WHAT DO WE REALLY THINK HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE?
A Sermon by Avena A. Ward
St. Pauls United Church of Christ
Chicago, Illinois
August 4, 2013
Text: Luke 16:19-30 (The Message translation)
“There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in
conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on
his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best
friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
“Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich
man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the
distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send
Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.’
“But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus
the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all
these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if
he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.’
“The rich man said, ‘Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I
have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this
place of torment.’
“Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen
to them.’
“‘I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them
from the dead, they would change their ways.’
John 14:1-4 (The Message translation)
“Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you
in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room
ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you
can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”
Prayer from the book of Deuteronomy:
“Give ear, O heavens,
and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
May my teaching drop as the rain,
my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
and like showers upon the herbs.
May my words (and our thoughts)
give glory to our God! (adapted from Dt 32:1–3).
Sermon
“What do we think REALLY happens after we die? ”Or was the question “what do we REALLY
think happens to us after we die?” The order of the words seems to make a difference in how we
approach this week’s question.
Meditating on the question eventually led me to the Garden of Eden, where death first entered
the world because of human disobedience. I imagined being with Eve and Adam. I REALLY got
how they might be tempted by that snake, to find and eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge.
Because this is really a difficult question and I don’t think we’re going to get to a really true
answer. But I’m willing to wonder, if you are. So this morning I invite you to wonder with me
about some things we might know and some things that are just a little beyond the edge of what
we can get at with our minds.
To begin our journey, I invite you to come with me back in time, to about twelve years ago.... to
the bedside of my mother-in-law, Jeannette. I’m sitting in one of those uncomfortable hospital
chairs. She’s cranked up high, receiving oxygen through a mask. They've removed that awful
breathing tube from her throat at her request. It’s more important to her that she be able to talk to
people when they came to see her.
Jeannette is asking me to read to her from the gospel of John, always her favorite. So I pick up
the Bible from her bedside table and start at the beginning of Chapter 14. “Do not let your hearts
be troubled,” it says there. But I am troubled. Jeannette stops me after just a few paragraphs.
Now she wants me to pray. I’m pretty overcome with emotion because I can feel that she’s not
entirely present in her body. So I ask if I can pray in silence because I don’t trust myself to have
the words to say. She nods.
At the “amen,” I stand and take her hand. “It’s OK,” she says. “You can go. Jesus is with me.”
She’s reassuring me now, instead of the other way round. She says she didn’t think it would be
like this, but she isn’t at all afraid. I leave, wondering if I’ll ever see her again.
Jeannette died peacefully just a few hours later. Her report of Jesus being with her is not unique.
It’s estimated that more than 10 percent of people are conscious at the time of death. And a
percentage of those who are conscious will report visions of people long dead coming to greet
them. Most often it’s a mother or grandmother. But sometimes it is a figure of pure light.
Christians almost always identify this light-being as Jesus.
We, those living in a rational, materialistic culture, can find it hard to explain these accounts
as anything other than hallucinations brought on by the absence of oxygen to the brain -- as
organs are shutting down.
Whether these are delusions, hallucinations, or visions of life over on the other side, no one can
say for certain. What happens after we let go of life as we know it, is mysterious, a matter left to
faith most of the time.
For those of us on this side of death, watching it happen is gut wrenching. And then there’s the
lonely silence, the empty space in our lives after they’re gone.
Anyone who has ever lost someone dear wants to know more about this transition that all of us
will make. Perhaps, we think, the more we know the less we’ll be frightened or troubled.
Right?
A few years ago Jeff and I preached a mini sermon series on dying like a Christian. In that series
we reminded ourselves of that basic the theological premise that, in following Jesus, we follow a
God who is fully human, who died as we do. Jesus, as he was dying on the cross, experienced a
range of emotions like we do, from fear and anger to resignation and peace. At one point he cried
out to a God he perceived had abandoned him. And, later, he turned over his spirit to the One he
knew so intimately he called Father.
