission⁹) and then having the Son grow to maturity within that world. At the end of a full-grown life, God the Father so loved His Son’s body, a part of that world, and now a part of His Son’s nature, that He would not let that body remain in the grave.

Here is the newly energized Saint Peter preaching about the risen Jesus on the day the new covenant people of God exploded into public view.

Acts 2:24–36 (NRSV): But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says concerning him,
‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;
therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover my flesh¹⁰will live in hope.
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One experience corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying,
‘He was not abandoned to Hades,
nor did his flesh¹¹ experience corruption.’

This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’

Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Acts 2:24–36 (NRSV)

This Lord and Messiah, Whose flesh did not experience corruption but Who was raised up, set in motion a rescue and recovery operation to raise up creation as well. An operation to be continued until all of His enemies, and ours, are defeated. The last enemy being Death itself.¹² And in keeping with the entire biblical story, it is not an escape from but a rescue for and recovery of the place originally created for human habitation. A garden place of life richly nourished. A place for incorruptible bodies. Bodies loved by God. This is light years away from Plato.

The Classic Christian doctrines of Creation, Incarnation¹³, and the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus¹⁴ argue strenuously against the escapist views of Plato, or any other. God becoming flesh and dwelling among us,¹⁵constituted the remarriage of heaven and earth, spirit and matter in the person of Jesus. The death-defeating power of the bodily resurrection of Our Lord affirmed God’s Love for His creation. These Truths form the unique contribution of Christianity to Religious thought. Believing, understanding and living out these Christian Truths will enable you to answer The Big Questions and spread the Good News powerfully. And minister comfort to the suffering.

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Unknowingly, Jill’s ‘wise’ friend drank from the same cup as Socrates. And in so doing retreated into a false spirituality of disembodied bliss. Afterlife ideas of this type have more in common with the philosophy of Plato or for that matter Buddha, than the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.

Classic Christianity describes the bodily resurrection of Jesus as the “first fruits” of a future harvest. That harvest is The Christian Hope. Not Heaven. Heaven is real, but it is not the Christian Hope. It is not our final destination. In hope we patiently wait for New Bodies, New Creation.

What will the realization of this hope look like for us personally? Well, remember the map analogy in the post that began this afterlife series? Details of that future state await our arrival. Yet at a minimum it will include redemption, recovery of our enslaved bodies, not, please note, as Socrates would say, just our enslaved souls! Re-embodiment awaits.¹⁶ But this time, bodies made of more durable material! And additional capacities, new powers. Pay close attention to the Resurrection appearances of Jesus at the end of each Gospel account to get some idea of that future state.

But think bigger! God does. The realization of Our Future Hope includes the redemption of the Cosmos, the entirety of the created order, both heaven and earth will be rescued from futility, from the death-spiral they are in.¹⁷ That too is included in the grand sweeping story of Scripture. Read my post “Two Gardens” for additional information about this Big Picture. The main categories for Paul and indeed Classic Christianity and the other writers of the New Testament were not bodily and non-bodily, or physical and non-physical, or material and spiritual but present and future. (As in “this present age” & “the future age to come.”) If we don’t get this straight we will likely read many texts through the lens of Platonic eyeglasses, so pervasive in the Western world are the ideas of Plato. For example when Paul said something negative about “the flesh” many assume he was regarding the flesh, our outer garment, in exclusively negative terms. Like Socrates. But actually he was only saying that in the “present age” our flesh is weak and corruptible, so we must valiantly choose to “live by the Spirit” but in “the age to come” that flesh, that outer garment, will be transformed, energized by God’s life giving power. But it will still be flesh! There will still be a body! Paul says that body will transition from being a “tent” into being a “house” which will more fully “clothe” us, cover us. Otherwise if our earthly body was taken off and not replaced by a heavenly body we would be “naked.”¹⁸The difference is that the heavenly body will be an incorruptible, glorified, immortal body. Like the resurrected body of Jesus. Unfortunately, some important Christian leaders in the History of Christianity, did not appreciate this very Jewish nuance and were more captivated by “Greek” Platonism than they ought to have been, with its denigration of bodies in particular and the material/physical world in general. Some of the extreme asceticism (e,g. self-flagellation) practiced by certain monks and monastic orders can be attributed to this unbalanced dualism. But God loves our bodies! He created them.

These days, like Plato, some Christians have developed theologies of escape. Warning us not to be “left behind.” The World is “going to Hell after all,” they say. So why “polish brass on a sinking ship.” Escape. Escape from Earth to Heaven! And they gear their ministries toward what they regard as the most important thing, saving souls. (Souls are important but not all important.) Those pushing this theology of escape do not realize how Pagan this point of view is and how much it echoes Plato and not Saint Paul.

Partly in reaction to this, other Christians campaign not so much for the saving of souls but for social justice and ecology. Yet, some of them have developed their own theology of escape as well, an escape from Heaven. The connective tissue holding together both theologies of escape is denigration of the body. Let me flesh this out. Both deny the enduring importance of the body. This is because both lack a holistic view of God’s created order that includes Earth and Heaven. Body and Soul. Visible and Invisible. All parts of God’s created order must be held clearly and firmly in our minds. And valued. Our Creator intended them to be inseparable. Yet distinct. [We are not Buddhists].

Let’s go deeper.

