Will there be dogs there?

I've heard pastors answer, "It will be unlike anything we can comprehend, like a church service that goes on forever," causing some to think, "That sounds more like h.e.l.l."

And then there are those whose lessons about heaven consist primarily of who will will be there and who be there and who won't won't be there. And so there's a woman sitting in a church service with tears streaming down her face, as she imagines being reunited with her sister who was killed in a car accident seventeen years ago. The woman sitting next to her, however, is realizing that if what the pastor is saying about heaven is true, she will be separated from her mother and father, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends forever, with no chance of any reunion, ever. She in that very same moment has tears streaming down her face too, but they are tears of a different kind. be there. And so there's a woman sitting in a church service with tears streaming down her face, as she imagines being reunited with her sister who was killed in a car accident seventeen years ago. The woman sitting next to her, however, is realizing that if what the pastor is saying about heaven is true, she will be separated from her mother and father, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends forever, with no chance of any reunion, ever. She in that very same moment has tears streaming down her face too, but they are tears of a different kind.

When she asks the pastor afterward if it's true that, because they aren't Christians none of her family will be there, she's told that she'll be having so much fun worshipping G.o.d that it won't matter to her. Which is quite troubling and confusing, because the people she loves the most in the world do do matter to her. matter to her.

Are there other ways to think about heaven, other than as that perfect floating shiny city hanging suspended there in the air above that ominous red and black realm with all that smoke and steam and hissing fire?

I say yes, there are.

___________________.

In Matthew 19 a rich man asks Jesus: "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"

For some Christians, this is the the question, the one that matters most. Compa.s.sion for the poor, racial justice, care for the environment, worship, teaching, and art are important, but in the end, for some followers of Jesus, they're not ultimately what it's all about. question, the one that matters most. Compa.s.sion for the poor, racial justice, care for the environment, worship, teaching, and art are important, but in the end, for some followers of Jesus, they're not ultimately what it's all about.

It's "all about eternity," right?

Because that's what the b.u.mper sticker says.

There are entire organizations with employees, websites, and newsletters devoted to training people to walk up to strangers in public places and ask them, "When you die and G.o.d asks you why you should be let into heaven, what will you say?" There are well-organized groups of Christians who go door-to-door asking people, "If you were to die tonight, where would you go?"

The rich man's question, then, is the perfect opportunity for Jesus to give a clear, straightforward answer to the only question that ultimately matters for many.

First, we can only a.s.sume, he'll correct the man's flawed understanding of how salvation works. He'll show the man how eternal life isn't something he has to earn or work for; it's a free gift of grace.

Then, he'll invite the man to confess, repent, trust, accept, and believe that Jesus has made a way for him to have a relationship with G.o.d.

Like any good Christian would.

Jesus, however, doesn't do any of that.

He asks the man: "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments."

"Enter life?"

Jesus refers to the man's intention as "entering life"? And then he tells him that you do that that by keeping the commandments? This wasn't what Jesus was supposed to say. by keeping the commandments? This wasn't what Jesus was supposed to say.

The man, however, wants to know which which of the commandments. There are 613 of them in the first five books of the Bible, so it's a fair question. In the culture Jesus lived in, an extraordinary amount of time was spent in serious discussion and debate about these 613 commandments, dissecting and debating just how to interpret and obey them. of the commandments. There are 613 of them in the first five books of the Bible, so it's a fair question. In the culture Jesus lived in, an extraordinary amount of time was spent in serious discussion and debate about these 613 commandments, dissecting and debating just how to interpret and obey them.

Were some more important than others?

Could they be summarized?

What do you do when your donkey falls in a hole on the Sabbath?

Rescuing your donkey would be work, and that would be breaking the Sabbath commandment to rest, but there were also commands to protect and preserve life, including the life of donkeys, so what happens when obeying one commandment requires you to break another?

The Ten Commandments were central to this discussion because of the way in which they covered so many aspects of life in so few words. Jesus refers to them in answering the man's question about "which ones" by listing five of the Ten Commandments. But not just any five. The first four of the commandments were understood as dealing with our relationship with G.o.d-Jesus doesn't list any of those. The remaining six deal with our relationships with each other. Jesus mentions five of them, leaving one out.

The man hears Jesus's list of five five and insists he's kept them all. and insists he's kept them all.

Jesus then tells him, "Go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven," which causes the man to walk away sad, "because he had great wealth."

Did we miss something?

The big words, the important words-"eternal life," "treasure," "heaven"-were all there in the conversation, but they weren't used in the ways that many Christians use them.

