Isaiah 25:6-9, Revelation 7:9-12; John 5:24-29

Glebe, Delton J.

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Life after death: by what authority?

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 15Issue 1 Mission of the Church Article 105-1-1989Life after death: by what authority?Delton J. GlebeFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Sermons is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationGlebe, Delton J. (1989) "Life after death: by what authority?," Consensus: Vol. 15 : Iss. 1 , Article 10.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol15/iss1/10Life After Death:By What Authority?iDelton J. GlebeProfessor of Pastoral Cart,Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, WaterlooTexts: Isaiah 25:6-9, Revelation 7:9-12, John 5:24-29In a book on Children’s Concerns About Death and Dying"^the author tells us of 5 year old Jill.Her 75 year old grandmother had just died.“Jill, I have some very sad news to tell you;Granny had another stroke and died,”said her father upon his return from the hospital.Jill’s eyes welled with tears.As the people left Jill was sitting in the corner.She seemed more “wondering” than grieving.Then she came over and placed her head in her father’s lap.She looked up at him and said quietly,“But Daddy, won’t Granny need her socks?”The father’s first impulse was to laugh.After a bit he asked her what she had in mind.She replied: “Well Daddy, I’ve been worried about Granny.When she was at home she liked to keep her feet warm inthose big gray socks.But when they took her to hospital she just wore that funnydress.Now that she’s gone deadshe didn’t have a chance to get those socksbefore she went away.Isn’t she going to be cold without them?Daddy, won’t Granny need her socks?”102 ConsensusJill had her imaginings about life after death.But so do adults.The search for an image of life after deathoccupies our minds more than we care to admit.What is your image of life after death?Why do you embrace your particular picture of heaven?By what authority did you select it?By what authority do you trust it?By what authority do you claim it?A parishioner in one of our parisheshad lost a spouse in death.It was a traumatic time.But the parishioner found comfort in a certain image ofheaven.Apparently the pastor questioned the image.Whereupon the parishioner replied:“If heaven is not the way I picture it,then I’m not sure I want it.”Doesn’t the Bible give us an authoritative image?Not really.On the one hand the Scriptures use various pictures of lifeafter death.In today’s text Isaiah pictures “God swallowing up Deathforever.”The text in Revelation pictures “a great multitudesurrounding a heavenly throne in worship.”The text in the Gospel of John pictures “all in the gravesrising up in response to the voice of the Son of Man.”On the other hand the same Scriptures say:“Eye has not seen nor ear heardwhat the Lord has in store for them that love him.”On the one hand, some Christians are very definite abouttheir one and only picture of heaven.On the other hand, teachers and preachers search for evermore relevant images.Death 103But whatever image or picture of life after death you usea crucial question in choosing the image is:By what authority?Norman Vincent Peale in his most recent bookThe Positive Power of Jesus Christ^tells of having lunch with Lord Thompsonthe owner of the great newspaper empire.Thompson said: “Dr. Peale, I am an old manand one of these days I’m going to die.I want to know: Is there an afterlife?”Dr. Peale gave him this picture of the “after-life”.Suppose that someone came to an unborn baby and said:You cannot stay here long.In a few months you will be born,or, as it were, “die out of your present state”.The baby might say,I don’t want to leave here.I’m comfortable, cared for, warm, loved and happy.But he is born.“He dies out of his present life.”And what does he find?He feels beneath him strong loving arms.He looks up into his mother’s face tender with love.He is welcomed, cuddled and cared for.And he says: This is a wonderful place.Then he goes on to enjoy childhood,adolescence and adulthood.Then he becomes an old man.His step slows, his energy drops.Someone says:You are going to die,or, as it were, “You will be born out of this place intoanother”.He objects: But I don’t want to die!I have loved ones.I love this world.I don’t want to leave it.I don’t want to die.104 ConsensusBut he does die!What happens then?Is God the Creator suddenly going to change his nature?Can we not assume that this manwill feel once again warm arms beneath him,will see once again a strong loving face above him?Won’t he soon exclaim:This is a wonderful place!I want to remain here forever!As beautiful as this modern parable is,by what authority does Peale make his claim?Peale replies:“I believe in the promises in the Bible.But beyond the biblical is the evidence of intelligence andcommon sense.”By What Authority?In keeping with his “Power of Positive Thinking”Peale pictures death as the warm arms beneath himthe strong loving face above himin this wonderful placewhere I want to remain forever.Peale’s Positive Thinking in this picture is not to be denied!But what about