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Sunday, August 03, 2008
Eternal Life: When Does That Begin?
9th in a series on The Uniqueness of the Gospel of John
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
John 17: 1 – 3
1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Our family was in Boston recently, and we took some time to tour several of the historic churches there, including old North Church where the lanterns were hung in the steeple to warn that the British were coming. We toured Old South Meeting House where Sam Adams and other revolutionary firebrands met with a thousand people to advocate for the Boston tea party and other revolutionary actions.
The third church we visited is a very large and active Episcopal church, Trinity Church, right in downtown Boston next door to the huge Prudential tower. Trinity serves about 4000 families and has been a positive influence for the past 160 years. One of the most famous pastors was Dr. Phillips Brooks who guided the congregation during the late 19th century in expanding their ministry and constructing their building.
We spent almost an hour in that church’s bookstore, one of the best church bookstores I have ever seen, and one of the items that got my attention there was a t shirt with a list of the top ten reasons to be an Episcopalian. The author of the list is comic Robin Williams, who is himself a member of an Episcopal church. I liked the list very much and I have adapted five of the reasons for my own list of reasons to be a United Methodist Christian. It is logical since John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, was himself an Anglican/Episcopal priest.
Here are five of Robin Williams’ reasons to be an Episcopalian:
- Pew aerobics
- The church year is color coded
- Free wine on Sunday
- All of the pageantry, none of the guilt
- No matter what you believe, there’s bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you!
I have, with some help, composed our own ten reasons to be a United Methodist, and the first five are openly borrowed from Robin Williams’ list in honor of our common heritage as Methodist and Episcopal Christians:
- No snake handling
- You don’t have to check your brain at the door.
- You can believe in dinosaurs.
- Male and female God created them, male and female we ordain them.
- You don’t have to know how to swim to get baptized.
- Prayer and social justice go together like peanut butter and jelly
- You can take the Bible seriously without taking it literally
- You can disagree with the Bishops and still feel welcome at the communion table. (Here is how Wesley said it: we don’t have to think alike in order to love alike)
- Coffee is the Methodist version of holy water.
- Following Christ means that eternal life starts right now.
It is the last one that is so clearly stated by Jesus in the gospel of John more than anywhere else. Life at its best, “abundant life,” life in all its fullness, is something that begins right now when we open our hearts and lives to the person and the teachings of Christ and begin to follow that person and his teachings. Jesus tells us that living that way is eternal life and it starts right now. It is not about waiting for something to happen to us after we die.
In the gospel of John, the benefit of being a follower, a disciple of Christ, is not a ticket to heaven in the afterlife. Jesus does not say that he has come to get us into the afterlife. He comes to offer us a better, fuller and deeper life right now. “Whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and has already passed from death to life.”
Let’s be specific. We have heard stories of people who have lived selfishly and greedily and even abusively most of their life, but who at the end make a deathbed affirmation of Christ and receive communion and then feel at peace. I believe God is gracious and merciful to us anytime and all the time, but I believe the person who waits until the end to make an affirmation of faith has missed the point and has missed what the life of the spirit is all about! They have missed abundant life in the here and now, every day.
We hosted on Tuesday night in our sanctuary one of the most active and inspiring high school youth choirs in the US. They are from Los Altos Church in northern California, a congregation very similar in size and activity level to St. Andrew. That church is facing the same challenge we were facing ten years ago: they are landlocked, out of space, need more space to accommodate more people. The adult leaders who were here Tuesday night were looking at our space and building plans with envy, and were saying that they may have missed the window of opportunity a few years ago to move and buy a larger site to serve more people.
The evening’s concert was just inspirational, and even more inspirational to me was the fact that the husband and wife team who direct that 75 member high school choir compose all the music and script themselves!! The message of the music was the same as what Jesus tells us in today’s reading: when we learn to love one another and live unselfishly, we have abundant life, eternal life beginning right now.
“Eternal life” in the gospel of John is not something that happens after we die – it starts right now and is a depth, a quality of life that is different. In the words of another writer named John in the New Testament, when we love one another we have passed from death to life.
Let me say it a little more bluntly: if you think Christianity is all about getting into heaven when you die, you have missed the whole point, according to Jesus in the gospel of John. In this gospel, Jesus says that when we know and trust the God that Jesus is revealing to us – love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as we love ourselves – that is when we are experiencing life in all its fullness. That is the best life possible. It is not about being with God in eternity after death: it is about being in touch with God every day, starting today. And if we don’t live in that way, we will be missing something important.
Joseph in the children’s musical lived that way. He lived close to God every day. That is how he was able to resist the temptation of Potiphar’s wife when she tried to seduce him. That is how he was able to forgive his brothers who had sold him into slavery right after they almost decided to murder him. Life lived close to God is abundant life, eternal life.
We had a funeral in our building on Friday for the father of Kathy Sutton of our congregation. Bob Janke died a few days ago in Phoenix at the age of 80. I did not know Mr. Janke but I had the privilege of meeting him through the tributes and memories of his family and his co workers. The words of affirmation and appreciation for him were many and profound. Bob Janke worked for most of his professional life for Public Service Company here in Denver, and then after retirement entered a second career in Phoenix as an officer for Utility Communicators International. The emails from his colleagues and co workers spoke of his character, his integrity, his mentoring of other staff members, his unselfishness, his strong sense of right and wrong.
As we always do in our memorial services and funerals, we reminded people of the exercise in Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: imagine your own funeral. Who do you hope will be there? What do you hope people will say about you? How do you want to be remembered? Then look at yourself honestly and ask, “Am I living right now in a way that will let others say those things about me,” and if not start today.
Maybe that is the message from this verse in John’s gospel: start today. Eternal life, abundant life, the fullest life possible can start today if we put Christ and his teachings at the center. Let’s reaffirm that commitment or even start that commitment right now!