Our baptism into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, this God-man, promises us eternal life
in God’s kingdom. But what is this eternal life? What does our faith tradition tell us will happen
to us after we die?
The earliest Christian writings on this subject come from the apostle Paul. In his first letter to
the Corinthians, Paul says that we will all die, and when we do, our soul-body will return to God
while our physical body breaks down and perishes. The soul-body and physical body will be
reunited when Christ comes again to earth. But when that will be, no one knows. It’s already
been much longer than Paul ever imagined. Long enough for most of us to find this hope
irrelevant to our lives.
The long, long meantime -- between when Jesus ascended into heaven and when Christ comes
again – that’s where we live now. But we also want to believe that we don’t go
into everlasting nothingness when we die -- in the meantime.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 12, Paul tells a provocative story that gives us
some hope that we don’t have to wait for Christ to come to earth again before we will see God.
Listen to this:
“I know a man in Christ who was taken up to the third heaven. This happened 14 years ago.
I don’t know if the man was in his body or out of his body, but God knows. And I know that this
man was taken up to paradise. I don’t know if he was in his body or away from his body,
but he heard things that he is not able to explain. He heard things that no one is allowed to tell. (2
Corinthians 12: 14-16)
Paul leaves us hanging with just this snippet. Who was that man? Was it Paul himself? Was he
dead when this happened? Only God knows. But it’s hard to miss some of the similarities
between this brief account and what we have come to call Near Death Experience.
Near Death Experience (and I may use the acronym NDE) is short for a whole range of
experiences reported by people who have died and been resuscitated, either naturally
or by means of medical intervention. Raymond Moody, a physician, published a popular book
(Life after Life) describing a number of NDEs, in 1975, documenting stories he had been told
by patients in his practice. Of late, more volumes of NDE stories have been finding their way
onto the best seller list. Some accounts are autobiographical. Some are second hand, like
Moody’s, having been collected by doctors and chaplains.
Those who study NDEs (and there is an International Association of Near Death Studies) have
not been able to scientifically explain them: what causes them, or why some people have them
while many do not. But a few doctors and scientists are now trying to bring an empirical
approach to this new field of study.
Here’s what we have so far, from an analysis of anecdotal information contained in these
accounts. A very large majority of NDEers report some or all of these elements:
• being out of their bodies for a time;
• seeing themselves and people around them from above;
• being propelled through a tunnel and experiencing a blinding light.
• For many there is a profound sense of peace and of being unconditionally loved.
• Many also report experiencing a “life review” in which their life plays out before them with
full color and sound, as well as all the feelings of all those involved.
• Often there is a reunion with deceased loved ones.
• And, less often, a visit to a place that is more beautiful than anything ever experienced on earth.
Some remember that they were given answers to life’s persistent questions, although, like Paul,
many don’t remember those answers when they’re resuscitated. Even though they can’t
remember their experiences, People who report NDEs are changed in ways that persist, long after
they’ve recovered.
That’s one of the key points raised by John W. Price, an Episcopal priest, in his book Revealing
Heaven: the Christian Case for Near Death Experiences. Published earlier this year, Price’s
book hasn’t gotten as much attention as others. But it was important for me as a pastor. It
begins with this statement: “Near-death experiences open an astonishing window into the nature
and will of God — and into heaven and hell.”
Father Price was gradually converted by members of congregations he served and people he
cared for from a skeptic to a believer in the value of sharing Near Death Experiences. As he
began to share these stories, he found that they bring immense comfort to those facing death
and to their loved ones.
Here are a couple of stories from Price’s book that I found particularly powerful:
The first one happened to a member of a church he was called to served. The church itself was
dying and had been through a half dozen pastors in a very short time. The congregation couldn’t
keep new members, either, because a small group of old-timers literally chased them away.
At the point at which Father Price thought he, too, would have to leave in frustration, one of the
ring leaders of the old-guard had a heart attack and died. She was one of the lucky ones who was
resuscitated. And when Price visited her in the hospital, this woman couldn’t wait to tell him
that in an NDE she been shown how her behavior had strangled the church and even driven away
members of her family.
