Something's Coming...Who Knows?

There has been a fair dose of death and dying in my orbit of late, as well the book “Love Wins” by Rob Bell, via a church study group, and a New York Times story on cutting-edge physics (Black Holes May Hide a Mind-Bending Secret About Our Universe). Amid this mélange, I stumbled across a theological study analyzing what Jesus and the Bible say specifically about what’s after this life (John Piper’s A Look at the Book- 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5. Parts 1-3). All are worthwhile. But in the end, who really knows? For now, I’m comfortable with the Presbyterian position, which as I understand it, professes that while we can’t be certain about what happens after this life, we trust that God loves us and that we’ll be okay.  In the meantime, our job is to make this kingdom more like God’s Kingdom. What does that look like? Jesus showed us through his actions and teachings.  He said to be filled with love for God and love for each other. What does that look like? Well, when we put the least among us first, when speak and act in love, when we forgive, when we worship and pray and create through divine inspiration- when we do God’s will, when we heal others and ourselves, we are creating the kind of kingdom that God intends.  So, it may actually be that we slip in and out of God’s Kingdom (aka heaven) every day, in small moments, through our actions and the actions of others. Heaven on earth.

Biblical literalists spend a lot of time on the details: whether Jesus will come back once or twice, for instance; the schedule of calamities, and who will be with God and who won’t. I will respectfully leave those details to them to ponder. What is on my mind now is the notion that heaven is less a place “out there” after we die and more a promise of this world transformed into the kind of kingdom God wants for us. Living in harmony with the divine and with each other. So, one might rightly ask, if God wants that, why doesn’t He just snap his fingers and make it happen? I don’t know. But I can’t help thinking that it’s beyond our understanding. Cutting-edge science (and this where the physics comes in) informs us that time and space are flexible. Past and present, here and now- a million light years away out into deep space, and a million years ago here on earth when man first rose from the muck, may all exist simultaneously. Remember that episode of the “Twilight Zone” when an 1847 wagon-train pioneer, who is crossing the New Mexico desert, stumbles up a hill and into 1961? (Crossing Over the Rim.)  In Rod Serling’s story, the two dates in history seem to exist at the same time. Haven’t we all felt something a little supernatural once or twice? Déjà vu certainly qualifies. Or the presence and energy of a loved one who has passed. I have stood in places on distant continents that felt very familiar. If the lines blur between past and present and then and now, it’s quite possible that death is just a broadening of our perception to another way of seeing and being. As Rod Serling said before each episode: “You are about to enter another dimension.”  The nature of reality has fascinated me since college philosophy, to be honest, when it was pointed out that even the most solid objects, such as the very chairs we were sitting in, are in constant flux because all matter is in continuous motion. You know, atoms, electrons, etc.  All we perceive is the cushy chair we are comfortably resting our derrieres in, not an object comprised of millions of atoms all in continuous motion. So, it follows that we can perceive only a small bit of what’s really going on. So, who knows?  With God anything is possible. I believe that God loves us and that He has not taken us this far to let the demise of our physical bodies be the final word. It was not for Jesus, after all. God sent His Son to live with us, teach us, die for us and rise again for us. I don’t think God did all that for no reason. In the words of the famous song from the play Westside Story: “Something’s coming…who knows?” The song pairing this time is considerably less famous: “God’s Extended Hand,” which was written in the last few weeks with all of this percolating. Until next time, stay safe, be strong and keep walking in the light. “God’s Extended Hand”:

God’s Extended Hand
Leaves drift on the breeze
in the afternoon sun
a soft October light
baptizes everyone
our kids kick up the piles
in their innocent fun
and God’s extended hand
it touches everyone

The least will increase
Just down the line
upside down and right side up
all in good time
the hour maybe be late
but the day is still young
and God’s extended hand
it touches everyone

God’s extended hand
He makes the planets spin
we’ll say goodbye for now  
but I’ll see you again

Contradiction and fact
One thing that is true
you can be stone blind
to what’s right in front of you
from eternity 'til now
and back to day one
God’s extended hand
it touches everyone

David Brauner Copyright 2022