dying.

I have heard that at about twenty-five years old the human body undergoes a major change. The body begins to lose cells faster than it reproduces them. That is, there are more cells that are dying than there are cells being born. Essentially, I am withering like the plant that sat beside my toilet, until its extremities curled and the lively green receded back to the soil, leaving a brown, crusty shell. I should have watered it more, I admit, but the problem of death remains in the biology, not my lack of attention to thirsty organisms.

I am dying. I cannot do a darned thing about it.

I bring this up partly because I am a withering twenty-five year old and that scares me. But I also think I am beginning to understand the hope that is wrapped up in resurrection. Every Sunday I affirm my belief in a bodily resurrection and I generally marginalize that confusing concept. I would not be surprised if that is how it is treated by most people, most of the time. Yet, from one dying person to another, I think the topic is quite relevant.

Last week I asked my students if they were going to be raptured. They said yes. I asked them if they would go to heaven. They said yes. I asked if heaven was a spiritual realm, outside of this physical world. They said yes. I asked them if they were going to take their physical body with them...to this non-physical, spiritual realm. They looked at me. I told them that there is no such thing as a rapture.

I told them that in the nineteenth century a pastor named John Nelson Darby was distressed by the corrupt society all around him. Even more discouraging, there was a serious decline in church attendance. Darwin's idea of evolutionary progress and the healing powers of science were becoming the new secular hope and it seemed to threaten the foundations of Christianity. From Darby's point of view, the world seemed to be falling apart. Out of this mess, and the alleged vision of an Irish peasant girl, Darby came up with the novel idea of a secret rapture. He thought that the world would crumble into pieces and that God would come and rescue his chosen ones from the worst part. I told my students that this was the first time the doctrine of the rapture was presented in the history of the Christian faith.

They were shocked, skeptical, concerned.

After recovering their senses, they angrily insisted that it doesn't matter. Why do we argue about things that do not have anything to do with how we live? Jesus loves us, we love him, and we are going to heaven. End of story. The details do not change a thing.

I then told them that in the history of the Church, eschatology (what happens at the resolution of the big story) has been one of the most important factors in defining how one lives as a follower of Christ. If one believes that God is only interested in saving souls, and then rescuing us out of this evil place, why should we feed hungry bodies, build orphanages, dig wells, stop oppressive governments? Wouldn't it be more Christian to have a revival... to tell people they are sinners but Jesus still loves them... to invite them down to the altar to accept the free ticket to heaven, bought with the blood of Jesus? If the rapture could happen tomorrow, tonight, before I finish this sentence, shouldn't we focus our energy on the only eternal thing, the soul? Jesus told us to live as though he would come back at any moment. It would be seen as antithetical to God's purposes if we wasted our time investing in the temporal world. The Church should not be influenced by secular philosophies that tell us to seek things like peace on earth, the cure for poverty, the end of oppression. In fact, if the world gets worse, it just means Jesus' return is getting closer.

However, if we believe that when Christ returns, instead of beaming us up, he comes down and establishes his Kingdom for eternity, we will have a different perspective of what it means to seek his Kingdom. It is not about longing to leave this world, but to see this world made different. We would pray, like Jesus, that God's Kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

If we believe that Jesus is coming back to this earth as a judge... and that he hates oppression and injustice... that he expects empty stomachs to be filled and fat wallets to be emptied... then we will work towards peace on earth, the cure for poverty, and the end of oppression. We will labor for the coming Kingdom, knowing that when our Savior returns, he will demand to know why we did not feed him when he was hungry, clothe him when he was naked, or visit him when he was in prison.

If this is the resolution of the story, that the earth is transformed into what God intended it to be, we begin to see that we get to participate in this coming Kingdom. We have the privilege to work towards justice and peace... we get the honor of doing the work of our Lord. We feed hungry bellies and heal broken bodies because this is what God is up to in his Kingdom. Jesus said that this is the gospel that he brings--the good news to the poor--that God's Kingdom is coming. It is here even now, but it will be here in its fullness soon.

This brings me back to withering twenty-five year olds. See, we do not consider death our friend; it will not deliver us from this hell on earth. Instead, we consider it our enemy; it corrupts the world that God called very good. We believe that when Jesus shows up, bodies will be resurrected, transformed, made new with a biology that knows no decay and cells that do not die. Bodies that do not wither. Because, when Jesus returns to this earth, he will finally defeat our last enemy... death. And it is not only the soul that is eternal, but the body as well.

We are dying. We cannot do a darned thing about it... but... Jesus will.

"Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

'Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?'" -I Corinthians 15:51-55