Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Selected Scriptures November 4, 2007

“Heaven – Part 8”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

Six years ago, my father died at age 82. Four and a half years ago, my first little granddaughter died in the womb at 23 weeks. One and a half years ago, my father-in-law died at age 78. Nine weeks ago, my mother died at age 79.
Until my father died, I had not suffered great personal loss through death. All of my grandparents died before I was born, or died in my first year of life, so I never knew them. So, when you consider the fact that I was 44 years old when my father died, that’s a lot of years to go without having to learn about grief first-hand. Since then, I’ve stood at the graveside of many people – from little infant Hannah Mary Sullivan to 97 year old Anna Baker. I know that grief is a real part of life. Sometimes we escape it for a long time, as I did, but eventually it is going to find us, and force us to face it.
Listen with me to these words from Holy Scripture. First, from the book of Job, Chapter 17, verse 7: “My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow.” Grief has physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual manifestations.
From Luke 22:45, “When Jesus got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” Grief has physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual consequences.
Listen to these words from Isaiah 53:3 (speaking about Jesus), “He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief.”
Jesus knows about grief. He grieved over the beloved city of Jerusalem as he prepared for the triumphant ride on what we now call Palm Sunday. He grieved as he watched those who loved Lazarus cry over their loss. He grieved over our sin condition. Jesus was acquainted with bitterest grief.
Knowing this helps me in these important days of grief over the death of my mother. It helps me to know that Jesus knows my pain.
Most of you know that John and I are season ticket holders for Penn State football games. We both are Penn State grads, and two out of three of our children will be Penn State grads when Doug finishes in a couple of years. The first game this year fell on September 1st – two days before my mother died. I knew she was dying at that point, and of course, didn’t go to the game. But when the next home game drew nearer, every time I would think about going, I started to cry. I told John I couldn’t go – it was just too much, too soon. But when the next home game drew nearer, I was still crying at the very thought of attending. That’s when I called Winnie Agett’s daughter, Kim McCurdy. Kim works in grief counseling with Lutheran Social Services; it is truly a ministry calling for her. I sat down with Kim to make sure I was doing okay. I know I can’t be any help for you as your pastor if I’m not taking care of my own physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health & healing. So, I asked Kim about the Penn State games. “What is going on here?” Kim then asked me some good questions about what happens when we go to the games.
I told her that we have been sitting in the same place for over 20 years. I told her that we know the people around us, and in particular, have grown to know a couple who sit in front of us, and their parents who sit right down the row. We saw this couple when they were students beginning to date. Then they got engaged – then they got married. Every season, something new was going in their lives . . . and in ours, too . . . all good stuff. We would share stories and pictures. They had two beautiful children: a girl and a boy. Their daughter Bridget had long blond hair that Pam would sweep up into a ponytail and bring her to the games in her little cheerleader outfit. Then one opening game probably four years ago, Pam came into her row and told me she had something to show me. I was not prepared for what she put into my hands: the funeral bulletin for little Bridget. Bridget had died of a rare virus in January of that year; here today, gone tomorrow. She was only 6 or 7 years old. Pam had pictures of the headstone they had had made for Bridget, and pictures of her classmates putting stuffed animals and toys and flowers on it. I could barely breathe. I couldn’t imagine her pain. We stood there in the midst of 100,000 blue and white clad people, shouting “We are – Penn State” and cried together. (Our granddaughter Riley was a Penn State cheerleader for Halloween this year, and I thought of Bridget as I watched her run around, so happy and free from worries.)
I told Kim this story and a few other stories about our stadium experiences. And then she asked, “So, it’s sort of like a family reunion when you go?” Even though only a small portion of this family and that family are in the stands, we do come as a representative of our whole family and share stories and pictures of what’s happening in our lives. “Yes, I guess it is sort of like a family reunion.” And then she said something like this, “You know Meagan, family reunions after someone has died, are really hard on those left behind. Maybe you’re just not ready to go to one yet.”
Well, with that, I was released from feeling like there was something wrong with me. I was released from feeling guilty that I couldn’t face going to the games with my husband this year. I knew I just wasn’t ready to go yet. I remembered how mom would never watch Penn State football games on TV until she knew we were sitting there each Fall. Then she would want to talk about the game when I would check in with her on Sunday… too many tears of pain and loss. I know that next year, I’ll be stronger.
Grief can come out in pretty odd ways. I would never have expected that Penn State football would have a place in my grieving process. But anything that is a regular part of your life has a place in the grieving process.
One of the things I signed up for (as part of my healing) is a daily email from an organization called Grief Share. In fact, we have a link to this site on our church website if you want to check it out. The daily emails are free and provide a steady diet of healing words that point to the hope we have in Christ. On day 31, the following message was sent:
Remember the good times; cherish the memories, but live each day moving forward. Focus your thoughts on what is before you and how you are going to get there.
"I often tell people that there are three stages you need to think about: You can't go back. You can't stay here. You must go forward," says Dr. Ray Pritchard. "There may be some good things in the past that you wish you could go back to, but in the end you have to let those go."
God's Word speaks to you clearly: "I have set before you life . . . now choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19).

