Monthly Archives: October 2022

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What happens to souls

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 23-minute message. Or watch the video here on Facebook (the message starts at about 26 minutes into the video).

Today we celebrated All Souls, also known as the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. In fact, it should be celebrated on 2 November, but we moved it today, since it’s Sunday. It is the day on which remember all those whom we have loved and lost – parent, family, friends, and others who have died. Later in the service we came up to light candles to remember and appreciate them.

Strictly, the ‘faithful departed’ mean those who died in the faith. But what about those who died outside the faith? What happens to them? And, indeed, what happens to the faithful departed? In this message, I try to explain the main teachings in the scriptures about what happens to us after we die. The truth is that the Bible presents rather mixed and even contradictory accounts of this, which can leave us a bit confused. Perhaps because no-one who has died, has come back to explain what happens. But what we can rely on in all this, is the grace and love of God, whose heart is open to humanity.

Psalm 130: 3-4 says, “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness , so that we can, with reverence, serve you.” And late, the same Psalm encourages us to “put your hope in the Lord, for with the lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption”.

So, what happens to those die in the faith?

  • There are some verses that say our spirit goes immediately into the presence of God. Luke 23 tells of Jesus hanging on cross and saying to the one criminal hanging next to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Today means today – not sometime in the future, but this very day. 2 Corinthians 5:8 is also thought to say that we transition immediately into the presence of God.
  • But other passages suggest we go to sleep for a period, until the last day. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15 speaks three times about believers who were asleep – all those who died before Christ’s second coming would remain asleep, until he returned and woke them up with a the trumpet call of God.
  • Either way, it seems that our bodies will be resurrected only on the last day, when Christ returns – the second coming. Whether you’ve been cremated, or long buried and decomposed, or recently buried, God seems able to raise up our bodies. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 speaks about this, as well as several other passages about the resurrection, e.g., 1 Corinthians 15:12-58.
  • And will the faithful departed then be judged? John 5:24 and 29 say ‘no’: “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed from death to life … Those who have what is good will rise to live”. But 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 say ‘yes’: “So we make it our goal to please [God], whether we are home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

It’s all a bit confusing! Although we may not know the specifics of the mechanisms of what happens after we die, we can surely rest assured that we will experience the love, grace and forgiveness of God.

And what, then, about those who die without faith in Christ? What happens to them?

  • In John 3:36, Jesus is pretty blunt: “Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
  • And John 5:29 reinforces this: “Those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.”
  • Again, in Luke 13:27, Jesus speaks about the narrow gate through which few will get, and the door closing and the owner saying, “I don’t know you! Away from me!”

It seems then that there is no hope for the ‘unfaithful’ departed. But, we must remember the repeated messages through the entire Bible about God’s great, extravagant and all-embracing love. This gives us hope, that maybe somehow God will find a way to win over the hearts of all or at least many people who died outside of faith.

  • For example, Lamentation 3:31-33 says, “For no-one is cast off by the Lord for ever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.” This points us to the heart of God, which seeks good for every person.
  • Col 1:17-20 also speaks of God’s desire to save every person: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
  • And similarly in Ephesians 1:9-10 tells us that the mystery of God’s will is “to bring unity to all things iun heave and on earth under Christ”.

Since Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and not just for the sins of the faithful, universal salvation is at least a possibility. God’s love is radically inclusive, not exclusionary, and so there is the possibility that all could be saved. But God does not force himself on people – we have the right reject God. But it is perhaps hard to imagine unbelievers encountering the God of love face to face and denying his existence or rejecting his offer of a relationship. His love is almost irresitable.

And so, we try to win over those who do not believe, through our witness, our words and our prayers. And we continue to pray for those who have died outside the faith, that God will make a way for them to find salvation. We don’t have to understand how – that’s God’s business. But we can pray and hope and trust in the expansive and extravagant love of God.

Featured image from https://live.staticflickr.com/5046/5642983250_95071a5ca8_b.jpg

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Pride & Humility

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 23-minute message. Or watch the video on Facebook here (the message starts about 31 minutes into the recording). (Just to note that I was overseas for the past three weeks, hence the long gap since my last sermon post. It is good to be back!)

