Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Selected Scriptures October 21, 2007

“Heaven – Part 6”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

On the way to the justice of the peace to get married, an engaged couple ended up in heaven instead. While waiting outside heaven’s gate for St. Peter to do the paperwork so they can enter, they wonder if they could possibly get married in heaven. St. Peter finally showed up and they ask him. He replied, “I don’t know. This is the first time anyone has ever asked. Let me go find out.”
The couple sit for a couple of months and begin to wonder if they really should get married in heaven anyway, what with the eternal aspect of it all. “What if it doesn’t work out?” they wonder. “Are we stuck together forever?” St. Peter returned after yet another month looking somewhat bedraggled. “Yes,” he informed the couple, “you can get married in heaven.” “Great,” they said, “but we have another question now. What if things don’t go so well? Can we get a divorce in heaven?”
St. Peter, red-faced, slammed his clipboard onto the ground. “What’s wrong?” asked the frightened couple. “Geez!” St. Peter exclaimed. “It took me 3 months to find a preacher up here! Do you have any idea how long it will take me to find a lawyer?”

And if you don’t believe that one:

St. Peter is questioning 3 married couples to see if they qualify for admittance to heaven. “Why do you deserve to pass the pearly gates?” he asked one of the men, who had been a butler. “I was a good father,” he answered. “Yes, but you overindulged in alcohol day after day. In fact, you were so bad you even married a woman named Sherry. No admittance.”
St. Peter then turned to the next man, a carpenter, and asked him the same question. The carpenter replied that he had worked hard and taken good care of his family. But St. Peter also rejected him, pointing out that he had been an impossible overeater – so much so that he married a woman named Candy. “No admittance.”
At this point, the third man, who had been a lawyer, stood up and said to his wife, “Come on, Penny, let’s get out of here.”

One more:

Let’s say everyone on earth who is going to heaven goes to heaven on the same day. God comes along and gives the following directions: “I want the men to make 2 lines – one line for the men that dominated their women on earth, and the other line for the men that were dominated by their women. All the women may go with St. Peter.”
The next time God looks, the women are gone and there are 2 lines. The line of men who had been dominated by their women was at least 100 miles long. In the line of men that had done the dominating, was only 1 man.
God looked at both lines, and walked over to the man standing alone. “Tell me, my son, how did you manage to be the only one in this line?”
The man answered, “I don’t know. My wife told me to stand here before she left.”

There are hundreds of thousands of jokes about heaven. Many of the heavenward jokes have to do with women vs. men, with lawyers, and with preachers. Thank the Lord I never went to law school, or I might begin to run every time someone starts telling a joke!

I wanted us to begin with laughter this morning because the topic God has led me to for this morning is a hard topic. Today we’re going to look at the Scriptures having to do with our family relationships in heaven – and most specifically – what the Bible tells us about the marriage relationship. Now for those who are not married, don’t tune out. This teaching impacts all of us!
Let us pray: Thank you, Lord, for your Holy Spirit here with us this morning. Thank you for your love and your peace. We have so many preconceived notions about heaven that aren’t based on what you have revealed to us in your word. Help us to stay alert to your truth and be able and willing to release any notions that are not from you. We want to know as much as we can about heaven so that we live heavenward lives right here until you call us home. So, help me to speak as you desire, and help us all to listen in a way that brings you glory. This we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