pain, tears, suffering and struggle?These negatives shake the faith in the walk through death.These negatives persist in the walk from death to life.All positives and no negatives do not ring true to life.All positives and no negatives do not ring true to a biblicalimage of life and death.For things pictured as all positives and no negatives we have aspecial name.We, in the church, call it Triumphalism]Another authority for an image of death and resurrectionhas emerged in our times.It has become so fascinating to our peoplethat it has more appeal to manyDeath 105than do the biblical images of resurrection.It is the phenomenon called Near Death Experiences.And by what authority?The authority in Near Death Experiences for images of theafterlife is similar to that of Norman Vincent Peale:intelligence, common sense and clinical evidence.Thousands of cases of “after life” experiences have beendocumented.Those with positive “after life” experiences report:having a new body with superior senses,emerging from a tunnel into brilliant light,meeting loved ones who have previously died.One patient says:“I saw a figure with long hair in a briliant white robe.”I have heard Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross say:Beyond a shadow of doubt there is life after death.By What Authority?The researchers reply:By the evidence gathered in thousands of interviews.This is not the time and place to debate the evidence.But a tendency on reporting the evidence in Near Deathexperiences is pointed out by some researchers themselves.It’s the tendency to report only the positive experiencesand to forget the negative ones.We, in the church, call it Triumphalism.Dr. Maurice Rawlings is a 64 year old medical doctoron the staff at the University of Tennessee, a Presbyterianand a deeply committed Christian.He has documented 300 cases of “after life” experiences.His 1978 best seller Beyond Death’s Door^ shows thatnot all after-life experiences are good.Dr. Rawlings reveals a tendency herewhich we saw in Peak’s parable.The tendency to accentuate the positive and eliminate thenegative.The tendency to claim all positives and no negatives.106 ConsensusFor things pictured as all positives and no negatives,we have this special name:We, in the church, call it Triumphalism.But Triumphalism appears also in the church!In a town nearby a few years agothe pastor of a Christian group declared:If you’re a Christianyou’re above sadness and sorrow;you’re above tears and grief.You’re in for all joy and gladness.You’re in for all sunshine and roses!As a result some Lutherans in the area,honestly began to questionwhether it’s alright for Christians to weep at a funeralor to grieve the loss of a loved one.It’s like some televangelists.In the most bombastic voicebursting with joyconfidentially they tell youthat all you have to do is accept Jesus.And the moment you doall your troubles will vanish like a bubble.There won’t be a cloud in the sky anymore.Everything will be sunshine and roses.It’s easy, so glorious, to be a Christian!We, in the church, call it triumphalism.Because Jesus says:Whoever would come after me,let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me!But are there not times when we needa totally positive image of death?When we need a triumphalist image?When we need to have the resurrectionpresented with triumphant sound in triumphant style?The image which most sustained me this past FebruaryDeath 107at the death of Pamela our one-year-old and onlygranddaughter is a New Testament image of life after death.It comes from the parish of the Rev. Peter Marshall.And I used it in my sermon at Pamela’s funeral.The story is about the little boy with an incurable illnesswho asked his mother,“Mother, what is it like to die?Mother, does it hurt?”She pressed her knuckles white against the kitchen cabinet.She knew it was a question with deep significance.She breathed a hurried prayer for the Lordto tell her how to answer her son.Somehow she immediately knew how to answer him.“Kenneth,” she said,“do you remember when you were smallhow you used to play all day until you were tired?You were too tired even to undress.And you would crawl into mother’s bed and fall asleep.But that was not where you belonged.Much to your surprise,the next morning you woke upin your own bed and in your own room.You were there becauseyour Daddy had carried you with his big strong loving armsto your own room where you belong.