A Man's Image of Heaven

Headed Home

1 Samuel 2:1-10
John 14:1-9

The cry of the human heart is this: “Where am I going?” There are those of us who have successfully stifled that cry and deadened our ear to the answer. In so doing, we have also deadened our ear to the question, “Why am I here?”

I had a friend some 25 years ago who had contracted lymphoma through exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. The poor guy had developed a resistance to the meaning and purpose of life. He cared not why he was here, and he cared not where he was going. His answer to his existence was, “We are all worm bait.”

“Worm bait!” In other words, the ultimate purpose for this intricate and interdependent Creation is to feed the worms. Worms become the object of God’s love, God’s most recent creation, then, was for the purpose of bringing survival to the worm population.

What a cynical example of the denial of the gift of life! We have arrived here for one purpose only – to feed the worms. The Great Watchmaker has designed this intricate wonder so that His glory might be displayed through the worms.

Now, unfortunately, and I say this at my peril, our view of Heaven has been crafted by the women in our lives, has it not? That image of us sitting on a cloud eating grapes and playing harps is the kind of eternal sentence that women have designed for us men who have lorded over them. They want us to be emasculated as payback. This picture of my Mom sitting enraptured at the feet of Jesus for eternity is, quite frankly, a turnoff for me as a red-blooded male. Barbara reminded me, however, that these pictures all emerged from the Renaissance. I suggested that that may well beg the question.

Jesus may very well be the image of the perfect husband, but I can’t go there. I am not looking for a husband. And I have long ago given up the idea of a perfect wife, although mine is about as close as it gets, I think. It took a couple of false starts to get there, but by the grace of God here I am.

The bottom line is that if there are no trout streams in Heaven, I can’t see the purpose of going there. Some of you may feel the same way about gardens and maple trees and golf. What I know for certain, however, is that I want no part of a Heaven where you can’t track deer and you can’t catch a rainbow trout now and then.

I wish I could answer that question for you this morning – “where am I going?” So far, the alternative is enough for me to be willing to brave the feminine Heaven. My son, Jonathan, asks me occasionally if I would opt for worm bait over Heaven if given the choice. My answer always is that if given the choice I would rather have it end here than spend eternity eating grapes and playing a harp.

The fact is that we don’t have that choice. Our view of Heaven, then, must be way off base. I’m going to try and bring it a little bit back to earth this morning.

I take comfort in Hannah’s vision of Heaven. The fact that it is a woman’s view is instructive, I think. Hannah’s Heaven is a state of being where all of our longings are satisfied. Combined with Jesus’ description of Heaven as not only a state of being but a place, we can grasp something of what it means to have hope.

Hannah’s grief was that she was barren and had had her nose rubbed in it daily by Elkanah’s other wife who had borne him many sons and daughters. There was no comfort that Elkanah could give to Hannah, even though we are told that he loved her deeply and grieved for her.

Hannah bears the son, Samuel, weans him and gives him back to God by taking him to the Temple and leaving him in the care of the High Priest, Eli. The longing of her heart has been answered and been replaced by something deeper and more lasting – a vision of the eternal God. She leaves Samuel at the Temple rejoicing rather than mourning her loss of him. She has received a vision of the future.

My heart rejoices in the Lord…My mouth boasts over my enemies.

Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows and by him deeds are weighed.

Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more.

The Lord brings death and makes alive, he brings down to the grave and raises up.

The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.

He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.

It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the Lord will be shattered.

He will thunder against them from heaven; the Lord will judge the ends of the earth

He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Somehow, Hannah has already entered Isaiah’s Highway of the Redeemed that we talk about – the Kingdom of God. Somehow she is already on the path, not to clouds and grapes and harps, but to victory. Somehow there is a strange continuity between Heaven and her life at that moment as she is walking away from her self-esteem and the deepest longing of her heart. That continuity for Hannah is summed up in the words, “God will give strength to his king (Jesus) and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

Hannah has found her hope in the Messiah who has not yet come. That hope for her is not pie-in-the-sky bye-and-bye but is present here and now. She trudges back home without her dream, her son. Instead, her dream has been realized in the revelation of God in Christ Jesus in whom He will give the strength for victory over all those longings of the human heart. Hannah’s hope is not in clouds and grapes and harps nor in sitting down and singing praises to God for eternity. Hannah’s hope is in a state of being where the longings of the human heart are fulfilled –where the emptiness and futilities of this life are no more. There is a connection, you see, between the emptiness of this life and the fulfillment of the life beyond death. There is a continuity between who and what we are right now – all our limitations and our talents; our strengths and our weaknesses – and what we are to become.

And for Hannah, this is up front and personal. It is a hope that will bring victory to the defeats of her life. There will be a special place for Hannah, designed for her; created for her; specially thought through to fulfill the longings of her heart.

You can take that vision of bright lights at the end of a tunnel, grapes on a cloud where the sun never sets or a war in Jerusalem if you wish. I will take Hannah’s vision where the unfulfilled pains and sufferings of Stan Moody’s life are answered – where every thwarted creative energy that God has put in me as part of His image blossoms into new light. For that to happen, that place prepared for me and for you must be individual and personal.

I need to know what it is to fulfill God’s perfect will by never again lusting after the things and the people of this earth. I want to know what it is to have a relationship that grows in unconditional love. I want to know what it is to never have to fear getting old or dying. I want to know what it is to be in community with folks who love you enough to see to it that your dreams are realized so that I can feel confident enough to help them realize theirs. I want to know what it means to be able to trust everyone around you and not get burned.