Let’s briefly see how this integrated vision of reality changes present perceptions and gives hope for the future. All the big relationships and the worth of each relationship partner are forever changed by thinking Holistically in this Christian way. Male and female relationships. Changed. Ethnic relationships (characterized in Scripture by the terms “Jew” and “Gentile”). Changed. Harmonic coexistence, the rule. Each relationship partner valued equally. Relationship between created Spirit and created Matter. Changed. No impenetrable divisions.¹⁹. This is how we were created to live and experience God’s world. For example, I do not believe Heaven and Earth, Spirit and Matter exist that far apart. (In contrast, Good and Evil are far apart.) Some Christian spiritualities speak of “thin places” where Heaven and Earth can be said to meet, overlap and interlock. Where the presence of God is palpable. Places we yearn to be, even when we don’t know it. The Tent of Meeting during Israel’s nomadic period, or the Temple in Jerusalem were places where God met with His people in this palpable way. Other sacred places too. Those places were not meant to be merely locations of religious ritual, though that was often expected, but the dwelling place, the meeting place of God. Which from the garden days has always been God’s intent, to concretely commune, “walk” with His people.²⁰ Christians do not serve a distant, Deist Divinity.²¹

Now let’s take these meditations right down the scale to the individual person. Harmony between our inner perceptions of the external world and the external world as it actually exists.²² How? Because our Trustworthy God created a world where the visible (the outer object) and invisible (our subjective ideas & impressions) can meet and know each other. Not exhaustively but truly.²³

And finally, harmony between Soul and Body so that the things we know we ought to do we actually do! Where Godly deed follows Godly thought. Act follows speech. To say it. Is to do it. Promise made. Promise kept. Fully integrated beings. Like God. People of integrity. Not “People of the Lie.” Whole, unbroken people, where our invisible nature (mind, will, emotions) are in complete and healthy alignment with our bodies and behavior. Working in concert together. Producing a beautiful symphony.

Where followers of God imitate their Maker and change the world.

The enduring reality and loving communion of all vital parts of creation must be affirmed by believers or we will cease to be Biblical, and we will be out of sync with the purposes and power of our Creator. Like I wrote in my previous post, the unique and continuing contribution and worth of each marriage partner, for example, Heaven and Earth, must be held in dynamic, fruitful, loving relationship. And, now, bringing us back home again, we find at the overlapping, interlocking center of those relationships, exploding with newness of life, the Garden of God. Where the Living God dwells, rules, and creates with us! As it was always meant to be.

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The escape artists on one end of the theological spectrum seek to save souls for heaven and leave earth, and perhaps our bodies, behind. At the other end of the Christian Theological spectrum you will also find Plato peering over the parapet because many deny the central New Testament event. Resurrected bodies, miracles of this sort, are superstitious hold overs from a bygone pre-scientific era, they say. Thoughtful, enlightened Christians no longer believe such things. To them, the body of Jesus was left behind.

They have “reimagined” the Historic Faith and as they interpret the Biblical text that interpretation runs along the following lines: “We believe,” they say, “that the spirit of Christ was raised in our understanding, in the hearts and minds of us his followers, to speak of resurrection is to speak of the rising of faith…but we don’t actually believe his physical body ever left that tomb, or if it did leave, it might have been stolen by his followers, and buried elsewhere. Away from inquiring minds. And when his followers said they “saw the risen Jesus” that was just a coded way of speaking about a Christian view of the world.”

Sounds more like Socrates than Paul, doesn’t it? ²⁴ Good luck with telling that story to a world desperately seeking Truth and Deliverance. A story based on a Lie. Churches with leaders who tell the story like that are “withering on the vine.“

These escape artists too, in their own way, deny the importance of the body, in this case, the most important human body in History, The Risen Body of Jesus. And the future resurrection bodies of all who believe.

To my friends on that end of the theological spectrum your Social Gospel goals and your Earth focused ministry are laudable, but the power to transform will be lacking if The Gospel is not preached.²⁵ What is that Gospel? That Good News?

The Royal Announcement, the proclamation that Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah, by virtue of His life, death, bodily resurrection, ascension and future return is now Lord of the World.²⁶

That is The Good News we’ve been waiting for. This Lord who will make all things new again.

Believe it Christians! Believe the creed many of us faithfully recite every Sunday. In Jesus the power of evil and death were defeated. The Adam problem solved. And the great reversal process of salvation begun. For ALL of us.²⁷

The deep irony of Church leaders who no longer believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, yet who claim to lead the body of Christ fills me with great sadness. Escape from Orthodoxy, from History with its “superstitious” past, seems to be a guiding principle. I’m not saying the Church has been the perfect interpretive guide and has never made mistakes, big ones even. We most certainly have, and still do, and for which much repentance and change is required. I’m not even suggesting that our central documents, the Scriptures themselves, do not still contain interpretive puzzles that need piecing together. Jesus put pieces together for His puzzled disciples, some who thought they understood the Scriptures well. They didn’t. And perhaps we will need His return before other puzzles are solved. But about The Defining Moment of History, The Central Event of our Faith there must be no doubt.²⁸

If Jesus’s body remained in the tomb, then death has not been defeated! And Christianity collapses. For our Faith is impotent to save us from our biggest enemy. We are to be pitied, said Saint Paul, for believing this delusion. If Jesus’s body remained in the tomb.

No. Lovingly non-negotiable on bodily resurrection must we be. And expect our leaders to be as well.

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This rich round world, from the beginning pregnant with possibility. But because of rebellion²⁹a world exiled from the garden of life and put in bondage to decay and death. Yet now at the center of that Story, indeed the focal point of History, we see the garden womb where Jesus lay, opened by Resurrection Life. The great reversal had begun. Everything changed. And a woman! (I simply adore this part of the story.) A precious woman, my sister Mary Magdalene, was the first witness. Did you get that? The first Apostle was a gal!³⁰ Mary, out of whom Jesus cast seven demons, was there.³¹ She mistook the risen Jesus for a gardener.³² And why wouldn’t she!? After all, He is the “Adam” of the New Creation Garden.³³ Mary, who had been so broken, loved her Lord. And she loved His body. And why wouldn’t she? “Do not hold on to me,” he said. “I’ve not yet ascended to the Father.”³⁴ A mysterious moment, for Mary, no doubt. (For us, too.) But she would hold him and kiss him later, after he returned for a brief post-resurrection stay. According to the story an all too brief visit, lasting 40 days,³⁵where his followers surely held and kissed him. And certainly ate with Him.³⁶ And at the end, pleaded with Him to stay. But He would not. Yet, He was clear about this. His followers had an essential part to play in the spreading and cultivating of that New Creation Story. So before leaving he “opened the Scriptures” to them, revealing how the Old Testament all along had pointed to Him and His work. A Story they, now energized by His Spirit, would continue to tell. And by that energized telling, with words and deeds, would change the World.³⁷

It is a very Heavenly and Earthly story.

