The Dawn Treader

What was Paul thinking?  Pastor Dunnington helped us unpack Paul's meaning in Philippians.

The topic was about death ... and heaven.  Do you know how many people believe in heaven?  Dunnington quoted a recent poll ... 89% of Americans believe in heaven.  Amazingly, 51% of those who said they were not religious at all said they believed in heaven.  I have not quite figured that out.

We all face the inevitability of our own death.  But how do we face it?  Many fear it.  Others face it with a type of fatalistic resignation.  Still others, shake their fist at death.  Paul models how the Christian ought to think about death.  It is a gateway to something better -- Paul runs out of an expression for just how much better (the ESV simply translates it "far better", but the Greek is more emphatic -- "very much better").  For someone in union life with Christ, it cannot get better than to be with Christ in person.

The thought of heaven scared me to death when I was younger.  I used to lay awake at night trying to ponder the thought of eternity.  I would break out in a sweat as I tried to wrap my mind around time never ending.  What will we do with all of that time, I thought?  I concluded that the thought of heaven with a time limit sounded much more appealing to me.

Paul obviously did not fear heaven.  Neither should we.  Imagine knowing Christ face to face!  Imagine being like Christ -- in knowledge, in our capacity to love, in our righteousness!  Ponder what it will be like to be in a place where sin is not even possible!  Even the garden of Eden did not have it that good -- our first father and mother briefly lived in sinlessness -- but the possibility of sin was there (obviously).  In heaven, this possibility is gone.

C.S. Lewis helps me envision heaven.  Dunnington quoted from the C.S. Lewis classic, The Last Battle.  A conversation takes place near the end of the book between Lucy Pevensie and Aslan.  Lucy is in a Narnian version of "heaven".

"You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be." (said Aslan)

Lucy said, "We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan.  And you have sent us back into our world so often."

"No fear of that," said Aslan.  "Have you not guessed?"

Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them.

"There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly.  "Your father and mother and all of you are -- as you used to call it in the Shadowlands -- dead.  The term is over: the holidays have begun.  The dream is ended: this is the morning."

Is that how you view your current life, as a dream from which you hope to awake one day in the presence of Christ?  Lewis had it right, I think ... this life is but a Shadowlands of the real life to come.  Like Lucy Pevensie standing before Aslan, one day the dream will end and morning will begin.  The school year will be over as it were ... time for summer!  (do you remember that wonderful feeling of finally making it to summer break?)

Paul has that same longing to be with Christ.  No fear.  No resignation.  No defiance of death.  Paul embraced the thought.  Paul longed for that moment when the dream would end and morning would break through.

I was challenged with the thought.  Do I live as if this life is the dream and heaven is the morning?  Or do I hold on tightly to things in this life?

How about you?

Dunnington also used an interesting illustration involving a compelling scene in Band of Brothers.  Remember the scene where Lt. Spiers talks to a frightened Private Blythe while Blythe is shaking in his foxhole in fear (episode 3).   Blythe says, "I am scared".  Spiers responds,

“We're all scared. You hid in that ditch because you think there's still hope. But Blythe, the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function. Without mercy. Without compassion. Without remorse. All war depends on it."

Spiers is right ... at least in the fact that we are already dead.  All of us are dying.  All will die.  Spiers.  Blythe.  You.  Me.  It is the ultimate certainty.  None of us will escape it.

The question is, are you going to die in your sins, or in Christ?

Those dying in Christ are set free to function with mercy, with compassion, and with the peace and joy that comes from living in union with the risen Christ.