Never a Dull Moment

Today I co-officiated a funeral for a man named Bill who died at the age of 83. My participation in both the grave site ceremony and the funeral service was limited to reading scripture and sharing a prayer, but it was enough to make me wonder “Am I really doing this?” It also forced me to ponder the Christian response to death.

For the funeral service, I read from Romans 8:18-25. This passage speaks of creation’s bondage to decay and its groaning to be set free. It also speaks of the anticipation of the redemption of the body.

Personally, what I find most fascinating about this passage is the absence of heaven. I have become more aware of the fact that most Christians today speak of heaven as the final resting place for those who have “fallen asleep” in Christ. In other words, getting to heaven is the goal in mind. But this is simply, to borrow the title of a recently published book, UnChristian. N.T. Wright talks a lot about this in his latest book called Surprised by Hope. He says that most Christians, as well as non-Christians for that matter, have a very muddled view of what exactly happens to a person after they die.

According to Wright, the historical Christian belief is that heaven is a temporary resting place that precedes the greater event of the resurrection of the dead and the redemption of the entire cosmos. But why all our talk of “Going to heaven”? Why is it that when Billy Graham asks, “If you died today, do you know where you would go?” his question is preoccupied with getting to heaven?

If you ask me, the resurrection of the body and the redemption of the entire cosmos is a hope worth celebrating which gives us a joy-filled response to death.