Fido took one step out onto the tightrope. His looked down. The ground seemed an awful long way away. He waited for a moment for his heart beat to settle back down. Then he took another step. Very carefully and very slowly he edged along the rope wobbling as he went. The crowd watched, holding their breath, as if that could help Fido keep his balance. Just one more step and he was exactly in the middle of the tightrope.
"Okay Fido," shouted the ringmaster, "now... on three... the somersault".
The drum roll began, some woman in the crowd screamed, and some of the teenagers in the crowd began to chant, "Fall, fall, fall, ..."
"Ready Fido? On three ... One..."
And it was just at that moment that Fido remembered that he was an old dog, and this was a new trick.
And we'll revisit Fido a bit later.”
We have looked previously at the traditional doctrines that many Christians hold concerning what happens after you die, and I have shared my opinion - for actually much of what constitutes a preacher's sermon necessarily has to be an opinion, whether his, or a commentator's, or a translator's - that the idea of a completely black and white binary view of believers vs unbelievers, of heaven vs hell, of peace and joy forever vs agonising anguish and regret forever - is not supported by scripture, nor indeed by the very teaching of Jesus himself.
Not only that but it is offensive to many who have a strong sense of justice.
In discussion with friends, I have mentioned that I no longer accept a doctrine of never-ending torment, but I believe God has compassion on everyone, and does not want any single person to pass away, and moreover, His love never fails.
There are a number of articles on this website looking at that somewhat unorthodox view, paying close attention to a large number of relevant scriptures. By all means check them out.
Several have responded with words like, "In which case, why do we bother to spread the gospel, the good news?"
But of course, scripture never positions the good news of God to be about avoiding hell, it does not say we are 'saved from hell'. No. It says we are 'saved from our sins'.
The problem with sin - putting ourselves first and disadvantaging others in the process - is that it separates us from God. Not because He pulls back, but because we feel uncomfortable with Him, we avoid Him, we become desensitised to Him, we misunderstand Him, we begin to doubt Him.
And that has a significant consequence.
We are talking here about something invisible - your spirit. Is it flourishing? Is it static? Is it withering?
When teaching us about the life of the spirit, Jesus very frequently always uses agricultural metaphors.
So He talks about the importance of roots in Matthew 13:6. Roots provide two things - stability and nourishment. And no plant badly rooted can flourish. A plant with shallow roots cannot get enough nourishment to flourish. And even if by some chance it does grow big, it will fall over in the wind, because it doesn't have the stability.
So how are your roots doing?
You probably have an opinion about whether yours are stable and whether you are flourishing.
But it is hard to know, because we are masters of self-deception! Let's be frank - the vast majority of us think more highly of ourselves than we ought!
How could you find out how good the roots are on the tree in your garden?
You could dig it up and have a look! But that is not very practical. And it is unnecessary isn't it.
Jesus gives us the answer in Matthew 7:20 - "by their fruit, you will know"
So how about fruit?
You can try and do a self check if you like, but Scripture provides us with a very telling example of how that can go utterly wrong!
I have known this verse from childhood, there is an old chorus we used to sing, which put this verse to music.
And it may seem like this is a useful prayer to pray. But let me put these verses into their actual context. Beginning at verse 19, the Psalmist prays like this ...
Do you see what is happening here. This man praying has the best of intentions, but he is utterly blind to his failings. He is measuring himself by his own culture, he is a child of his time, he is lining himself up against his peers, and he thinks (understandably) that it is absolutely fine to actively nurture hatred for people.
He has done what we all tend to do - he has taken a characteristic which is a vice, and he is seeing it as a virtue - as a result of comparing himself with his peers.
So ...
A proud person who is unable to apologise or admit they are wrong in a dispute, will claim that they are making a correct judgement, and believe it is important to be assertive.
A greedy person who never has enough will often describe themselves as ambitious or success-driven.
A discontented person who is always complaining will think of themselves as having high standards.
A harsh uncaring person who is happy to offend people will talk about honesty and frankness and tough love and telling it like it is.
A lazy person will stress the importance of me-time and rest and work-life-balance.
A cowardly person will always think of their own cowardice in terms of making peace or of avoiding conflict.
An envious person will talk about fairness and a desire for justice.
An easily angered person will justify their anger as 'righteous', and point out that Jesus got angry.