This is the turning point of History, my friends. The beginning of New Creation from a garden this time at the center of History. Out of which comes reconciliation, peace, between God and humans, and the coming together of all things. Under the Lordship of Jesus the Messiah. Male and Female. Jew and Gentile. Spirit and Matter. Heaven and Earth. Equally valued. Finally inseparable. Souls and bodies. For lovers to hold and kiss again.

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I’ve highlighted a few words in this famous scene that should be of particular interest to the ladies. Think about why I did this and I’ll tell you in a future post.

The Death of Socrates

Phaedo speaking to Echecrates:
When he had finished speaking, Crito said: “Well, Socrates, do you wish to leave any directions with us about your children or anything else—anything we can do to serve you?”

“What I always say, Crito,” he replied, “nothing new. If you take care of yourselves you will serve me and mine and yourselves, whatever you do, even if you make no promises now; but if you neglect yourselves and are not willing to live following step by step, as it were, in the path marked out by our present and past discussions, you will accomplish nothing, no matter how much or how eagerly you promise at present.”

We will certainly try hard to do as you say,” he replied. “But how shall we bury you?”

“However you please,” he replied, “if you can catch me and I do not get away from you.” And he laughed gently, and looking towards us, said: “I cannot persuade Crito, my friends, that the Socrates who is now conversing and arranging the details of his argument is really I; he thinks I am the one whom he will presently see as a corpse, and he asks how to bury me. And though I have been saying at great length that after I drink the poison I shall no longer be with you, but shall go away to the joys of the blessed you know of, he seems to think that was idle talk uttered to encourage you and myself. So,” he said, “give security for me to Crito, the opposite of that which he gave the judges at my trial; for he gave security that I would remain, but you must give security that I shall not remain when I die, but shall go away, so that Crito may bear it more easily, and may not be troubled when he sees my body being burnt or buried, or think I am undergoing terrible treatment, and may not say at the funeral that he is laying out Socrates, or following him to the grave, or burying him. For, dear Crito, you may be sure that such wrong words are not only undesirable in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. No, you must be of good courage, and say that you bury my body,—and bury it as you think best and as seems to you most fitting.”

When he had said this, he got up and went into another room to bathe; Crito followed him, but he told us to wait. So we waited, talking over with each other and discussing the discourse we had heard, and then speaking of the great misfortune that had befallen us, for we felt that he was like a father to us and that when bereft of him we should pass the rest of our lives as orphans. And when he had bathed and his children had been brought to him—for he had two little sons and one big one—and the women of the family had come, he talked with them in Crito’s presence and gave them such directions as he wished; then he told the women to go away, and he came to us. And it was now nearly sunset; for he had spent a long time within. And he came and sat down fresh from the bath. After that not much was said, and the servant of the eleven came and stood beside him and said: “Socrates, I shall not find fault with you, as I do with others, for being angry and cursing me, when at the behest of the authorities, I tell them to drink the poison. No, I have found you in all this time in every way the noblest and gentlest and best man who has ever come here, and now I know your anger is directed against others, not against me, for you know who are to blame. Now, for you know the message I came to bring you, farewell and try to bear what you must as easily as you can.” And he burst into tears and turned and went away. And Socrates looked up at him and said: “Fare you well, too; I will do as you say.” And then he said to us: “How charming the man is! Ever since I have been here he has been coming to see me and talking with me from time to time, and has been the best of men, and now how nobly he weeps for me! But come, Crito, let us obey him, and let someone bring the poison, if it is ready; and if not, let the man prepare it.” And Crito said: “But I think, Socrates, the sun is still upon the mountains and has not yet set; and I know that others have taken the poison very late, after the order has come to them, and in the meantime have eaten and drunk and some of them enjoyed the society of those whom they loved. Do not hurry; for there is still time.”

And Socrates said: “Crito, those whom you mention are right in doing as they do, for they think they gain by it; and I shall be right in not doing as they do; for I think I should gain nothing by taking the poison a little later. I should only make myself ridiculous in my own eyes if I clung to life and spared it, when there is no more profit in it. Come,” he said, “do as I ask and do not refuse.”

Thereupon Crito nodded to the boy who was standing near. The boy went out and stayed a long time, then came back with the man who was to administer the poison, which he brought with him in a cup ready for use. And when Socrates saw him, he said: “Well, my good man, you know about these things; what must I do?” “Nothing,” he replied, “except drink the poison and walk about till your legs feel heavy; then lie down, and the poison will take effect of itself.”

At the same time he held out the cup to Socrates. He took it, and very gently, Echecrates, without trembling or changing colour or expression, but looking up at the man with wide open eyes, as was his custom, said: “What do you say about pouring a libation to some deity from this cup? May I, or not?” “Socrates,” said he, “we prepare only as much as we think is enough.” “I understand,” said Socrates; “but I may and must pray to the gods that my departure hence be a fortunate one; so I offer this prayer, and may it be granted.” With these words he raised the cup to his lips and very cheerfully and quietly drained it.

