In
the world of the church, for the last untold number of centuries Christian faith
has overwhelming been pitched as an endgame strategy to give a person eternal
security. The preoccupying question has
been “How are you going to spend eternity?”
Are you going to bliss in Heaven or eternal torment in Hell?
Endgame
is a chess term describing the last few exchanges in a game. Usually you have just your king, one or two
key pieces, and a pawn or two. In the
endgame, your king suddenly becomes a key player. The king is relatively weak. It can only move one space at a time. Yet when used in tandem with a more powerful
piece, it can prove instrumental in trapping your opponent’s king so that it
cannot move without placing itself in jeopardy.
In
the Church, we owe this fascination with the endgame to the Medieval European
Church. The Dark Ages in Europe were
precarious times fraught with plagues, wars, pandemic illiteracy, and toilsome
work. Tyrannical kings and emperors
ruled lands. In the Church, popes and
bishops liked to act like tyrannical kings and emperors. Life was short, difficult, and filled with
anxiety and so people were preoccupied with what happened to them after death.
The
Church in Medieval Europe grew powerful on preaching God to be an almighty
Creator/Judge who created us to live a moral life and if we did our souls got
to go on to eternal bliss in Heaven. But
due to Adam’s Fall passed to us through Original Sin, we fail miserably and so
God punishes us with death and eternal torment in the fires of Hell. Nobody is good enough to go to Heaven. But, the Roman Catholics did teach that if
you were a good Catholic you could go to Purgatory and perhaps from there work
your way into Heaven. Jesus, the Son of
God incarnate, the Lord or Emperor of all Creation, came and showed us how to
live. If we live devoted to the
Pope/Church, go to confession, and infuse ourselves with grace periodically by
partaking of his body and blood at Holy Communion our chances of climbing the
Ladder of Salvation into heaven improve greatly. Yet, there was no ultimate assurance of one’s
eternal security. The Medieval Church’s
endgame strategy was simply an imperial edict to kneel to the Pope the
representative of Christ on earth or you will assuredly go to Hell.
The Reformers, mainly Luther and Calvin
(picking up on St. Anselm’s lead) came along and taught that the best endgame
strategy is to give recognition and your whole-hearted trust and faithfulness
to Jesus the king, the incarnate Son of God who sacrificed his life for you. He satisfied God’s righteous demand for us to
live moral lives and he also fulfilled the punishment of death for our
inability to do so. Have faith in Jesus
and just like that thief crucified next to Jesus you are off to heaven and eternal
bliss. The proof of your eternal
security lay not in yourself or your actions, but outside yourself in Jesus
faithfulness unto death. The assurance
of one’s eternal salvation is the fact of the cross of Jesus Christ and who he
is who died on it. Jesus has done it
all.
The
problem with this endgame focused Gospel is that Jesus’ story doesn’t end with
the cross and Jesus’ promise of being with him in Paradise. As New Testament Scholar N.T. Wright rather
humorously says, “Heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world.” He also likes to say, “There is life after
life after death.” We have to continue
past Jesus death. Jesus death on the
cross is more than simply our endgame strategy for getting into heaven when we
die. Jesus died for our sins according
to Scripture on a Friday afternoon but come Sunday morning he rose from the
dead and physical reality has been ever changed. A New Creation has begun. N.T. Wright likes to say that on Easter
morning when Jesus rose from the dead a shockwave went out through all creation
that changed everything. We now look
forward not simply to disembodied after death with Jesus in “Paradise”, but
more so to re-embodied life after life after death in a New Creation where sin,
death, and evil are no more. As Jesus
rose bodily from the dead so will it be with us.
After
Jesus rose from the dead he ascended into heaven and sits enthroned ruling from
heaven on earth. He and the Father sent
the Holy Spirit upon those whom they have called to be followers of Jesus and
have empowered them, the church, to be living evidence that a Resurrection, New
Creation, sin and death and evil defeating shockwave has presently gone out
through creation.
Paul
says the Father has “enabled” us to share in the inheritance of the saints in
the light.” Light is a profound
metaphor. We can’t see light, but light
makes everything else able to be seen. So,
we can’t see Jesus, but he makes the things of God seen. The speed of light is the only universal
constant in the universe. Such is
Jesus. The new life that he has wrought
in us each is the visible light of that Resurrection shockwave. The Father’s rescuing of us in our present
lives from the power of darkness and transferring us into the kingdom of his
Son is like saying we were spiralling towards utter annihilation into a black
hole from which no light escapes but God reached in and rescued us and has
transferred our very existence now into the sure and certain New Creation reign
of Jesus in whom all things and powers were created and hold together.
You
may wish to challenge me on this and say that due to the shear evidence that
this world is very messed up, Jesus doesn’t seem to be reigning on earth and
how can we the church be evidence of New Creation when the Church has been such
a key player over the centuries in everything that’s wrong on Earth. I will say yes. Within myself, I, even I, have the propensity
to be a stubborn, bone-headed jerk powerless over my propensity to hurt and
disappoint those closest to me. And the
church as an institution, whenever it has tried to act on usurped imperial
power it has sinned greatly.
Nevertheless,
whenever an addict suddenly loses his compulsion to use or an alcoholic his
compulsion to drink; whenever the hearts of sworn enemies begin to soften and
they begin to work towards reconciliation; whenever abusers suddenly begin to
see themselves for what they are and begin to seek help; whenever victims
suddenly find themselves empowered to heal and forgive; whenever broken
families suddenly begin to see the elephants in the room and find themselves
striving to deal and heal New Creation is showing up.
The
nature of the kingdom is the nature of the king. Jesus did not come with imperial power to
impose his will upon the world. On the cross
we see the true nature of the king; love that is demonstrated in weakness,
vulnerability, forgiveness, and dying for others. Yet, this love in all its apparent futility
confronts this old creation’s worst enemies of sin, death, and evil, and
defeats them, even Old Scratch himself.
Jesus and the Father have poured their love into our hearts by giving us
their Spirit who makes us able to consciously in lay our self-mindedness aside
and in love for others be weak, vulnerable, and forgiving. Jesus is king. We are his kingdom. Whenever someone is in Christ, there is New
Creation. May that New Creation
Shockwave shock the socks off of us.
Amen.