“Kenneth, death is like that.We just wake up some morningto find ourselvesin our own roombecause the Lord Jesuswith his big strong loving armshas carried us to our own room where we belong.”The point had gone home.He never questioned again,during the following weeks,as he went to meet his Father in heavenwith love and trust in his little heart.108 ConsensusYou know as I dothe mother’s authority for that story.It’s Jesus’ warm, personal picture of the Resurrection:“In my Father’s house are many rooms.I go to prepare a place for you.If I prepare a place for youI will come again to take you to myselfso that where I amyou may be also.”But w'as this only a positive experience?Was this only triumphalist?I think we miss the point of this parableif w^e think of little Kennethonly as triumphantly safe in the arms of Jesus.After his mother shared that parable with him,he still had weeks of walking through the valley of death.His mother and father had months of walking through thevalley of grief.In this parable, triumphalism is avoided,because the triumph comes while he is walking through thevalley of death,because the triumph comes while they are walking throughthe valley of grief.Here we have a resurrection pictureof triumph in the context of death and grief.The sermon that places the resurrection triumph in thecontext of the painis the sermon which speaks most convincingly tothe bereaved.Now, I believe, we are ready to appreciate the images intoday’s texts,to appreciate the fullness of their authority.Isaiah 26 says:“The Lord of Hosts will destroy on this mountainthe covering that is cast over all peoples,the veil that is spread over all nations.Death 109He will swallow up death foreverand the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.It will be said on that day,This is the Lord;we have waited for him.Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”If there is anywhere a temptation to triumphalism it’s here.One commentator calls this “The feast of Triumph”.Another calls it “The Triumph over God’s enemies”.But again we misinterpret the triumph,if we fail to see the context.The covering over the people is suffering.The veil over the people is death.The verses preceding this triumphgive this other side of the picture:“The earth mourns and withers.The heavens languish with the earth.The earth is polluted.The inhabitants of the earth are scorched.The mirth of the timbrels is stilled.The noise of the jubilant has ceased.Desolation is left in the city.The gates are battered into ruins.”By What Authority?The triumph in Isaiah’s picture of Resurrectionis so wonderfully powerfulprecisely because it rises out of the ashesof Israel’s sorrow and suffering.It’s like the Phoenix as a symbol for Resurrection.The Phoenix is beautiful and powerfulprecisely because it rises out of the ashes.So, too, in Revelation 7:“After this I looked and behold,a great multitude which no man could numberfrom every nation, peoples and tongues,standing before the throne and the Lamb,clothed in white robes110 Consensuswith palm branches in their hands,crying with a loud voice,Salvation belongs to our God.And all the angels stood round the throneand round the eldersand they fell on their faces before the throneand worshipped God.”The temptation toward triumphalism at worship is notunfamiliar.To have a picture of worshipon a heavenly scale—this could be triumphalism at its height!If ever there is a temptationto present a triumphalistic picture of Resurrectionit is heregathered around the very throne of God.But again we miss the real triumphunless we read on.“Then one of the elders addressed me saying:Who are these clothed in white robes?I said to him: Sir, you know.And he said to me.These are they who have come out of great tribulation.”By what authority, this triumph?It is a triumph which has come out of great tribulation.There is more.“They have washed their robesand made them white.”How?In someone’s blood.Whose blood?The Blood of the Lamb!The Blood of the Lamb is the Cross of Christ!Today’s Gospel of John pictures the Resurrection:“Then all who are in the graveshear his voice and come forth.Those who have done good to the Resurrection of lifeDeath 111Those who have done evil to the Resurrection of judgment.”Here again, John’s image of the Resurrectionholds together the promise of life and the fact of judgment.And the judge is both Lamb and Lord!There we have it!Authoritative images of death and resurrectionare images which participatein the death and resurrection of Jesus.Our Risen Lord is a Crucified Lord;Our Triumphant Christ is a Christ of the Cross.Our Easter Sunday is rooted in Good Friday.How can some churches and some church peoplecelebrate the triumph of Easter Sundaywithout participating in the tragedy of Good Friday!How can some clergy turn Good Friday into a quasi EasterSunday,thereby escaping the pain and the shame of Good Friday?Luther says:Ours is not a Theology of GloryOurs is a Theology of the Cross.Even when with angels and archangels and all the company ofheavenwe worship in heaven before God’s throne,we will still sing,“In the Cross of Christ I glory!”Why? Because:Here we find the dawn of heaven.While upon the Cross we gaze;See our trespasses forgiven.And our songs of triumph raise.Notes^ This sermon was preached at the Memorial Service of theEastern Synod’s convention, 1987.^ Donald W. Knowles and Nancy Reeves, But Won't Granny Need112 ConsensusHer Socks? Dealing Effectively with Children’s Concerns aboutDeath and Dying (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1983) 1.^ Norman Vincent Peale, The Positive Power of Jesus Christ(Chicago: Tyndale House, 1980) as condensed in Reader’sDigest, May 1987, 146.^ Maurice Rawlings, Beyond Death’s Door (1978) as reportedby John Asling in the Kitchener- Waterlcx) Record 2 May 1987, C5.

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Life after death: by what authority?

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