Here and Now, Then and There

Pretend this is a third-grade classroom….Sunday School classroom. We are the students and today Teacher is going to talk about heaven and hell, how to get to one and avoid the other. And it all depends on how you treat your sister, if you do what Mom and Dad tell you to do, if you respect your elders, if you love Jesus and if you go to church. If you do all those things, you will get to heaven someday. It may be a long journey, old age, or it might be shorter because of accident or illness. But the point is, when you die you will go to heaven and be with Jesus.

I don’t have a problem with this simplistic description of a third grade Sunday School class; nine-year-olds aren’t ready for Augustine or Tillich. What saddens and troubles me is that some of us, too many of us, finished the third year in Christian education, spiritual development, and we never went back for year four and following. We’re stuck with a third-grade understanding of what it means to talk and think about the Kingdom of God. Few things are more damaging to Christianity than someone who is an advocate of third-grade theology in a post-modern world. It just doesn’t work.

One illustration: many of us in my age-range, senior citizen, learned that the Kingdom of Heaven is a “then and there” arrangement. Do good now in order to…. But there is an inherent “de-valuation” of the present in that formula. Doing good is good, but the goal is beyond now, thus making “now” a stepping stone to “then.” And I suggest that Jesus would say: “Now, wait. That’s not exactly what I meant.” The vast majority of his teaching, many would say the reason for his existence, was to announce and demonstrate that the Kingdom of God is with us, among us, over and around us, even within us. Beyond death is entirely a mystery and completely in God’s hands. Right now is our time to be seeds and signals and signs of redemptive love, fundamental justice, and genuine compassion. If we don’t live the Kingdom of God now then we will inevitably personalize the wonderful meaning of Jesus as we reach for the silver ring. I’ll get mine, you get yours, and we will end up divided, competitive, tribal and intolerant.

Sound familiar?