Delivered on June 5, 2005, Melana
discusses what happens as Christians when
we die. This is the first in a series dealing
with topics requested by the congregation.
What Happens When We Die? I Cor. 15 selected verses
This week we are beginning a series of sermons from topics that people have said they would like to hear sermons about. I am beginning with one that is a very normal question - it is something I have spent a great deal of time talking about with my youngest child. Perhaps because of her early experience with being sick, she is afraid of what happens when we die. Really I think it is a question about fear of the unknown and fear of separation for her.
This is a question I answer in various ways at various times as people go through their lives - I have had this conversation with people who are ill, with people who have lost someone they love, with people who are curious. We are much more comfortable with what we know, so dying is somewhat frightening, because it takes us from what we know to a place where no one can give us any real idea of what to expect.
We know it is a common question because there have been so many movies that deal with the question in one form or another over the years -
Ghost, Dragonfly, The Sixth Sense and others.
The movie I would most recommend is called Wide Awake, which deals with a young boy’s fear for his grandfather who has died and his search for the answer to whether his grandfather was okay.
Philosophers and theologians through the ages have wrestled with this question. As medical technology has advanced, people have died and been brought back to life and their experiences are so similar, that we have to consider what they mean. Everyone I have ever talked with who has had a near-death experience, talks about seeing a white light and feeling at peace.
Some people talk about seeing family members or Jesus and most say they are no longer afraid to die. One woman I know told me that she fell off a ladder in her kitchen and saw a white light and felt a great comfort. Then she heard Jesus tell her that she was still needed on earth, but that he would take her if she wanted to die now. She saw her husband run into the kitchen and run to her body and she decided to go back to him. She told me that she was not at all afraid to die - in fact she looked forward to feeling the warmth and comfort that she felt that day.
Death is the great unknown and we don’t like not knowing. Throughout history there have been four primary ideas about what happens when we die - most religions pick one or more of these possibilities.
The first, and probably the least compelling, is that we cease to exist when we die. This is the view of many who do not believe in God, who believe only in humanity’s own ability to improve life on this earth. Many Jews believed this way - the life we have is on this earth and nothing comes after, so make the most of the opportunities that exist now. No afterlife is not something most of us find comforting. It is probably the thing that scares us the most - we want to continue to exist - somehow.
The second answer to what happens when we die is that we are reincarnated. Several Eastern religions believe this in one form or another. What we do in the life we are currently living affects how we will be reincarnated in the next life and the hope is to continue to progress toward enlightenment. Many people like the idea of reincarnation, because it promises that we will return to something familiar - life on this earth. Reincarnation has gained a large following in the last two decades in the U.S. with the rise of the New Age Movement. Shirley McLain wrote a book detailing her memories of former lives and showing that her life was connected to certain others who were reincarnated in a way so that a relationship existed between them in each life. One of the most Christian women I knew gave me a book to read about ten years ago about a woman’s stories of her past lives and how remembering them helped her in this life so that she could move toward enlightenment. This woman told me the thought of reincarnation made her less afraid to die. Again, we are more comfortable with what we know - and we know life on this earth, with its trials and tribulations. But personally, I don’t want to have to keep coming to earth to try to make up for the mistakes I made in the last life, hoping one day to finally get it right.
The third answer to what happens when we die comes to us from the Greeks and has carried the most weight of any answer into modern day. The Greeks believed that the essence of who we are resides in the soul - and that the soul was higher than the body. The body was something to put up with in this life, but the soul was our very being. When we die, the Greeks believed that the soul, which was immortal and so did not die, would leave the body and go to the afterlife.
Even among Christians this is the most commonly understood answer to what happens when we die. Movies depict an immortal soul looking down on a weakened or wounded body, as the soul rises up to heaven. Since I was asked to preach about this, let me make my point perfectly clear - as Christians, we do not believe in the immortality of the soul.
As Christians, we believe in the fourth possible answer - we are resurrected to eternal life by a God who loves us. To me this is a crucial difference. Immortality of the soul makes our eternal life all about us. Resurrection makes our eternal life all about God’s love and grace. Resurrection is what makes Christianity different because of the power of grace. We are not raised from death because we earned it. We are not raised to eternal life because we deserve it.
We are raised to be with God because God loves us - unconditionally. Our eternal life is a gift from God, not just a function of an immortal soul. What we will see when we are raised to our new life, I don’t know. I don’t know what heaven will look like. I don’t know if the streets will be paved with gold. I don’t know if we will be angels with different jobs to do. There is much I don’t know - in fact, when I was first asked to preach on this, I said it would be 10 minutes of saying, “I don’t know.” There is much I don’t know - but there is something that I absolutely believe - That God loves us and sent Jesus Christ, who has won the victory over sin and death - and we will be raised to be with him - By grace, not of our own doing. Because we believe this, we can live with hope. That doesn’t mean that we live without grief - even Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Grief is part of life because we miss those we love - we want the familiarity of their smile, their laughter - we want their company and the way we felt in their presence.
Believing in the resurrection to eternal life doesn’t take away the grief - but it strengthens us to walk through it because we know that we and those we love will be with God for eternity.
The Christian answer to What happens when we die, is that we are resurrected to eternal life and will be forever with God. When we arrive at that destination, we will know God as we have been known by God - fully and completely, with unconditional love. Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Death is not something we need to fear, because we have the hope and the promise of the resurrection to eternal life with God.
© Melana Scruggs 2005
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