Heaven is Here – 6/1/08

Let’s start with a song:

Save me from this prison
Lord help me get away
Cause only you can save me now
From this misery
Cause I’ve been lost in my own place
And I’m getting’ weary
How far is heaven
And I know I need to change
My ways of livin’
How far is heaven, Lord can you tell me

Cause I’ve been locked up way too long
In this crazy world, how far is heaven
I just keep on prayin’ Lord
Just keep on livin’, how far is heaven
Lord can you tell me, how far is heaven
I just got to know how far, how far is heaven
Lord can you tell me

Tu que estas en alto cielo,
Echame tu bendiciòn
[translated from Spanish]
[You that's in a higher place
Send me down a blessing]

Cause I know there’s a better place
Than this place I’m livin’, how far is heaven
So I just got to show some faith
And just keep on giving, how far is heaven
Lord can you tell me, how far is heaven
I just wanna know how far, how far is heaven,
Lord can you tell me, how far is heaven,
’cause I just gotta know how far,
I just wanna know far.

This was a very popular song some months ago. While is sounds Christians, you should have caught some bad theology along the way. We’ll get to that, but I shared it with you because is asks a question that I was asked, “How far is heaven?” Really, the question I got was, “Where is heaven?” Is it a place that we can go to? Or, is it just a metaphor for all things good and godly?

Heaven as a place has taken many different forms over time. In Jesus’ day, as for much of history, the world was thought of as flat and housed under a large dome. This is the picture painted in the first chapter of Genesis. That large dome is the sky and on the other side of it is heaven. Heaven, then, is the place above the sky where God and God’s court resides. For some, the stars and the sun were heavenly bodies that reflected God’s glory through the dome bringing heavenly light to the earth. Of course, the view of heaven came under scrutiny when the earth started to take a different shape.

When the earth becomes round, it’s difficult to say what direction is up. You have to start thinking in terms of out. Still, it was thought that hell was under the earth somehow and that heaven was a place out there beyond our reach. Eventually, science began to describe the universe as something that expands. It became more and more difficult to say that heaven was out there somewhere because it would have to keep getting further and further away to make room for the universe. Some science fiction movies would wonder about black holes and other dimensions as an avenue to heaven, but they were far fetched. It’s at this point that some people started abandoning the idea that heaven was a place and started to think of it as a state of being.

Even prior to science fiction, other religions have thought of heaven as a state of eternal happiness. Others would describe it as a state of full aliveness or being completely whole. It is the state of being fully united with God. If the far right is set on describing heaven as a literal place, then the far left is convinced that heaven is only a metaphor for a more fulfilling life. It’s right to say that neither of these views is properly Christian. More recent, Biblical scholarship is borrowing from science to interpret some of the texts in new ways. One of those texts is the 2 Kings passage we heard this morning.

The back drop of this passage is a war between Israel and Aram. The King of the Arameans was attacking the Israelites. Or, at least trying to. It seems that he would select a town to attack or to enter, but every time he did the people there were already aware of his coming so that his attacks were thwarted. The king came to an obvious conclusion: there must be a mole. But the soldiers were certain that it was not one of them who was tipping off the king of Israel. Rather, it was one of Israel’s prophets who knew everything that the king has said. His name was Elisha and he was staying in a town called Dothan. So the King of Aram sent horses and chariots and a great army to seize this one man of God.

Early in the morning, one of Elisha’s attendants wakes up and is struck by the sight outside the city. It is entirely surrounded by the Aramean army. The dutiful servant quickly notifies his master and asks, “What shall we do?” Cool, calm and collected, Elisha responds, “Do not be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them.” You can be sure that the servant hears those words as neither cool nor calm nor collected. More like crazy. There was no army of Israel to be found in the house, in the city or in the nearby countryside. As far as the servant could see, it was Elisha and himself who would face this great army. Elisha, however, had a different vision.

He prayed a simple prayer that the servant could see with his eyes, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” With those words, the Lord opened the eyes of the servant and he saw. The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Those horses and chariots would be the means by which the Aramean army was struck blind and Elisha and his servant were spared. Elisha was confident of this when his servant was not because he saw with different eyes. As Elisha saw the horses and chariots of heaven face to face, the servant was blinded to their presence. The servant’s vision is reminiscent of Paul’s words to the Corinthians: for now we see in a mirror dimly. But Elisha’s prayer changed all that. It was as if a veil was lifted from his eyes.

It’s that unveiling, of course, that the last book of the Bible is focused on. The last book of the Bible is about a revelation or unveiling. In other words, something in the last book that wasn’t seen before is uncovered for everyone to see. It’s not that something new has come into existence, it’s that something that has always been present has finally become visible. Science and Biblical scholarship has converged on this idea of dimensions. As you sit in the pew you are aware of three dimensions. You know about height, you know about depth, and you know about width. You can move up and down, forward and back, left and right or any combination of those directions. You also know about time which is often called the fourth dimension. As this sermon carries on and on, you know that time is passing…slowly.