Up to that time most of us had been able to restrain our tears fairly well, but when we watched him drinking and saw that he had drunk the poison, we could do so no longer, but in spite of myself my tears rolled down in floods, so that I wrapped my face in my cloak and wept for myself; for it was not for him that I wept, but for my own misfortune in being deprived of such a friend. Crito had got up and gone away even before I did, because he could not restrain his tears. But Apollodorus, who had been weeping all the time before, then wailed aloud in his grief and made us all break down, except Socrates himself. But he said, “What conduct is this, you strange men! I sent the women away chiefly for this very reason, that they might not behave in this absurd way; for I have heard that it is best to die in silence. Keep quiet and be brave.” Then we were ashamed and controlled our tears. He walked about and, when he said his legs were heavy, lay down on his back, for such was the advice of the attendant. The man who had administered the poison laid his hands on him and after a while examined his feet and legs, then pinched his foot hard and asked if he felt it. He said “No”; then after that, his thighs; and passing upwards in this way he showed us that he was growing cold and rigid. And again he touched him and said that when it reached his heart, he would be gone. The chill had now reached the region about the groin, and uncovering his face, which had been covered, he said—and these were his last words—“Crito, we owe a cock to Aesculapius. Pay it and do not neglect it.” “That,” said Crito, “shall be done; but see if you have anything else to say.” To this question he made no reply, but after a little while he moved; the attendant uncovered him; his eyes were fixed. And Crito when he saw it, closed his mouth and eyes.

Such was the end, Echecrates, of our friend, who was, as we may say, of all those of his time whom we have known, the best and wisest and most righteous man.

Phaedo – Translated by W. R. M. Lamb, Harvard University Press

****

November 28, 2019September 11, 2021

Afterlife, Three Options

I believe what we think about death, and life beyond death is an interpretive key to all serious thinking.

Many believe religious ideas about life after death are essentially the same. Just like when people say all religions are basically the same. But that’s not true. A vast chasm exists between the Muslim who thinks martyrdom in the cause of Holy War yields immediate and everlasting heavenly delights, virginal or otherwise,¹ and the Hindu who believes karmic requirements dictate putting on disposable bodies, life after life after life after life in dogged pursuit of the next stage of one’s destiny. For the Orthodox Jew, individual bodily resurrection awaits the righteous whereas the Buddhist hopes to finally disappear like a drop of water into the great nameless and formless Beyond.

These are different visions from very different stories, embodying significantly different beliefs about God and the world, and significantly different agendas for how people might live in the present. They are not the same.

***

Confronted with the universality of death, our greatest thinkers refused to adopt hedonism as their guiding light. Although, that was and is an available option. But officially the “let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we die” crowd is surprisingly small. I say surprisingly because unofficially many of us live our lives as if “pleasure” is our guiding principle. But when pressed on the matter we, of course, acknowledge higher purposes. And the better angels of our nature take flight. At least in public.²

Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Christians have somewhat similar views about the afterlife. Their ideas exist on the same conceptual map. Each of them acknowledge the God given gifts of sensual pleasure. God created our bodies, after all. But more about those ideas later.

First, I want to explore other beliefs about the afterlife popular in the Western World, a part of the world where Christianity had its widest impact. Three major ideas about post-mortem destiny emerge: Annihilation, Reincarnation, and Absorption (the last two with a characteristically Western twist.)

***

Before they lowered the lid, and I looked down upon the quiet face of my Susie, was that the last time?

More and more people think so these days. In this Enlightened Age, this Age of Science, “this life is all there is,” they say. Death is the end.

Annihilation is an increasingly popular opinion in the modern industrial world. Philosophical Materialism gave birth to the idea of Annihilation. Materialism got its formal start in Ancient Greece. So it has a long distinguished pedigree. Some of the most famous materialists, oldest to latest, are Epicurus, Lucretius, Machiavelli, Voltaire, Comte, Marx, Sartre, Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and, unfortunately, most modern scientists. Its main idea? Matter and energy exists and nothing else.

Some infamous members of that diverse group were mentioned in my last post. Their murderous ways were no doubt aided and abetted by the belief that this life is all there is. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc., and their followers are the ugly step-sons and daughters of Philosophical Materialism. Most Materialists or Physicalists, as modern day materialists prefer to call themselves, wouldn’t dream of taking another human life. But if your philosophy teaches you nothing exists but matter and energy, you could plausibly think

(a) I might as well get all the matter I can,

(b) I might need to energetically remove matter if it blocks my way to personal growth or, more unselfishly, Utopia for all.

For example, you could be tempted to believe you should remove unjust class distinctions by removing entire classes of matter. Communism did just that last century. As I mentioned in my last post, in the span of 4 short years, Cambodian Communists returned 2 million discrete bundles of matter & energy back to the earth from whence they came. Vive la révolution!

Cambodian leader Pol Pot learned his Marxism in Paris in the 1950’s where leading intellectuals Jean Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty were explaining how terror could be the midwife of “humanism.”³. Not exactly a shining moment for Materialism or Humanism.

***

Buddhist Stupa Memorial filled with 5000 human skulls
[*Killing Field, Choeung Ek, Cambodia*]

***

But, as I said, most Materialists wouldn’t dream of taking human life much less committing such atrocities. It’s just that I don’t see how the logic of Philosophical Materialism successfully argues against it. I suspect the better angels of our nature are unconsciously at work here. And thank God!

Now back to the personal level, death ends all of me. It’s a difficult proposition for most to accept. So most don’t. On the cosmic level, some world class physicists have been driven to despair because their studies reveal a Cosmos heading for either

(a) a slow death as the Universe continues its expansion away from the Big Bang, with galaxies slowly cooling and decaying into a dying whimper,

(b) a relatively quick reversal and catastrophic “Big Crunch” brought about by gravitational contraction.

Of course, none of this will happen for billions of years, so no worries for now, but for those of us who scan the Big Picture for clues about the meaning of life, Philosophical Materialism remains unavoidably depressing.