Shouldn't Jesus have given a clear answer to the man's obvious desire to know how to go to heaven when he dies? Is that why he walks away-because Jesus blew a perfectly good "evangelistic" opportunity? How does such a simple question-one Jesus could have answered so clearly from a Christian perspective-turn into such a convoluted dialogue involving commandments and treasures and wealth and ending with the man walking away?

The answer, it turns out, is in the question.

When the man asks about getting "eternal life," he isn't asking about how to go to heaven when he dies. This wasn't a concern for the man or Jesus. This is why Jesus doesn't tell people how to "go to heaven." It wasn't what Jesus came to do.

Heaven, for Jesus, was deeply connected with what he called "this age" and "the age to come."

In Matthew 13 Jesus speaks of a harvest at the "end of the age," and in Luke 20 he teaches about "the people of this age" and some who are "considered worthy of taking part in the age to come." Sometimes he describes the age to come simply as "entering life," as in Mark 9-"it's better for you to enter life maimed"-and other times he teaches that by standing firm "you will win life [in the age to come]," as in Luke 21. And then, just before he leaves his disciples in Matthew 28, Jesus rea.s.sures them that he is with them "always, to the very end of the age."

Jesus's disciples ask him in Matthew 24, "What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" because this is how they had been taught to think about things- this age, and then the age to come.

We might call them "eras" or "periods of time": this age-the one we're living in-and the age to come.

Another way of saying "life in the age to come" in Jesus's day was to say "eternal life." In Hebrew the phrase is olam habah. olam habah.

What must I do to inherit olam habah olam habah?

This age, and the one to come, the one after after this one. this one.

When the wealthy man walks away from Jesus, Jesus turns to his disciples and says to them, "No one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of G.o.d will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life" (Luke 18).

Now, the English word "age" here is the word aion aion in New Testament Greek. in New Testament Greek. Aion Aion has multiple meanings-one we'll look at here, and another we'll explore later. One meaning of has multiple meanings-one we'll look at here, and another we'll explore later. One meaning of aion aion refers to a period of time, as in "The spirit of the age" or "They were gone for ages." When we use the word "age" like this, we are referring less to a precise measurement of time, like an hour or a day or a year, and more to a period or era of time. This is crucial to our understanding of the word refers to a period of time, as in "The spirit of the age" or "They were gone for ages." When we use the word "age" like this, we are referring less to a precise measurement of time, like an hour or a day or a year, and more to a period or era of time. This is crucial to our understanding of the word aion, aion, because it doesn't mean "forever" as we think of forever. When we say "forever," what we are generally referring to is something that will go on, year after 365-day year, never ceasing in the endless unfolding of segmented, measurable units of time, like a clock that never stops ticking. That's not this word. The first meaning of this word because it doesn't mean "forever" as we think of forever. When we say "forever," what we are generally referring to is something that will go on, year after 365-day year, never ceasing in the endless unfolding of segmented, measurable units of time, like a clock that never stops ticking. That's not this word. The first meaning of this word aion aion refers to a period of time with a beginning and an end. refers to a period of time with a beginning and an end.

So according to Jesus there is this age, this aion aion- the one they, and we, are living in- and then a coming age, also called "the world to come"

or simply "eternal life."

Seeing the present and future in terms of two ages was not a concept or teaching that originated with Jesus. He came from a long line of prophets who had been talking about life in the age to come for hundreds of years before him. They believed that history was headed somewhere-not just their history as a tribe and nation, but the history of the entire universe-because they believed that G.o.d had not abandoned the world and that a new day, a new age, a new era was coming.

The prophet Isaiah said that in that new day "the nations will stream to" Jerusalem, and G.o.d will "settle disputes for many peoples"; people will "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks" (chap. 2).

As we would say, peace on earth.

Isaiah said that everybody will walk "in the light of the LORD"

and "they will neither harm nor destroy"

in that day.

The earth, Isaiah said, will be "filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (chap. 11).

He described "a feast of rich food for all peoples"

because G.o.d will "destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations, he will swallow up death forever."

G.o.d "will wipe away the tears from all faces"; and "remove his people's disgrace from all the earth" (chap. 25).

The prophet Ezekiel said that people will be given grain and fruit and crops and new hearts and new spirits (chap. 36).

The prophet Amos promised that everything will be repaired and restored and rebuilt and "new wine will drip from the mountains" (chap. 9).

Life in the age to come.