Our Gospel reading from Luke 18:9-14 presents us to pride and humility. In it, Jesus makes clear his disdain for pride and his celebration of humility. The message is clear, simple and almost frighteningly blunt. We are to be humble, not proud. One barely needs to preach a message on it!

The Pharisee in the story is comparable to a priest or a theologian in our days – someone who knows the scriptures and called to do God’s work. This Pharisee is super confident of his righteousness. He stands alone in the temple – probably meaning apart from everyone else and in a public position where all could see him, rather than hidden within the congregation. He brags before the people and before God of his righteousness. He explicitly compared himself to others he sees as spiritually inferior to him. He is nauseatingly proud!

Jesus makes it clear in the conclusion that this man, the Pharisee, will not be rewarded: “All those who exalt themselves will be humbled” and “this man … [will not go] home justified before God.

By contrast, we have a tax collector, also in the temple. A tax collector is shorthand (in those days) for a sinner. Tax collectors were often Jewish, but exploited their position as an employee of the Roman colonisers to fleece Jewish out of far more than they were legitimately expected to pay in taxes. They were much hated. And so they were the quintessential ‘sinner’. This man stands in back the temple, where no-one can see him. He cannot even lift up his head towards God. He beats his chest – a sign of contrition and remorse. And he prays, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He calls himself out for who he is – a sinner – and recognises that all he can hope for is mercy.

Jesus makes it clear that this man, the tax collector, will be rewarded: “I tell you that this man … went home justified before God. For all those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

We detour briefly to Romans 12:3-8, where Paul provides some helpful explanations about what constitutes pride and humility. Pride is thinking more highly of yourself than you ought – an inflated self-assessment is pride. By contrast, humility is to think of oneself with “sober judgement” – a cold, hard look at one’s strengths and weaknesses. Seeing ourselves as we truly are is humility. Paul also makes reference in this passage to the body of Christ (similar to 1 Corinthians 12), arguing that each one is gifted, that every gift is important and necessary, and that whatever we we have (impressive or modest) should be exercised. So, if your gift is serving, then serve.

In 2 Timothy 4:7-8, we hear Paul referring to himself in rather prideful terms – he mentions all the amazing things he has done, how faithful he has been, and how will soon be rewarded with a crown of righteousness. Only at the end, as if he suddenly realises that he is boasting spiritually, he adds, “And not only to me, but also to all those who have longed for [Christ’s] appearing”. There are many such passages in Paul’s writing – where he boasts. It leads me to speculate that Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”, which he says keeps him humble, is spiritual pride. He was an exceptional man; but exceptionality can lead one in pride and arrogance.

Pride, then, is the overestimation of one’s worth or accomplishments; taking credit for one’s accomplishments; forgetting to acknowledge that everything we have and are comes from God; and putting others down in our desire to raise ourselves higher.

Humility, though, is often misunderstood to mean putting yourself down, abnegation, self-flagellation. But no! This is not what the Scriptures teach. Humility is not about demeaning yourself or allowing yourself to be demeaned and trodden on by others. It is not about denigrating your giftedness – denying that you have gifts, abilities, talents. It is not about denying your accomplishments and the contributions you have made to the world. No! None of these things is humility. Indeed, they often reflect a false humility, which is pride dressed up as humility.

What then is humility? It starts with a sober judgement of oneself. Recognising BOTH strengths and weaknesses, BOTH gifting and failing. We all have both, and we need to recognise this ‘both and’ to become humble. It is about not boasting. Not boasting does not mean denigrating yourself. But it can mean being a bit quiet – express your gifts without drawing attention to yourself and without bragging about it – just quietly do the work that God has gifted to you to do. And it is about recognising that God has made your gifting possible – everything good and well that you can do, is a gift of God. Humility is recognising that nothing good you do is “all my own work” – it is also “God’s enabling of my work” or “God and me working together”.

We see this recognition of the centrality of God in our accomplishments beautifully in Psalm 65, the first verses of which are as follows:

Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled. You who answer prayer, to you all people will come. When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions. Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.

Notice all the “you’s” in this short passage – it’s all about God! We are merely beneficiaries. As we learn to appreciate this, we will discover humility. And in that, we’ll discover that we are walking in the footsteps of Christ, the Son of God.

Featured image from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/few-thoughts-humility-change-alessandra-luzzi/