Distinguished theoretical physicist and atheist Steven Weinberg concluded in light of the above mentioned cosmic futility, that life seemed quite pointless to him. He could only face it with a kind of heroic defiance.⁴

He’s not alone. This defiant despair may be found among poets too. Dylan Thomas, presumably a member of the annihilationist camp, when thinking of the upcoming death of his father wrote:

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.

Nobly defiant. But still depressing.

Which is why most say, annihilation may be for thee, but not for me. Almost everyone believes in an afterlife. And though the annihilation school boasts record numbers today, attended by some of the most influential people, it’s still relatively small.

***

Inner calm of Buddhahood, Awakened Bliss
[*Central Tibet, 12th Century*]

***

Many in the West find an afterlife idea from the ancient Far East appealing. Reincarnation is the belief that human souls individually migrate from one body to another in a series of lives until complete purification and education is achieved, at which point individuality melts away into the unconscious experience of Oneness with “God.” Spirit is valued over body. Bodies are wonderfully dispensable in this second, third, fourth, fifth….chance spirituality. For Buddhists the ultimate practical goal is resisting the temptations of desire, a resistance that results in enlightenment by stripping away the false consciousness of individuality with its bodily existence so that you find your “true self” in the great spirit sea of God.

Having more than one bite at the apple of life appeals to many. Also, it allows us to acknowledge the intuitive wisdom that choices in life have consequences. Which brings up another closely associated idea. Karma. Karma appeals to our sense of justice. We get what our actions deserve.

Of course if you are a member of the lower classes, your prospects are, here’s that word again, depressing. Karma put you there. The bad acts committed in one life receive punishment and hopefully purging in the next. Unfortunately, given your current bodily existence, as a member of the poor unwashed, you have a long, long way to go buddy. Many turns of the wheel before escaping the cycle of birth-death-rebirth and experiencing the eternal bliss of Nirvana. This ancient wisdom also teaches regress down the chain of being from human to animal life or worse. Needless to say, progress is not inevitable.

Modern Westerners tend to excise the unappealing, unmarketable parts borrowed from other cultures. Pairing them down to more digestible, more profitable portion sizes for western bellies. Given Western notions of self-improvement this possibility of downward mobility rarely comes up. Too tough to mass market, I suppose. I suspect an unquestioned assumption of our technologically astute Western World, the “myth of progress,” may also have something to do with this.

***

But since I’ve taken a couple of gentle swipes at western tendencies, and will continue to do so, let me say something positive.

The British brought and did bad things to India, the birthplace of Reincarnation, but paving the way for Authentic Christianity wasn’t one of those bad things. Our criticisms of Empire, and they are many, whether British or American, must not blind us to the existence of real benefits. Our critiques must be grown-up and nuanced. After all, the pagan empire of Rome and its benefits, not least of which were Roman roads, and the relative ease of travel, greatly assisted the spread of Christianity. Not, of course, as much as the Holy Spirit empowered witness of “the blood of Christian martyrs” on the hands of those same Romans or of Christian compassion for the sick and poor. Yet it remains true “in the fullness of time, Christ came.”⁵

All that to say this. For the Orthodox Hindu, Karma, the inexorable law of cause and effect, places you in this life with a certain status or class. That is your dharma, your duty in life and that’s what you should remain this time around. For devout Hindus, the Dalits (lower class “Untouchables”) are born into their state, their caste, due to karma from a previous life. They are to remain content with that status—to seek status improvement in this life makes things worse next time around. Also, reaching outside of your class to extend a hand of compassion to those less fortunate may contribute positively to your karma, but makes things worse in the future life of the recipient. Why? They must by their own actions change their future destiny. I think it’s fair to say ancient Hinduism would not have produced many Mother Teresa’s. Untouchables usually remained untouched. In sharp contrast, authentic Christian community lovingly opens to all classes the fruits of family membership and shared obligations.

Galatians 3:28–29 (NRSV): 
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, 
there is no longer slave or free, 
there is no longer male and female; 
for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, 
heirs according to the promise.”

Gandhi’s philosophy was heavily influenced by the teachings of Jesus found in the gospels. And although he opposed conversion to Christianity, for himself and his community, it is certainly arguable that India would not now be the World’s largest democracy without Christianity and its teaching about the worth of the individual human life, body and soul.

I know in saying this I’m stepping in front of “the multicultural train” that has been steaming down the track for many years now. And once that one passes over me, “the post-colonial train.” But, I humbly submit these hopefully Christian observations for your open-minded and generous assessment.

What is not open to doubt, or cultural bias is the following fact: recent polling suggests around 40% in the United Kingdom believe in Reincarnation. That’s a big number!

***

Now to the next popular idea, Absorption. Also from the Far East. Again, as is common to us westerners we jump straight to absorption at death bypassing the rigorous outworking of karma that the Orthodox Hindu or Buddhist insists upon. The Buddha himself, presumably the most noteworthy practitioner, required more than a thousand lifetimes on his path to enlightenment. His drop in the ocean merger with the unnameable, unknowable Beyond did not come easy.

But this level of rigor won’t do for the modern Western mindset. Here are a few poetic examples of Western impatience with that tedious prospect.

From the pen of the Romantic poet Shelley in a memorial to another poet Keats, dead at the age of 25:

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep—
He hath awakened from the dream of life—
’Tis we, who, lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife …

He is made one with Nature: there is heard
His voice in all her music, from the moan
Of thunder, to the song of night’s sweet bird;
He is a presence to be felt and known...

Here we find a mixture of Nature Religion and Buddhism.

Finally one more in that vein. An anonymous soldier on his way to battle, and perhaps death, memorably expressed the doctrine of Absorption so popular today.

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain …
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.

When Princess Diana died, memorials of flowers, love notes, well wishes, etc., were left in London at various Royal Family locales. One note spoken in Diana’s own voice reflected a similar fusion of Nature Religion and Buddhism: ‘I did not leave you at all. I am still with you. I am in the sun and in the wind. I am even in the rain. I did not die, I am with you all.”