If this sounds like heaven on earth, that's because it is.

Literally.

A couple of observations about the prophets' promises regarding life in the age to come.

First, they spoke about "all the nations." That's everybody. everybody. That's all those different skin colors, languages, dialects, and accents; all those kinds of food and music; all those customs, habits, patterns, clothing, traditions, and ways of celebrating- That's all those different skin colors, languages, dialects, and accents; all those kinds of food and music; all those customs, habits, patterns, clothing, traditions, and ways of celebrating- multiethnic, multisensory, multieverything.

That's an extraordinarily complex, interconnected, and diverse reality, a reality in which individual ident.i.ties aren't lost or repressed, but embraced and celebrated. An expansive unity that goes beyond and yet fully embraces staggering levels of diversity.

A racist would be miserable in the world to come.

Second, one of the most striking aspects of the pictures the prophets used to describe this reality is how earthy it is. Wine and crops and grain and people and feasts and buildings and homes. It's here here they were talking about, this world, the one we know-but rescued, transformed, and renewed. they were talking about, this world, the one we know-but rescued, transformed, and renewed.

When Isaiah predicted that spears would become pruning hooks, that's a reference to cultivating. Pruning and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and growing and paying close attention to the plants and whether they're getting enough water and if their roots are deep enough. Soil under the fingernails, grapes being trampled under bare feet, fingers sticky from handling fresh fruit.

It's that green stripe you get around the sole of your shoes when you mow the lawn.

Life in the age to come.

Earthy.

Third, much of their vision of life in the age to come was not new. Deep in their bones was the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, who were turned loose in a garden to name the animals and care for the earth and enjoy it.

To name is to order, to partic.i.p.ate, to partner with G.o.d in taking the world somewhere.

"Here it is, a big, beautiful, fascinating world,"

G.o.d says.

"Do something with it!"

For there to be new wine, someone has to crush the grapes.

For the city to be rebuilt, someone has to chop down the trees to make the beams to construct the houses.

For there to be no more war, someone has to take the sword and get it hot enough in the fire to hammer into the shape of a plow.

This partic.i.p.ation is important, because Jesus and the prophets lived with an awareness that G.o.d has been looking for partners since the beginning, people who will take seriously their divine responsibility to care for the earth and each other in loving, sustainable ways. They centered their hopes in the G.o.d who simply does not give up on creation and the people who inhabit it. The G.o.d who is the source of all life, who works from within creation to make something new. The G.o.d who can do what humans cannot. The G.o.d who gives new spirits and new hearts and new futures.

Central to their vision of human flourishing in G.o.d's renewed world, then, was the prophets' announcement that a number of things that can survive in this world will not be able to survive in the world to come.

Like war.

Rape.

Greed.

Injustice.

Violence.

Pride.

Division.

Exploitation.

Disgrace.

Their description of life in the age to come is both thrilling and unnerving at the same time. For the earth to be free of anything destructive or damaging, certain things have to be banished. Decisions have to be made. Judgments have to be rendered. And so they spoke of a cleansing, purging, decisive day when G.o.d would make those judgments. They called this day the "day of the LORD."

The day when G.o.d says "ENOUGH!" to anything that threatens the peace (shalom is the Hebrew word), harmony, and health that G.o.d intends for the world. is the Hebrew word), harmony, and health that G.o.d intends for the world.

G.o.d says no to injustice.

G.o.d says, "Never again" to the oppressors who prey on the weak and vulnerable.

G.o.d declares a ban on weapons.

It's important to remember this the next time we hear people say they can't believe in a "G.o.d of judgment."

Yes, they can.

Often, we can think of little else.

Every oil spill, every report of another woman s.e.xually a.s.saulted, every news report that another political leader has silenced the opposition through torture, imprisonment, and execution, every time we see someone stepped on by an inst.i.tution or corporation more interested in profit than people, every time we stumble upon one more instance of the human heart gone wrong, we shake our fist and cry out, "Will somebody please do something about this?"

We crave judgment, we long for it, we thirst for it.

Bring it, unleash it, as the prophet Amos says, "Let justice roll on like a river" (chap. 5).

Same with the word "anger." When we hear people saying they can't believe in a G.o.d who gets angry-yes, they can. How should G.o.d react to a child being forced into prost.i.tution? How should G.o.d feel about a country starving while warlords h.o.a.rd the food supply? What kind of G.o.d wouldn't get angry at a financial scheme that robs thousands of people of their life savings?

And that is the promise of the prophets in the age to come: G.o.d acts.