Your dream is personal and has to do with your sorrows and your failures and your pain and suffering. It is different from my dream but it is individual and personal. Heaven, then, becomes the state of being and the place where everything Hannah was created to be is realized and everything you were created to be is realized

The God who makes full the hungry, makes alive the dead, raises the poor from the dust, lifts the needy from the ash heap and seats them with princes, who guards the feet of his saints and who judges the ends of the earth has a tailor-made plan for you and me that has nothing to do with clouds and grapes and harps. It has to do with the continuity between the person you were created to be and the person you will become. It has to do with the discovery of the self God intended you to be.

And the irony is that only by following the example of Hannah in giving up of the self you have become can you become the self God intended you to be.

The disciples should have taken a chapter out of the story of Hannah.

Jesus has just rebuked two of them – Judas and Peter. Peter almost lost the dream twice in these last few moments. The first time was when Jesus wanted to wash his feet and Peter refused: “Unless I wash you, you will have no part of me.” “Make up your mind, Peter, whether you want to cling to your pride or whether or not you want to follow me into a life of unconditional love and service.” The second time he almost lost it was when he insisted that he would lay down his own life for Jesus, to which Jesus replied, “…before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

Peter, when he heard the rooster crow, went outside and wept bitterly. Peter’s Heaven began at that moment on the shore of the Sea of Galilee when he saw the risen Lord, jumped into the water and came to Him. “Do you love me, Peter?” “Feed my sheep.” Peter’s Heaven had begun in the hope that he would be able to overcome his pride and self by feeding Jesus’ sheep as a means of demonstrating his love.

Judas, on the other hand, was toast. He never wanted to get beyond his pride and self. He never saw himself as a tarnished image of God. He was never willing to become fully what God had created him to become. His now was all he wanted. So Judas’s Heaven became a place where all his dreams of power and wealth could be fulfilled in the world of commerce and industry now. He wanted no part of a future hope. His god was not the God of Hannah. This Jesus was to Judas an opportunity now.

“As soon as Judas took the bread (from Jesus), Satan entered into him. ‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him…as soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.” Judas went into the night because he loved darkness rather than light.

In the 14^th chapter of John, we have the briefest picture of hope – really the only description of Heaven in the Bible.

Jesus has told the 11 that he would be with them only a little while longer and that where he was going they could not come. They are grief stricken. They have mixed up their dreams for the now with their hopes for future perfection. They thought perfection would be in a New Jerusalem here on earth, while all along Hannah’s idea of perfection was the completion in her consciousness and in her body of all that God had created her to become.

Jesus tells them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” He had just delivered some bad news. They were not going to be able to resist betraying Him and scattering. That is bad news enough. He also told them that He not only would be going away but that He would be going away not in glory but in a cloud of suffering.

They had begun to see this picture, and it wasn’t very pretty – no clouds, harps and grapes. They are already beginning to sorrow over what was going to happen to them. They are already beginning to feel deserted and vulnerable. They had given up their homes and their livelihood to follow this dream, and now it not only was to be taken away from them but it was to be under the worst of circumstances. They begin to think about their resumes and wonder if they can go back to fishing or tax collecting.

Jesus tells them not to let their hearts be troubled. A strange statement, is it not?

The Greek for that word “trouble” has nothing to do with grief or sadness. It is the word tarassestho. It is the kind of trouble like on a sea when it cannot rest. “Do not let your hearts be in confusion, ruffled, disquieted.” Keep possession of your souls when all else seems to have failed. Build with confidence on your belief in God. “I am the fulfillment of your belief in God. If you would provide for strength against this stormy day, believe also in me.”

Your religion is not enough! Belief in God is not enough! It doesn’t take you from the poor, foundering person you are to what you were created to become. “I am the bridge to your complete fulfillment,” Jesus is telling them and us. “I am the key to your individual personality becoming everything it was intended to become.” “You believe in God; believe also in me.”

Jesus shares with them how the continuity from the poor blokes that they are to what they are to become is going to happen. He has a job to do. They are going to have to let Him go so that He can complete the work that He and His disciples had begun. That will begin with Jesus abandoning self for a cross and His disciples later abandoning themselves for Him.

“The chord we have built will not be broken,” Jesus is telling them. “I have to get things ready for you before you can make the transition from what you are to what you were created to become.” “You will have sorrow, yes. But I have overcome and am the very Highway that you will travel from imperfection to perfection. Hannah saw my strength and my exaltation and rejoiced even in her great loss. Her hope was in what you are now witnessing and experiencing. Do not let your sorrow kill that hope!”

There is more. Jesus goes on to tell them what He has to do to get ready for them to finish the journey from what is to what can become:

In my Father’s house are many rooms…I go there to prepare a place for you…I will come back, not to rejoin you, but to take you with me so that you may be where I am…You know the way to where I am going.

I don’t see any clouds or harps or grapes there, do you? This is not a mansion where everyone is the same – where they all have been forced into some kind of angelic state. This is a place where there is a place, or room, especially designed for every believer whose hope is in this Christ. Every room completes the picture of perfection for every soul there. It is the home where you and I are at last fulfilled in becoming everything God created us to be.

An unknown author once wrote that as a boy he thought of heaven as a city with domes, spires and beautiful streets inhabited by angels. His little brother died, and his Heaven became inhabited by one person. Then another died, along with some of his acquaintances. Heaven began to contain several people he knew. It was not until his own children died that he began to get the point. His loved ones became part of his own treasure in Heaven. Eventually, he had so many acquaintances and loved ones in Heaven that he no longer thought of it as a city with streets of gold but as a place full of inhabitants.

These rooms that Jesus talks about and that He has to get ready are accommodations for each individual saint. It is a promise that our individuality will not be lost but will be preserved through a special accommodation for each of us. “In my Father’s house are many rooms…I go to prepare a place for you and you and you.”

The journey has only begun. Jesus is the bridge from now to everything the Father created us to become.