During a life review that was painful, she was granted forgiveness, even before she asked for it.
She was also given the opportunity to choose to come back to life. Or not. Given a second
chance, she, like Scrooge, turned her life around. And she told everyone who would listen
about her transformation. Like Scrooge she was a more loving, open and welcoming church
member, working to grow the church. And she was able to support a son in his recovery from
alcoholism.
Price also tells the story of a hell and damnation preacher who, while clinically dead, was
confronted with the damage he caused with his hateful message. Held in the love of God, during
a NDE, he too was overcome by God’s total forgiveness. Since recovering and sharing this
powerful conversion, the church he pastored has withered and the people gone elsewhere.
This brimstone preacher can no longer assure them that hell awaits the unrepentant. Instead, he’s
become a chaplain, reassuring the sick and dying of God’s amazing grace.
NDEs don’t reinforce the notion of a place like the hell of Dante’s inferno where sinners go and
stay. But uncomfortable, even frightening experiences are reported. A few people are appalled
and tortured. Those few who do report feeling frightened during an NDE are generally
frightened by what comes up in their “life review”. Being unable to escape the negative impact
on others of their stinginess or meanness or destructive behavior is experienced as hellish.
But there’s no punishing God here. The pain is self-inflicted. Eventually after the life review,
many were embraced by a love so pure and peaceful, so powerful and unconditional, that it’s
difficult to adequately describe. Dr. Eben Alexander’s book, Proof of Heaven, is one recent
attempt.
Now I don't know if all these experiences represent a true depiction of life beyond death or if
they were just delusions. Only God knows. But the consistency of their content, provides a
hopeful possibility that something amazing happens after we die.
And ... if it is real, this kind of evidence presents a challenge to traditional doctrine. Near Death
Experiences seem to contradict what we understand -- or hope -- about divine justice. They
leave us unable to be sure of what happens to the truly terrible people -- the evil ones – the
Hitlers, the Idi Amins and the men who crashed those airliners into the twin towers. On that
question the reports imply that God is like the father in the story of the prodigal son.
NDE accounts reinforce what Paul has claimed: “nothing can come between us and the Love of
God.” Not even commonly agreed upon sins like loving someone of the same gender, or failing
to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
NDEs create witnesses who testify to God’s compassion. They tell us -- if in life we follow the
Great Commandment to love God and one another, we can be assured of Jesus’ promise after
death. “In my father’s house there are many rooms. I go now to make ready a place for you.
And I will come and take you to myself.”
While this is comforting, NDEs also confront Christian doctrine in that people of many faiths, as
well as people of no faith, report experiencing the awesome and unequivocal embrace of
unconditional love at the time of death. Atheists, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, too, if they
remember when they are resuscitated, speak of similar experiences.
Dr. Eben Alexander (Proof of Heaven) was a Christian in name only before his NDE. After his
encounter with what he calls “OM” he’s embraced his faith and is a firm believer in something
heavenly that waits for us beyond death.
As Father John Price says, there is much we can learn about the nature of God -- and of heaven
and hell-- from studying the near death experiences of Christians and others. But in the end, we
can’t claim to know what REALLY happens after we die; only God knows.
This morning I’ve shared with you just a bit about what is coming to light in one area of
research.
And -- with all of that in mind -- don’t you wonder if there might not be more surprises?
Who do you think we’ll meet when we gather at the river?
With love and deepest compassion for all those who have gone ahead of us and those who will
follow.
Amen
Bibliography
Alexander III M.D., Eben (2012-10-23). Proof of Heaven. Simon & Schuster, Inc..
Moody M.D., Ph.D., Raymond (1975, 2001) Life After Life: The Investigation of Phenomenon – Survival of
Death, Harper Collins.
Price, John W. (2013-02-19). Revealing Heaven: The Christian Case for Near-Death Experiences. Harper
Collins.