You Are Going to Heaven, But…
Sermon by Rev. Steven McClelland on Matthew 21: 28 – 32, Luke 14: 12 – 24. Focus on why God offers us heaven and we chose hell. Check out Simona Frenkel and the choir following the sermon.
I’ve titled my sermon, “You’re Going to Heaven, But You Can Choose Hell”, because I believe that God’s love, power and sense of justice are so great that no one can ultimately separate himself or herself from that love forever. If for no other reason that when we die, we give back to God the gift God gave to us in the beginning, our lives. And for God to be all powerful and all loving means that there can be no power great than God including the power of sin that can ultimately separate us from this divine love and power.
That’s my definition of universal salvation in a nutshell. But that said I also believe in a hell, a state of being that we can put ourselves into that may seem like an eternity. I also believe that this power we have is so subtle that we may not even realize we are living there until it’s too late, at least in this life time and that upon realizing we are in this state comes both a terrifying sadness at a life wasted and at the same time this sadness and terror becomes the means by which we can return to God if we repent.
And I believe this because I’ve experienced this and because Jesus describes this state of being in the parable he tells of the king and the great banquet feast. This parable begins with Jesus telling his dinner host, who is identified as a ruler that when he throws a dinner party he shouldn’t invite the folks who could return his invitation but instead he should invite those who can not return the gesture for in doing so Jesus says we will be blessed.
Now what’s interesting to note is what being blessed means and doesn’t mean. “When one of those who sat at table with Jesus heard this, he said to him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God! But and this is a big but, Jesus said to him, ‘A man once gave a great banquet and he sent his servants out to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for all is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses.”
Now the first thing to notice here is Jesus’ correction to the man who said, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” And when Jesus says but it always means – It’s not the way you’ve just described it, so Jesus goes on to describe through this parable what being blessed is all about.
So let’s look at what constitutes being blessed, that state of being that Jesus equates with God’s kingdom – heaven and it’s opposite that state of being that Jesus equates with being outside the kingdom – hell.
First being blessed is not about a destination. The blessing isn’t that we get to eat with God in the kingdom. The blessing has to do with what gets us into the kingdom. So let me ask all of you this question? How far would you be willing to go to attend a wedding for a second cousin? One person said: “I’d be willing to travel up to two hours.” Another, “It depends on how close I was to my 2nd cousin.” “It depends on the place, if it’s an interesting place I’d go.” “Depends on the cost.
All very reasonable, normal, logical answers – answers that we all would consider in making our decision on whether to attend or not. Notice too that all of the answers that were given by those who were initially invited to the man’s banquet were reasonable, normal, logical and polite. “I have bought a field and I must go and see it; I pray you, have me excused. I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I have to go examine them; I pray you have me excused. And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’”
But also notice that the folk who were invited and didn’t come were the ones that have put themselves outside of the kingdom, which is just another way of saying hell. Why? What is so wrong with what they said and did? After all they don’t really expect us to come they’re just being polite by sending us the invite in the first place.
The problem as far as Jesus is concerned has nothing to do with our reasons for declining the invitation is has to do with the pronoun I. I don’t want to. I can’t. I would love to but … I, I, I.
Jesus is saying to us it isn’t about I or me. It’s about the person throwing the banquet. It’s about the person getting married. The reasons become immaterial, because it’s not about the reasons it’s about isolation, disconnection, pain, loss and regret that comes from living a life based just on myself. It isn’t about you or me. It’s about us! It’s about our relationships with one another and with God and those are not I relationships they are we relationships.
“It is not good for the human to be alone” said God when he created us. And the hell that we place ourselves in when we live as if I is the most important person that is what Jesus is warning us about in this parable. What a hell it would be to wake up one day and realize that our lives had not been fully lived. That instead of a full life an abundant life we realized we had lived only half a life – a life focused on me, myself and I.
To never know what it was like to surprise someone with our presence when they never expected us to come because of expense or distance. To never experience the gift that we give someone by making them the focus of our lives for a moment in time. To realize how important we really are, but not because we think we are, but because of what we and only we can do for another by our presence. The joy that we give another becomes our joy too. It is the gift of our presence given for the benefit of another, which is what the experience of joy – which is just another word for what heaven is all about.
You can’t experience the kingdom of heaven if you can’t offer the surprise that can’t be repaid in kind. There is no other way to obtain it – than by doing it. And the sadness or hell that we place ourselves in occurs when we fail to realize that our lives are a gift and gifts are meant to be shared.
What a hell it would be to wake up one day and realize that a good portion of one’s life had been lived with out that realization, that no one really knew us, or missed us, or cared about us or loved us because we didn’t think it important enough to share the gift of who we are with others for whatever practical reason we might find.
But therein also lies our hope, because the moment we realize this we move in a new direction, which is another way of saying we repent and we accept that a fullness of life is only possible by touching and being touched by other people, especially those different from us. As it was and will forever be we must always chose for the things that God says make for heaven on earth or reject them and experience a hell of our own making. It is about all of us. Not about me verses you. Or about me and mine. It’s about we, together, working, building human beings in the image and likeness of Christ. We’re in the human transformation business folks! Amen
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