And right now, I can tell you that I know one of those above applies to me. I know which one of those boxes I would have to tick. But there are various others who can give me a much better assessment than I can, and they will tick more boxes than I do. Any of my neighbours would help. My wife may even know one or two boxes to tick!
Now why does it matter what I am like? Surely if I can get into heaven that's good enough isn't it?
But Jesus doesn't really say too much about simply getting into heaven. He says much much more about what we shall BE when we are there. Great in the Kingdom. Small in the Kingdom.
Jesus' story about the servants who were given different amounts of money to use wisely indicates that the reward for each servant absolutely depended on what each returned to the master at the end. The reward was more or less depending on the faithfulness of the servant.
So let us just think for a moment about what kind of reward we might get, or we might miss out on, when the kingdom comes.
1. It won't be money, or gold. It won't be fancy clothes, or a big car.
2. It won't be an eternal holiday on a sun soaked beach, though it will certainly involve seeing God's handicraft much clearer than we can now.
3. It won't be a big house, because there is always maintenance to do in a house!
This is all speculation of course, but I think it will all have to do with what God values most, which is our relationships. And especially our relationship with him.
We know that we actually are not destined to live in heaven, at all. Because Revelation makes it clear that what happens is God remakes the earth and the heavens - that is the entire physical cosmos and everything in it.
The new heaven that Revelation mentions is not a new kingdom of heaven - Revelation states that God's throne, His dwelling place will never pass away.
So we are destined to live in a newly made cosmos, and there is no reason to believe it won't be physical, material.
We know that each of us will be resurrected with a new indestructible body, not subject to sickness or ageing. And it will be like Jesus' resurrection body - i.e. possible to touch, and to eat, and to talk, and to cook breakfast. Jesus did all those things after His resurrection. We will be recognisable people, in the same mysterious way that Jesus was recognisable.
But I have a theory, only a theory mind, that the difference between those who are great and those who are less, will be how much they are able to appreciate the presence of God and their relationship with him.
Not that anybody will be discontented or miserable about how they end up.
Now what I am going to say next can easily be taken the wrong way. But just work with me here for a moment.
Imagine a happy family. All the relationships are good, and the individuals are gentle, kind, sensitive, and they live in beautiful part of the country.
And they have a dog.
So the dog is happy and the family is happy.
But know this for sure... There is no way that any member of that family would trade places with the dog. But the dog couldn't be happier. In many ways, the dog may be happier than the humans! But no sane human would ever want to swap lives with their dog.
Because their enjoyment of their relationships is far deeper and much more meaningful.
Now the reason why Jesus considers it urgent and important that people follow Him, is because their relationship with God ultimately depends on it. And how they develop on earth, whether they flourish, or whether they wither, absolutely dictates what they will be in the new creation.
If by ignoring the Holy Spirit's prompting to be more patient, I allow a part of my character to die, then when resurrected, God will not be able to create that afresh because it won't actually be me. It would be someone different. Everything that I will be in the new creation has to be able to be detectable, maybe even seen, in what I am here and now.
You say ... really? Yes. Everything that a huge oak tree will be, is somehow contained in the tiny acorn. Everything that a man or woman will be, is somehow contained in the fertilised egg cell - one cell. Jesus parable of the wheat and the weeds tells us that. It is the way God has consistently worked in the old creation, so I think it is reasonable to consider seriously that He may continue to work that way.
You may recall those days when you were a teenager, and you didn't care about your pension! Because it was so far off that it never really crossed your mind. But you care now, don't you!! Your pension has a big bearing on how you can live when you finally stop working. It was all about putting treasure into your pension plan.
And in exactly the same way, Jesus encourages us to store away treasure in heaven.
Remember the story of Fido on the tightrope. It is an illustration about how as one gets older, one can begin to believe that nothing new can be learned, and nothing in my character can be changed, and those things I consistently fail at - well it will always be so, because I am too old now for God to be able to do anything more with me.
But we need to learn that we are not old dogs faced with a tightrope walk and somersault. As far as God is concerned we are still seeds growing, or acorns developing. We are still at the very beginning of our lives, not at the end. Our future stretches further than we can see or imagine. And God wants us to be willing to change, in order to stop the destruction of the image of God that He has placed in each one of us.
God grant that we will do what the apostle James advises - count it all joy when we meet with various trials because we know that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness, and we must let that have it's full effect that we may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
Amen.