One presumes that the titular leader of the Church of England, and “Defender of the Faith,” the Queen herself would quibble with that misguided, albeit, tender sentiment. The Royal “Mum” would or should know those comments are devoid of Christian content.

***

When a Christian dies sometimes you’ll hear from other Christians things like, “She/he is with us now more than ever.” Actually, I don’t think so. She/he is with God more than ever, I’ll grant that. Even if Susan attained some god-like ability to be with us simultaneously or in light-speed succession we still couldn’t see, hear, touch, or taste her or talk with her. And because we cannot do those things she is not fully present. Not yet. 😇

How did Christians get to the point where we say or imply that bodily death doesn’t matter? That bodies are disposable, or are essentially irrelevant? Or based on the last comment, actually impede spiritual growth and presence?

Well, it is partially because many in our Western world have borrowed willy nilly and Western like from other great religious traditions, but also because within Christianity itself we have appropriated outside ideas based on the sensible belief that “all Truth is God’s Truth.”

Yet, we often fail to contend for the unique contribution Classic Christianity made and continues to make to the questions of death and the afterlife. Not to mention how we ought to live in the present. Our story is unique. We need to get back to the heart of that story. And start again.

As I highlighted in my last post that story is a fully integrated vision of reconciliation. A marriage between all the vital parts of God’s good creation. This union in marriage does not obliterate the unique and continuing contribution and worth of each marriage partner. You will not find in this story a Buddhist dissolution of self into the great Beyond. Strictly speaking that is Oneness, and not Christian union.

It is a story about Jew and Gentile. Husband and Wife. Male and Female. Heaven and Earth. God and Creation. Spirit and Matter. Soul and Body. All coexisting. All real. All commingling together, intimately joined, yet remaining distinct. Unity & Diversity. And at the center of it all. A place for real persons to walk and talk and enjoy each other forever—The Garden-City of God.

***

**Paradise** – Giovanni di Paolo – ca 1445
Altarpiece in the church of San Domenico, Siena

***

At the end of this post we started a little Christian “house cleaning.” There is more to do. We will also look at the influential teachings of a prominent Western thinker/theologian whose ideas have taken us away from the teachings of Classic Christianity.

If you haven’t already added your email to my list, do so and I’ll let you know when the blog is updated. And send you passwords to access my Private Collection.

Email: blog@blueridgemountain.life

I recently signed up to participate in the Gail Parkins Memorial Ovarian Cancer Walk & 5K Run. Also, I created a Team called:

Susan’s Soldiers (This is War!)
http://dccc.convio.net/goto/susansoldiers

Contribute if you can to this worthy cause.

November 8, 2019October 11, 2021

Two Gardens

Several years ago I recited a poem to Susan that I knew she would like. I knew why she would like it. The poem is by Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree. I recited it again in my Eulogy at Susan’s funeral mass.

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live in the bee-loud glade.*

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

***

Well it wasn’t the Lake Isle of Innisfree, but it was a small cabin. On the north shore of Lake Oneida in Central New York State. It was the family camp. Susan’s family would spend entire summers there. Card and board games. Tea kettles and cups. Sunbathing. Laughter. Fishing. Food. Family. I knew this poem would bring those memories flooding back. That’s why she would like it so much.

We visited the camp on every trip to see the family. Susan loved it there. I said to her once;

“You know why you love coming here so much, aside from the obvious reasons, why you long to see this place when you are away? There is a deep primal need in all of us to get back to the garden. To get back to a place of peace. A place of recreative silence. Joy. The unencumbered embrace of family. But most of all, so that we might, at the time of the evening breeze, in the cool of the day, walk with our God.¹

“That’s what we want. That’s really what we want.

“You believe in that garden don’t you sweetheart?” “Yes,” she said, “I believe.”

***

***

We thought and studied about other gardens too. Gardens of the past, present, and future, for all who believe.

One garden in particular, in the distant future, spoke to us like never before.

You can read about it in the last book of the book of books we call the Bible. John wrote it as an exiled prisoner of the Roman Empire on the Isle of Patmos (about 35 miles off the coast of south-western Turkey). We know it as the book of Revelation. Otherwise known as “The Apocalypse of John.” Apocalypse comes from a Greek word meaning to uncover, unveil, reveal. Thus “Revelation.” It’s a book about Last Things. And things in between too. Fittingly, the final two chapters reveal the destiny of the people of God. Two chapters that give meaning to all that has gone before. Both in the book of Revelation and all of Scripture.

The problem is that most readers rarely make it to the final chapters. It’s heavy slogging. A prophet tries to make sense of a series of heavenly visions about a Kingdom embroiled in a cosmic war. And it ain’t easy. For him to write down. Or for us to read. There are few things like it in all of Scripture. Daniel and Ezekiel in the Old Testament, Isaiah and Zechariah too, foreshadow the content. But towering above them all, after having borrowed from them all, stands “The Apocalypse of John.” A world-wind of mixed and unmixed metaphors. Fantastical language concealing as much as revealing. Early on we get images of four creatures resembling a noble lion, a strong ox, a wise man and a swift eagle, each with six wings and full of eyes in front and behind expressing their ceaseless vigilance before the throne of God. And that’s just for starters. John bears witness to a bewildering array of symbols crashing into each other. White horse, red horse, black horse, pale horse, each in their order bearing the riders of Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. You’ll find frequent earthquakes, hail storms, flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. A scroll with seven seals of judgement to break open. One by one. Like a mounting storm at sea. Crest after crest moving us ever closer to a great reckoning, the final consummation. Trumpets blaring. Bowls of wrath poured out. Blood. Lots of blood. It’s very unsettling. Confusing.

