ACTS 17:1-15

PSALM 66:1-8

1PETER 2:1-10

JOHN 14:1-14

Sermon – April 24, 2005

“Do not let your hearts be troubled”

The Bible says a great deal about what faithful people are called to do by God, as individuals and as communities, in this world, as it will be revealed at the End of Time when the Kingdom of God comes in its fullness and Christ returns to reign in glory.

Community is of overwhelming importance in the Bible – communities of faith now and the ultimate community which is the Kingdom of God. This seems and is very foreign to those who have bought into the extremely individualistic ethos of the dominant Anglo culture in America who are always asking “What’s in it for me of any concept or activity.” Some preachers have adapted Christianity to this “What’s in it for me?” culture and come up with a description of the Christian faith which is all about an individual relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior, individual morality divorced from any social environment, and individual salvation meaning the individual survival of an individual’s soul in an individually-sized Heaven after death, and perhaps no Kingdom of God at all. All of this would sound very foreign indeed to any of the biblical authors, all of whom, despite their own profound individual faith relationships with God, knew that faith, faithfulness and salvation all involve communities.

One product of this Americanization of Christianity is that 81% of Americans tell the Gallup Poll that they are Christians, but far fewer than that belong in any sense to any local church anywhere, and many of those who do belong “on paper” are not active, involved, supporting members. Not only that, but some of those who do start looking for a church to join start out by asking, “What can this church do for me?” rather than asking “Is this church praising and serving God, is it serving the world as God intends, and does it offer opportunities for me to do both?

In short, let us not get seduced into thinking about communities (including faith communities) solely from the standpoint of our own individual needs, but let us reflect on our individual needs from the standpoint of what God says about faith communities.

It is, after all, only a short step from “What’s in it for me?” to “My will be done” as the central operational principle of a person’s life – the opposite of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Your will be done, O Lord.”

It is with this emphasis on God first, community second and the individual third that I would like to approach what is one of the very few passages in the New Testament which seem to be designed to answer the question, “What will happen to me after I die?” The Gospel we have just heard is, in fact, often read at funerals in the Episcopal Church; how many people here have ever heard the opening verses of John 14 ever read at a funeral? This Gospel only makes sense, and only strengthens our faith, and only provides us the comfort it is designed to provide (and which we need) if we think God first, community second, individual third.

This may be clear if we take the usual ultra-individualistic Anglo-American approach, and think about Heaven the way people often think about retirement complexes, or vacation homes, or even some regular homes. First, what’s my “unit” in Heaven going to look like? What’s the floor plan? What are the appliances? What are the amenities? What’s included? What’s the guarantee or warranty? What hours is service open? Second, what’s the neighborhood or community like? What are its standards? Are they “my kind of people”? Is there security? How well are the common areas maintained? What recreational activities are available? How much does all this cost? And oh, yes, third, who owns it, and how do I complain to the management?

I sincerely hope that you all will find these questions ludicrous, but I suspect that there are people who would be suspicious of going any place for which they did not have a detailed prospectus which answered these and perhaps more questions. Of course, heaven is not compulsory. There is the Other Option. And to be fair, the apostle Thomas himself takes a baby step in the direction of the “prospectus” approach when he asks Jesus in today’s Gospel, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” as though Jesus might, if he asked nicely, give him a road map with the route marked in yellow highlighter.

Jesus responds, “I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life.” That’s all the road map you’re going to get – and it’s all you’ll need. God first. Put God first, and true individual needs will be met. On the other hand, if you only worry about your needs being met, you may not meet God, which is how your needs can be met!

And as much as we are invited to have personal, individual relationships with God, God also calls us to know God in community. That needs to start here...or even if we get to heaven, we may look around and say, “eeeuw, what are all these people doing here?” Get used to it, folks; heaven is very likely to be extremely diverse in every way we can conceive of and in ways we can’t. As I said on Easter Sunday in response to a child’s question, God is God not just of earth but of all places everywhere...which makes it rather likely that God has granted eternal life to other species besides homo sapiens.