Well, newer theories in Physics have started to assert that there are as many as 10 dimensions as String Theory says or 11 dimensions as M-Theory assumes. It’s really not important to go into the theory, but Biblical scholars have used them to describe the relationship of heaven and earth. They say that heaven and earth are not separated by any number of miles. There is no direction we can point someone in to get them to heaven if the could travel far enough. Rather, heaven is all around us all of the time, we just can’t see it. There is something over our eyes that prevents us from peering in to get a view. However, there are the occasional glimpses that certain people get. Elisha is one example. Stephen, as he was being stoned, is another. Paul, when he writes about being caught up into the third heaven, is another. Of course, John, the author of the Revelation is another.

Modern physics and Biblical scholarship both allow for the idea that heaven is a place, but it’s not one governed by our usual dimensions. So, they have at once brought heaven closer to us, but also moved it further away. Heaven is closer in this view because it’s right in front of us, so to speak. If we could see it, we could reach out and touch it. But this view also moves heaven further away. Even if we had a rocket ship that could take us to the ends of the universe, we wouldn’t find heaven there. There is a veil that covers our eyes and prevents us from peering in. And, only a select few, those like Elisha’s servant, have been blessed to have that veil lifted for a moment. No matter what we do or what technology we develop, no effort of ours is going to get us there because we can’t comprehend its existence. What we can comprehend, however, is its goodness.

Wherever heaven is, we have this great sense that it’s a better place than the one we’ve got. That’s why the song wants to know how far heaven is. The song describes this life as one that’s weary. It describes this world as crazy. In fact, the song sees this world as a miserable prison from which we all must be set free. We’ll keep the faith. We’ll keep on giving. We’ll keep praying. We’ll keep changing. We’ll keep doing the things necessary to get us out of here, but it would be much better if we could just get out of here and get to heaven. The thought is that when we finally get to heaven, we’ll be happy. When we finally get to heaven, we’ll overcome what keeps us down. When we finally get to heaven, every need will be met and everything we long for will be ours.

Christians have been criticized for this point of view, especially by environmentalists lately. Others who have a special concern for the poor. Or, those who have a special concern for animals. Anyone who has a special concern for some material part of this world has found reason to be critical of Christians and their heaven. This view of heaven as the ideal has resulted in the cliché that Christians are so heavenly-minded that they’re no earthly good. It might be that their correct. Because while the Bible has a lot to say about heaven, it seems that the greater joy of Scripture is the earth. The more celebrated event is not that we go up to heaven, but that heaven comes down to us.

Remember when God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. Remember that great pillar of smoke and fire that led the Israelites through the wilderness. Remember that tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant that kept God’s people safe in the Promised Land. Remember that Temple in which God’s glory resided. Of course, remember Jesus of Nazareth who is God-with-us. And, remember what you heard this morning. The great conclusion to the Bible is this: I saw a new heaven and anew earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…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 saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God and they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.”

There will be no more temple because God will just be there. There will be no more sun because God’s glory will give us light. There will be no more death or disease because God will be there. There will be no more crying or pain because God will be there. All the nations of the world will be healed because God will be there. It turns out that the great revelation, what was hidden and becomes seen, what was covered and becomes unveiled is God himself. Throughout Scripture God made attempts to enjoy this very good place with us. At the end of the last book of the Bible, John seems to say that God finally gets his wish; not because we all join him in heaven, but because the earth is finally the kind of place where God can join us.

This is what makes Jesus different from the Socrates and other philosophers. This is what makes Christianity different from many other world religions. The goal of our faith is not to escape this place, but to enjoy it. The world and our flesh are not prisons from which we must be unchained. Sin is the prison. The world and everything in it have experienced the consequences of sin and realized how miserable the fruit of sin can be. It’s the good news of Christians to say that this world doesn’t have to be this way. There is a way out of the prison of sin that will allow us to enjoy this world for all that God has made it to be and it is following after Jesus Christ.

Now I know that many of us are looking forward to heaven. I don’t blame and I don’t think you should stop looking forward to heaven. But I think what the Bible says is even better news than what many of us have heard. Because if we have to wait for heaven, we have to wait. We have to continue to put up with hate and prejudice and lust and temptation. If the goal of our faith is heaven than we have a long way to go. However, if the goal of our faith is living rightly on this earth, then what we long for is available today. It’s right in front of us, we only have to reach out and grab it. In other words, we’ve got to show some faith, we’ve got to keep giving, we’ve got to keep praying and changing, not so that we can get to heaven one day, but so that God’s will can be done on earth as it is in heaven today. Faith, giving, praying, changing, that is heaven.

After the great army of Elisha was blinded and taken to the King of Israel, the King wanted to kill them. It’s a natural response to kill an enemy. Elisha objected. Elisha had the King prepare a table before him in the midst of his enemies. Elisha had the king love his enemies as Jesus called us to do. Elisha had the king feed his enemies and give them something to drink as Paul wrote us to do. S, the king prepared a great feast; after they ate and drank, he sent them on their way, and they went to their master. And, the Arameans no longer came raiding into the land of Israel. In that act of faith and giving there was healing between the nations. For a moment what Isaiah predicted came true, “They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Now that’s heaven.

I share that with you especially this morning because we are about to enter into heaven in a special way. As with Elisha’s feast, we gather around this table to continue in our reconciliation with God and our reconciliation with one another. We continue to pray, we continue to change, we continue to open ourselves to God’s Holy Spirit within us, so that heaven continues to come down in the midst of us. “See I am making all thing new,” says the one who is seated on the throne, “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.” How far is heaven? It’s closer than you think. Amen.