At the end when it’s all been said, and all been done, when the cosmic war between good and evil reaches its climactic conclusion, with the final destruction of all evil and the vindication of those who we are told have faithfully followed the Lamb, (meaning Christ) at the end of it all, a garden.

Unless you are trained in the genre, the apocalyptic genre, it’s hard to make sense of the details. The shocking co-mingling of the familiar with the unfamiliar. The earthly with the heavenly. Unless you are steeped in the prophetic stock and trade found in the Hebrew Scriptures it’s hard not to lose your balance, throw in the interpretive towel, and exclaim “no mas, no mas! Can you bring back The Gospel According to John, John?” “Bring back the God of Love?”

This book is a hard read for many reasons. Still, for Christians, the overarching themes are clear enough. The victory of our God on behalf of His creation against the forces of rebellion, both human and divine², forces which could bring only chaos, darkness and death. The longed for righting of every wrong, that’s what this book is about.

The payoff?

In the negative. No more tears, no more pain, no more dying. In the positive. Endless day. Lush, fruitful living. Beauty beyond belief. The unencumbered embrace of an exceptionally large family, as numerous as the stars.

But most of all, unceasing, unfettered access to the light and life giving presence of an unconquerable God.

But like I said, most people never make it to this point. Too much confusing mayhem along the way. Which is a shame. Because the ending perfectly frames the entire biblical witness. A witness that begins and ends with the garden of God.

***

***

Most of us are somewhat familiar with the garden at the beginning called Eden. But we’ve given far less thought to the garden at the end. We’ve thought about heaven a lot, but as you’ll see, that’s not the same thing. So let’s think about the Revelation garden bookend.

Unlike the first garden this future garden will be in the center of a city. And like the first garden, the Tree of Life will be there. A River of Life will be there, too, and according to the story, flowing from the throne of God at the center of a city called The New Jerusalem. (Perhaps the city-planners of Manhattan when they came up with the idea of Central Park had this passage of Scripture in mind.)

As you might expect, the architectural accoutrements of this city will be nothing short of astounding. Maybe you’ve heard of some of them. Streets of gold. Walls of Jasper. (What is Jasper?) Twelve Pearly Gates. (Only one with St. Peter.)

Now, I have a question for all Christians about the garden bookends of our Sacred Text. The ones found in Genesis and Revelation. Your answer will reveal much. Is the first to be understood as an earthly garden and the second a heavenly garden? Eden earthly? The New Jerusalem garden heavenly? What do you think? What if I was to suggest that the answer for each garden is BOTH earthly and heavenly.

That’s right. Both gardens are best understood as a mixture of earth and heaven. Human and Divine. Just like Jesus was and is (if you are a Classic Christian).

***

Now to my most provocative point. (At least for many Christians)

The view of the early Church, a very Jewish view by the way, as revealed in their writings is this:

The Christian Hope, the spiritual goal, the promised inheritance, is not Heaven.

“What did you say? It’s not about going to heaven when we die?” Nope. It’s not. Why? That wouldn’t follow the biblical pattern and the revealed purposes of God. What is the biblical pattern? The God of Grace comes down to us, yet again. And invites our participation in His wise rule, a partnership contemplated from the beginning, and continued through this middle period by our prayerful service as we build for His Kingdom on “Earth as it is in Heaven.”

Listen to ole Saint Peter himself. 1 Peter 1:3–4 (NRSV): “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”

Did you get that? From St Peter himself? The living hope. The promised “imperishable” inheritance kept in heaven for you. But here’s the payoff! Based on the whole counsel of Scripture. It will be an inheritance kept for us and then brought to us, by Grace, in all of its down to earth glory!

God, the Grand Initiator, comes down to us. Yet again. For the final time.

***

One more bookend combo. This time, both of them from the very Jewish early Christian writings. We begin not with Genesis but with The Gospel According to Matthew this time. The first book of the New Testament. [Our Church Fathers knew what they were doing when they bookended the Christian contribution to Scripture.] At the beginning of this book we find another vision from heaven. This time given to Joseph, Mary’s fiancé, who agonized over what to do about the young lady he loved but had not made pregnant. In a dream-vision an angel of the Lord said to him, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

Then so as to bring further assurance to this very Jewish young man, assurance of God’s overarching purposes, the angel quotes an old Hebrew scripture,

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” [Isaiah 7:14]

Matthew drives home the point about this God when he finishes the Gospel account with these final words, the words of Jesus to all His disciples: “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”³

***

Now the big finale! Speaking of the end of the age brings us to the climax of the story, the last two chapters in Revelation that I’ve already mentioned, the crucial text at the end of the book of books. In all of its down to earth glory.

Revelation 21:1–7 (NRSV): 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. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals. 
He will dwell with them as their God; 
they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more.”

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.” Then 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. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children, for the first things have passed away.”

Revelation 22:1–5 (NRSV): “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Reign where? And on what basis? John answers that question in an earlier chapter.

Revelation 5:9–10 (NRSV): They sing a new song (to the Lamb of God):
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
and they will reign on earth.”

[I can hear nonbelievers (some of my friends) justifiably saying all this talk about religious folk ruling and reigning and Judgment makes us very, very uncomfortable. I don’t blame you! In future posts, I will try to speak more fully to this concern. Stay with me.]

***

***

It is the New Jerusalem, “coming down out of Heaven from God” linking the created realms of heaven and earth, yet again. Recapitulating the original design. And at the center of that marriage of heaven and earth, a garden. Because God doesn’t give up on a good thing. Remember the story in Genesis? Before it went horribly wrong? He called His creation, both heaven and earth, GOOD. Not perfect, but good. Pregnant with possibility. And at the apex of creation, human beings, God’s image bearers, He called that creative work, VERY GOOD. Since according to the expanded version of the story (Genesis 2) females were created at the end of this explosion of God’s creative genius, the description VERY GOOD, makes great good sense to me!