Thinking of heaven should expand our notions of “community” not only in space but also in time. Often, people have expressed a desire to see dead relatives again, and often dying people do have experiences of “seeing”, in some sense, departed loved ones. But not only them: what about meeting Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Francis, Abraham and (literally) God knows who else? What about experiencing “the fullness of joy”?

Anyone still worry about the “floor plan” of their “dwelling place”?

Let us truly take Jesus’ words to heart: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” God first, community second, individual needs third. And if we are with God and God nurtures and cares for us fully in accordance with what God knows are our needs (which will not be fully the same as our wants when we were still on earth), we never need to get to #3 on our priority list.

So what can and should we do now, as people who, hopefully, are on a life-long journey towards heaven?

First, focus on our relationship with God and coming to know God as God is revealed in Scripture, sacrament, faith history, the best aspects of faith communities, and from our personal understandings and experience. Start with God and our understandings of our “needs” will change, and we may find our stress levels drop and our contentment rise!

Second, focus on community, and not first on “What’s in it for me?” but “How can I serve God and God’s world as a part of this community – this earth, this nation, this state, this town, this church, this family, this whatever?”

And as members of these earthly communities who hope to be members of the community of Heaven some day, there are some concrete things each of us can do to show our love right now.

First of all, all adults should have Advance Medical Directives, or “Living Wills.” If you were critically injured or suffered a devastating illness and were unable to make medical decisions for yourself, who would make them? Think about that, talk to those closest to you and write down your wishes and who you would want to have carry them out: we have information available on the table in the Welcoming Area for you.

Of course, if you’d rather, you could leave these crucial questions unanswered in written form and leave your loved ones with the chance they will have to make excruciating decisions without your guidance – and perhaps made more painful if they disagree. Of course, if you give no instructions, your loved ones may get “help” from various judges, radio and TV personalities and even an Act of Congress.

Is that what you want?

Talk to your loved ones, talk to your attorney. Make a plan. One great gift Pope John Paul II gave to the whole world was an example of how to die with dignity. Clearly, he wanted medical help up to a certain point, and then he was willing to “let go and let God” at home surrounded by those closest to him. It was profoundly moving to reflect on his last weeks, and a starker contrast with the disputes and media circus surrounding Terry Schiavo could not be imagined. Which would you want? Make a plan.

Second, I endorse signing up to be an organ donor. As the bumper stickers we have available say, “Don’t take your organs with you to heaven; heaven knows they’re needed here.”

God can make us new. It comforts me to know that my heart, liver and kidneys (for example) could save or transform someone’s life when I no longer need them. Check out the literature on the table in the Welcoming Area.

Third, we have a funeral arrangement booklet, available. Write down your insurance policies, safety deposit box locations, bank accounts etc. and then leave the list where someone will know where to find it. If you leave a “secret bank account” which no one knows about, do you know who will get it eventually? (The State.) Do you really like the government that much?

If you have a burial plot already purchased, write it down and tell someone. Cremation is perfectly acceptable in the Episcopal Church. I personally wish for my remains to be cremated and interred in God’s good earth. If you wish to be cremated or a loved one wishes to be cremated, please have a plan for appropriate interment; keeping cremains in your house turns your house into a cemetery, which is not appropriate.

In any case, ostentatious display is not appropriate for Christian funerals. Remember the beautiful, plain wooden box John Paul II was buried in. President Eisenhower was buried in a plain pine casket. I also encourage people to invite donations to one or more favorite charities as memorial gifts rather than flooding a funeral home with may hundreds of dollars of cut flowers which will wilt in a couple of days.

Fourth, it should be clear that all of the forgoing reflections are for all adults, not just “for old people.” We live, as we all know, in a post-9/11 world, in which unexpected death comes to some people of all ages. We Christians, for whom Easter is at the heart of our faith, can come to terms with our mortality with more serenity than non-believers, and by so doing affirm our faith in God and our care for the communities of which we are a part.

And by so doing in these concrete ways – writing a living will, being an organ donor, making funeral plans – we can care for the individual needs of those nearest and dearest to us when they become bereft of us – and also give life to people we will never meet on this earth by our gifts of organs we will no longer need. When we put God first and community second, not only our individual needs but those of others get tended to!

Let us pray. O Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leadeth to eternal life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church