We Believe: In the Resurrection of the Body, and the Life Everlasting

If I asked you to draw a picture of heaven, what would you draw? Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” He told the thief on the cross next to him, “today you will be with me in paradise.” The Revelation of John tries to put into words John’s vision of that paradise, and we know the vision was deeply symbolic. He didn’t draw us a picture of what he saw, but of what, what he saw, means. John says, I saw: the throne of God and the Lamb surrounded by peoples of all nations and tongues in white robes with palm branches, worshiping day and night. There was no hunger, no thirst, no slaving away, no scorching heat, living fountains of water, a rider on a white horse who is the Word of God with eyes like flame and many crowns, a holy city descending like a bride adorned for her wedding day with radiance like the precious jewels, clear as crystal, surrounded by a great, tall wall, with 12 gates that are each crafted from a single pearl, the streets pure gold yet transparent as glass, and in the middle of the street a river flows from the throne of God, shimmering like crystal, and on either side of the river is firmly planted the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, no sun or moon in the city because the glory of God shines. There is no more death, no more mourning or crying or pain; every tear gently wiped away by God.

Rev. Dr. Robert Lowery was a pastor in Brooklyn in the 1860’s. In the heat of a July afternoon in 1864, as the war between the states dragged on with no end expected anytime soon and a yellow fever epidemic spreading, death and decay seemed to be all around. The pastor wanted to give the people of his church an image to hold onto that would bring them hope, an image of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. As he reclined in the heat, he contemplated the river of life. In his mind he tried to imagine what it would be like to be in front of the throne of God and the lamb, worshiping, with the river flowing from the throne through the middle of the street, gathering with family members and friends at the river. That afternoon, as he lay there the words and tune to “Shall We Gather at the River” came to him. Yes, we’ll gather with all the saints at the river, the beautiful, beautiful river that flows by the throne of God – resurrected bodies, life everlasting.

The Heidelberg Catechism highlights that the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting should calm our fears. This particular catechism was written for the whole church, not just confirmands, with 52 sections of questions and answers, one for the pastor to preach on each week of the year. The question? “How does ‘the resurrection of the body’ comfort you?” Followed by the answer: “Not only will my soul be taken immediately after this life to Christ its head, but also my very flesh will be raised by the power of Christ, reunited with my soul, and made like Christ’s glorious body.”

I have been asked many times what heaven will be like. The truth is that I have no more experience with life after death than you do. I know that our bodies will be like Christ’s resurrected body, and that it was enough different than the body of Jesus of Nazareth that Mary Magdalene didn’t recognize him until he spoke her name and the disciples didn’t recognize him on the road to Emmaus until they sat down and he blessed and broke the bread. He ate bread and cooked and ate fish. He could enter rooms with closed and locked doors, and yet he could be touched. This is the resurrection of the body we affirm: a body that has taken on imperishability, a seed that has been planted and watered and has broken forth to live in the light. The seed and the plant don’t look alike, but one emerges from the other.

It doesn’t all happen when we die, though. It begins when we are baptized. “The natural body is sown and it is raised a spiritual body.” The natural body is our body animated and motivated by our human nature, without God in our life. The spiritual body is our body animated by the movement of the Holy Spirit in our life. I believe in the resurrection of the body – that God’s Holy Spirit transforms us to live life everlasting.

Paul wrote to the Galatians, “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” The apostles and the first followers of Jesus didn’t just sit back and wait to die and inherit eternal life. They committed themselves to striving to live as Christ in the world every day, to share the kind of love Jesus shared. They weren’t afraid of death. Death had been able to sting like a wasp, sin was the stinger. Death had been able to deliver the final blow, but our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the victory. Therefore, we are firmly rooted, unmovable, unshakable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, (which is another way of saying kingdom establishing work, beloved community forming work) knowing that our work in the Lord is not in vain.

Just a month ago, the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox played what was dubbed the “Field of Dreams” game, the first Major League game in Iowa in a new stadium built in the middle of a beautiful cornfield, the outfield fences look through to the tall stalks and more than 6 million people watched. You remember the movie – It seemed like a crazy dream to build a baseball field in Iowa, but Ray Kinsella couldn’t ignore the voice that kept inserting itself in his thoughts, “If you build it, he will come.” When the field of dreams is built, deceased baseball players from the 1919 Chicago White Sox team including Shoeless Joe Jackson, and others who were accused of taking bribes to throw the World Series, come and play and then walk into the tall corn until they are no longer seen. Ray has not fully understood the message, though. “If you build it, HE will come.” After watching the team disappear into the field, he turns to see one player still there, in a catcher’s mask. He takes the mask off and it is Ray’s father. Ray struggled with regret that he and his father were estranged when his dad died. Ray’s father asks him, “Is this heaven?” and Ray answers, “This is Iowa.” And they play catch.

It is a seed of heaven, growing right there in Iowa. A team reunited, sins forgiven. Father and son, reconciled. The movie was overflowing with moments of struggle transforming to hope, dreams followed and fulfilled, community, life abundant.

The seeds of heaven will grow right here, too, if we plant them. Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.