I have done quite a bit of thinking in the last few hours.
One thought that has kept coming to mind is from the pen of Charles Wesley:
Rejoice for a comrade deceased;
Our loss is his infinite gain;
A soul out of prison released.
And freed from his bodily chain:
With songs let us follow his flight,
And mount with his spirit above:
Escaped to the mansions of light,
And lodged in the Eden of love.
(My Salvationist roots are showing again! Wesley rejoiced for a
"brother". "Comrade" sings better!)
We don't think like that any more!
Since the word went around that one of the leaders in our church had
died, there have been a number of comments to the effect that we cannot
be sad because he is in a better place. But we don't in this 21st
century, seem to grasp the fullness of our Heavenly Hope as our
predecessors in the faith did.
Maybe we don't see heaven in all its glory because we don't see earth in
all its horror.
Maybe we see heaven as "a better place", but not as an "infinite gain".
Maybe we need to stop stumbling to keep up with a post-modern world
where right and wrong are relative lifestyle choices and stand again on
the Truth that this life is not good.
- to recognise again that we live in bodily chains.
- to stop paying lip service to Paul's pained exclamation: "What a
wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to
death?" (Rom 7:24)
- to stop thinking of life as fixable and acknowledge that death is
indeed "escape to the mansions of light" from the real murk of this life.
This world is not our home. And it's not a nice place. At our peril we
have come to be content with this fallen world and everything that comes
with it.
This world is not fixable. No greening of the environment or giving of
rights to the marginalised, however worthy, will in and of themselves
make the difference.
But that is not to say that we have no hope.
Exactly the opposite.
Seeing the stark horror of the world and the infinite glory of Heaven
reveals the immensity of the hope we do possess.
With Paul again, "we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about
those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no
hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so,
through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep." (1
Thes 4:13-14)
There is a glorious hope! (There is too an abhorrent horror for those
who have no hope, but that, beyond a call to intercede for them, is
another topic)
There is a heaven to gain and an earth to shun
'Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,
Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home,
We'll praise Him for all that is past!
And trust Him for all that's to come".
(Joseph Hart)