And now in this final Biblical scene, Revelation chapters 21 and 22, God faithfully finishes what He started at the beginning.

The restoration of all things is at root about the reconciliation of all things. The image of marriage is key. “Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” The coming together of difference in loving harmony. The divisions between us brought about and sustained by human and divine⁴ arrogance will dissolve and God’s whole creation will finally reflect God’s fullness. God’s unity and plurality. Start down the big list. The reconciliation of Male and Female. Jew and Gentile. Heaven and Earth. God and His creation. All the separations of life that were never part of the original plan are reconciled. And at the center, we find the Garden-city of God’s love.

But first the destruction of evil, and every dark force that kept us apart, last of all Death, our final enemy, will die.⁵ The eternal rule and presence of God with His people throughout His heaven and earth New Creation, that is the grand story of Scripture. ⁶

God desires to dwell with us. Imagine that! And He will. Between now and then He calls us to the ministry of reconciliation in anticipation of that great endless day of reunion. When heaven comes down to earth once again.

No, our final goal is not heaven.

Heaven is real, but it is not The Christian Hope.

Why have we thought so? Answering that question requires a bit of unpacking. We’ll look at those reasons in future posts. And because God will not abandon His good creation but will transform it we are commissioned to, among other things, campaign for justice and ecology now in anticipation of our Christian Hope. For our “labor is not in vain.”⁷

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But before leaving this big picture look at Scripture and specifically the book at the end, so as not to be misunderstood, or charged with glossing over a great difficulty in this hard to read text, I need to say something about Judgement.

Revelation is a book full of Judgement which makes most of us in today’s comfortable free wheeling Western world decidedly uncomfortable. Where after the Lord’s Prayer, and perhaps John 3:16, Matthew 7:1 “judge not, that you be not judged” is one of the most quoted Scripture verses. And for good reason.

Judgement in and out of the Church is often unwise and unloving. Church leaders have sometimes focused more on the wrath of God against sin than on the love of God in Christ for His creation.

I understand the great unease.

That’s one reason it’s hard to read this book. But then you fail to get to the Garden climax and miss out on the crucial consummation of all things.

So how are we to understand Judgement?

With a little historical awareness we recognize that for most of human history and in many parts of the globe today the world was and is decidedly unjust, unfree, uncared for, and in bondage to dark powers. In the 20 century alone, in my parent’s lifetime, approximately 100 million of God’s image bearers were slaughtered at the altar of National and International Socialism. Ideologues slaughtered or forcibly starved their own citizens wholesale. Because they were regarded as either ethnically or intellectually impure. A tragedy of planetary dimensions was the result. The Nazis in Germany and the Soviet, Chinese, North Korean and Cambodian Communists, plus many other lesser known imitators, offered human sacrifices to their gods on an industrial scale. The sheer magnitude of this malevolence is unequaled in the annals of history. 100 million. Meditate on that number for a moment. In the last 100 years. In this so-called Enlightened Age. (If you don’t know about all this, your teachers are guilty of a gross dereliction of duty.)⁸

Sticking with Cambodia for a moment, having moved past the Communist Killing Fields⁹where in the 1970’s 2 million, 1 out of 7 Cambodians, were planted, the country now leads the world in forced labor and sex trafficking, especially “Child Sex Tourism.” Commercial Sex Exploitation (CSE) rages in this once beautiful paradise. Thousands of women and young girls, some as young as 5 and 6, end up in forced prostitution. Often with the tacit approval of local government officials. Served up to foreign interests. Wealthy “pleasure” seekers from abroad. The horrors inflicted on these mothers, these daughters, these granddaughters, these sisters, beggars belief. Most of us don’t have categories in our brains to contemplate such evil. But there they are. Caged, deprived of food, beaten, forced to perform sexual acts against their will, gang-raped until fainting, their horrible suffering gives witness to the existence of dark powers still yet encircling that country, that region and our globe.

A world caught in the gaping maw of those and similar malevolent powers was and is screaming for righteous judgement. For restorative justice. For a cosmic reckoning. “How long, oh, Lord, before heaven comes rolling down like thunder. How long!?”

I’ll stop now. Sorry for the shocking language but examples like this could be multiplied exponentially ad-nauseam. Perhaps with these and many others in mind we might reread the Judgements of Revelation in a somewhat different light.

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But why does God allow this great suffering? That’s the next and hardest question, isn’t it? Especially for a Monotheist like me. It’s a legitimate question. And requires a long, straightforward answer. But let me humbly defer for now by saying:

If this life, a life lived desperately by so many, is the only life there is, then there is no justice. And no God worthy of our love.

I simply can’t believe such a horrible thing. Can you? No. A great and terrible reckoning must be in our future. ¹⁰

But also restorative beauty, goodness and love.

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Which brings us back to the Garden-City. The most important part of living in the Garden is seeing, walking, talking with our God. That’s the longed-for future. For all who believe.

Although many naturalists yearn for it, there will not be a return to Eden. The human couple began in a garden paradise, but the final scene is that of an enfoliated, fruitful city, and the unencumbered embrace of a very large family, from every tribe and nation. ¹¹

Oh happy day.

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The first reading at Susan’s funeral mass was from another puzzling book. It too deals with evil. The book of Job. A book about great suffering but unlike Revelation, the problem of evil remained unresolved. And yet, yet, incomprehensibly¹², Job, a man who suffered much, could say:

“But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, 
and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, 
not another’s, shall behold him; 
And from my flesh I shall see God; 
my inmost being is consumed with longing.”

At the end of her mass, I finished my Eulogy with…

“Sleep for a season sweetie. I can’t wait to walk hand in hand with you into the light and life giving presence of our God. My inmost being is consumed with longing.”

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“You believe in those gardens don’t you sweetie.” “Yes”, she said, “I believe.”

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