I think it’s really important that we start back at the beginning – to what God tells us in Genesis.
Genesis 1:27, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
In Genesis 2:18-25, we get a more detailed version of what we just read from Genesis 1, “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” … The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”
This is what God set up on earth before what is called The Fall – that time in history when our ancestors, Adam & Eve, chose to embrace their own will over God’s will. In that moment, humanity fell from living in a pure, beautiful world to living in an impure, decaying world. God set it up in the beginning, that men and women would joyfully partner together to populate, cultivate, and subdue the earth and everything in it forever and ever in complete harmony with God. But the shadow of the Fall darkens all our pathways, affecting not just our temporary earthly life but the Fall affects our eternal resurrection life as well.
Let’s acknowledge that without the contamination from The Fall that sin brought to our physical bodies, there would be no need for a new kind of life after death - because our bodies wouldn’t have ever died in the first place!
Without the contamination from The Fall that sin brought to the earth, there would be no need for the new, purified, and restored earth that we read about throughout the New Testament; there would be no need for the new city of Jerusalem, or a new heaven in which to prepare the new city.
So let me repeat, the shadow of the Fall darkens all our pathways, affecting not just our temporary earthly life, but the Fall affects our eternal resurrection life as well.
There was a group of Jewish leaders called the Sadducees who did not believe in life after death. They were upset that Jesus’ teaching about resurrection after death was so convincing that people were starting to follow him, and not respect their own teaching. So, one day the Sadducees tried to trick Jesus into saying something that would alienate him from his new followers.
Matthew 22:23-32, “ That same day some Sadducees stepped forward—a group of Jews who say there is no resurrection after death. They posed this question: “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will be the brother’s heir.’ Well, there were seven brothers. The oldest married and then died without children, so the second brother married the widow. This brother also died without children, and the wife was married to the next brother, and so on until she had been the wife of each of them. And then she also died. So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For she was the wife of all seven of them!”
Jesus replied, “Your problem is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. For when the dead rise, they won’t be married. They will be like the angels in heaven.”
Now, before your mind starts wondering about that last sentence, “they will be like the angels in heaven,” allow me to reiterate what we learned a couple of weeks ago about angels. Notice this verse doesn’t say, “they will be angels in heaven,” it tells us we will be “like the angels in heaven.” Remember, we will not turn into angels when we die. We will be ourselves in resurrection form. So, for Jesus to tell us we will be like the angels, is to tell us something about the relationship angels have in heaven with each other and with the Lord.
Will there be marriage in heaven? Yes! There will be one marriage, between Christ and his bride, the Church. Ephesians 5:31,32 record Paul’s words regarding marriage, drawing from the Genesis passage, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.”
A few verses earlier in Ephesians 5, Paul said this, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish.”
And from Revelation 19, “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure” - for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”
In heaven, there will be one marriage – between the purified Church, who is the Bride of Christ, and the Lamb on the throne – who is the Bridegroom, Jesus.
So does this mean our marriage relationships with our earthly spouses will mean nothing to us in heaven? Certainly not! We have learned that in heaven, everything gets better than it is here. Let’s remember that the closer we get to the Lord in any relationship, the closer we are to each other. The wonderful harmony we will have with Jesus in heaven will spill over into all our relationships there. Will we live together as husbands and wives in heaven? All I know is that the Scripture tells us in Ephesians 3:14, ““For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.” That indicates there will be families in heaven as there are on earth. What that means to me is that my relationship with my own biological family will be retained in a sanctified way that can only be better than it is here on earth.
Most marriage vows include the following words, “In plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.” We should include the words “as long as we both shall live on earth.” Because in heaven there is no want, no sorrow, and no sickness! Heaven will take all of our relationships to the next “level,” so to speak, and because it is God’s work, we know it will be better than anything we have been able to experience here on earth together!
The apostle Paul tells those who are unmarried that they are blessed because they have more freedom to serve the Lord than those who are married. Being single, as long as you are not fighting God about your singleness, can be a marvelous training ground for single-eyed devotion to the God who created us all in his image. Those who are single among us can be incredible people of service and encouragement as we work together to make this Bride, the Church, ready for the Bridegroom.
Those who are currently married have an incredible responsibility to reflect, as much as we are able, the pure beauty of the heavenly relationship we look forward to between Christ and the Church. And what a responsibility it is for all of us, single or married, youth or adults, to be about teaching the youngest ones God has given to us about the love we are called to share with a darkened world.
David Crowder, a contemporary Christian singer and songwriter, wrote these words as part of one of his new songs entitled, “Surely We Can Change.”
And the problem is this
we were bought with a kiss
but the cheek still turned
even when it wasn't hit
and I don't know
what to do with a love like that
and I don't know
how to be a love like that

The desire we have to somehow know we’re still going to be with people we know and love in heaven is connected to the struggle we have with people we know and love here on earth. We don’t really know Love as God intended us to know it in the beginning before The Fall. We are so tainted by the sin of the world that we find it impossible to imagine what being in the presence of pure love, the love of God, will be like. We find it difficult to think we will be completely fulfilled in heaven in God’s love alone, single or married, man or woman, preacher or lawyer, child or adult. But we will be completely fulfilled. We will not need any other relationship other than our union with Christ – though we will enjoy being together with others in common love and purpose.
All the people who have gone before us – I think of those who are of the class of 2007 from this church - new graduates in heaven from this congregation: Martha Chamberlin & Jim Smith. What a picture to think of them free from physical distress and limitations. I can still see Martha coming ever so slowly down the hallway with her stiffened joints, working her way backwards down the stairs, in order to come and express her love for God and for the Church in worship. I can see Jim in bed, with legs that had been rendered useless, holding onto a wooden cross, and speaking words of encouragement and blessing. Can’t you just picture them both, side by side, arms around each other, completely relaxed and filled with perfect love for God and for each other. Can’t you just picture their joyful faces, without spot or wrinkle?
Is it any wonder the Psalmist said (116:15), “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

In the next several weeks we will conclude this sermon series about Heaven. Part of what I feel called to preach about is our manner of dying. We are all going to die someday. How can we die in such a way that God is glorified and the Church is edified? How can we support the dying in a way that God is glorified and the Church is edified? If you have any burning questions about heaven that have not been addressed in these sermons, please let me know. If God allows it, I will try to include your concerns in these final two sermons.
Let us pray:
Father, I surely pray that you have been and will continue to be lifted up in these sermons about your gift to us of eternal life in heaven. I pray now as I prayed in the beginning that if there has been anything said that is not true according to your word, that it would have been nothing but a vapor already gone into nothingness. Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Thank you for all you have done to tell us what we must know about you. Thank you for the gift of faith implanted within us, growing within us, and changing how we live and love. Thank you for abundant life here, and the promise of an even greater life in heaven. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

10-21-07