Easter 5

This past week PBS ran a series on the Mormons and their religion. The program covered everything from their origin and history, to their theology and practices. It seemed like a very balanced report - neither condemning, nor supporting the group.

As a Christian, I can’t help but question whether Mormons will receive eternal life in heaven. Some of their beliefs are anything but Christian, especially their denial that Jesus Christ is their Savior from sin and their insistence that a person must unquestioningly obey Mormon leaders or be denied entrance to heaven.

On the other hand, I have always admired their evangelical commitment. They are fervent in their study of their faith, their young people give up two years of their lives to go door to door seeking anyone who will listen to their witness, and they have absolute faith in their ultimate destination.

There was one segment where a young woman was interviewed and she utterly glowed when she talked about her belief that she will someday be united with all her loved ones in heaven.

The writer of Revelation was an profoundly faithful believer. Trying to put words and images to the indescribable vision he’d had must have been very challenging.

Unfortunately, even with the writers best efforts the Book of Revelation is nearly impossible to understand and causes more dispute than any other book, save perhaps the beginning of Genesis.

Even scholars who have spent decades studying the book can’t determine with total assurance whether what is written are abstract visions of a time in human history or of a time yet to come or both.

When I was younger I was very put-off by the book. Back then in my spiritual immaturity, I had the idea that somehow being saved and going to heaven depended on my hanging on to my faith no matter what. I just knew that I could never keep the faith in the face of persecution. The fiery ordeals and visions of destruction in Revelation particularly scared me. I was almost sure the great tribulation would come in my lifetime and I wouldn’t make a good martyr.

Today, I am more grounded in Lutheran teachings on grace and better able to resist the assumption that I will have to go through unbelievably painful trials. More importantly, I am much more certain that it is God’s grace and not my feeble faith that will make the difference in where I go when I die or the world ends.

Still, we do have to deal with death and tears in this life. I’ve officiated at enough funerals and had enough losses of my own to know that the pain when a loved one dies is very real. At a time like that it is nearly impossible to feel a glow of joy even when we are sure that the loved one was a person who believed in Jesus and that we will be reunited with them in heaven someday.

Whether the deceased was nearly a centenarian or not yet born, whether death was welcome relief from pain or comes during the prime of life, it is normal and emotionally healthy to grieve loss. In fact, the person who never sheds a tear, may be in for trouble later because we need to work through the various stages of grief when we lose someone (or even something) important to us.

At the same time though, if we understand our faith correctly and can grasp God’s promises ultimately we will come to a point where we can glowingly witness to our belief that we will someday be with our parents, siblings, spouses, children, other relatives and friends - maybe even our pets. Like that Mormon woman we can trust absolutely that the day will come when we will be able to hug our loved ones and be with them forever. This is the true and important theme of Revelation - someday there will be no more tears, only joy.

Our joy goes deeper though because the promise is not just that we will all be reunited with relatives and friends who have gone before and we’ll have eternal party time. Our greatest joy will be founded in the knowledge that a day will come when God will dwell among His people and will personally wipe those tears away.

During this life, we can get only the faintest glimmer of what this will mean, and we are only able for the briefest instant to experience the shadow of God’s presence among us. Human sinfulness makes us vulnerable and God’s full glory would destroy us. Even when God dwelt more noticeably with His people, His presence had to be muted with a cloud or some other protective form.

If we are completely honest, we may not even wish God to be present with us all the time in this life (though, of course He is). How often even the best of us fail to think and behave in ways we would want God to see and hear.

We are called to love our enemies and give loving care to people we don’t even know. We are commanded by Christ Himself to be a community of love. How often do we fail to show love - worse yet, how often do we express anger, resentment, even hatred to those we are called to love.

When the new comes it will be more like the time of Adam and Eve when God could actually be fully present. Freed of our sinful nature, with death banished forever, we may again walk in the cool of the evening with God, able to enjoy His presence to the full. And we will carry this loving presence within us and share it with everyone.

We can’t begin to imagine how wonderful this will be, nor can we begin to describe what heaven will be like. Will heaven be an actual physical place? How big will it be? What will it look like? Will we have bodies like we have now? How old will we appear to be? How will we recognize those who died before we knew them? Will it be like living in a big city with God installed in some divine sanctuary where we can come visit and worship Him?

Probably, it will be nothing like we can imagine in our wildest dreams, because our minds are way too limited in this life. What we can be sure of is that we will be with those we love, we will experience God’s presence continuously and gloriously, and we will know great joy.

Dwelling on this and reinforcing our belief in God’s gracious promises can give us the glow I saw on the face of that Mormon woman. With this as our basis for faith even in the midst of grief we may be able to smile, knowing that the day will come when, truly there will be no more tears. Amen.