In the midst of this earthly life that includes the death of people we love, both young and old - as faithful, committed Christians, we must choose life. We must choose to go after our healing in the midst of grief. If we need to talk to a professional, we should talk to a professional. If we need to cry, cry. If we need to walk, walk. If we need to rest, by all means, take time to rest. Grief has physical, emotional, mental, & spiritual manifestations. Hopefully, in the strength that God will provide, the spiritual manifestation will not be a fading faith, but a Christ-centered growth in faith and hope – remembering always that Jesus is acquainted with grief.
How can we as a church family support those who are grieving?
• We can help by providing for basic needs like food and practical support (like pulling weeds, mowing the grass, cleaning, shoveling snow…).
• We can help by remembering that everyone grieves differently, and then give those grieving the time they need to gain strength. Grief doesn’t go away in a certain amount of scripted time. There is a season for grieving, for there is a time for every purpose under heaven.
• If the one grieving is a member here, we can help by providing food and loving service for a meal following the funeral, if desired. We just had a wonderful team do this for the family of Dorothy Campbell on Friday.
• We can support the family (if we are unable to attend the funeral), by going to the viewing, if there is one.
• And, (this is a big one for me), we can support the family and express our unity as the Body of Christ by coming to the funeral itself. Now some may say, “I didn’t really know him – or know her,” and then choose not to come. (Or we convince ourselves that a funeral is really a private event, only for those really close to the family.) No! The ones living are grieving – and the more people from the church family who come to sit & pray & sing & honor a life by taking the time to listen to stories about the one who has died – the more unified & blessed we become as a true church family. The Scripture tells us to “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”

Listen with me to these words from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Okay, so here’s the deal: We must grieve when someone has died. We must allow ourselves to grieve – it’s important for our overall physical, emotional, mental, & spiritual health. However, as Christians we certainly shouldn’t be grieving in the same way that a non-Christian grieves. We must not grieve as those who have no hope in what comes next! Because, according to the Scriptures, according to what we have learned throughout this series and in our own personal Bible study, we know that those who have died already are in heaven right now with the Lord. They are not in their final resurrected body form – but they are in some recognizable form (or the 3 disciples who saw Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration wouldn’t have known who they were!). They are in a wonderful place of joy & perfect peace.
Are they sitting in pews singing songs all day long as an eternal expression of worship? No! But they are worshipping God with all that they are, in whatever they are doing, they are worshipping God by loving & serving Him and one another. (That’s what we are supposed to do 24/7 too, you know. Worship isn’t just what happens in this hour. True worship is living your life for the glory of the Lord 24/7 – when others are watching you and when no one is watching you.) So, our loved ones are right now in heaven, worshipping God, in some powerful, imperishable, recognizable, spiritual body.
When Jesus returns with that great call of the archangel and the sound of the trumpet, those who already died will receive their permanent body that will be perfect for living on the new earth in and around the new, glorious, transparently golden city of Jerusalem with its gates of pearl, its walls shining with beautiful jewels, and its shining river of life running through the great street of the city.
Because those who already died will have been waiting for their new bodies longer, they get to get them first! Those who are still alive on earth when Jesus returns will then be raised up and reunited with those who preceded us to heaven, and together we will meet the Lord in the air to be with him and with each other forever!
The apostle Paul says then, “therefore encourage one another with these words.” Remind each other, especially those who are grieving, with the words of life. Remind each other that one day you will be together again with those you love. Remind each other that we must be vigilant in sharing the Good News of the Gospel so that all those whom God has put into our sphere of influence may know the truth and be given eternal life in heaven. We do not grieve as those who have no hope.
You should know that when I write my sermons, I never know how they are going to come out. I don’t have an outline when I begin. What I have is whatever material the Lord gets into my hands in the weeks preceding a sermon through my reading, my study & through life experiences. When I sit down to write, usually on Friday mornings, I trust I have whatever I need to do my best for the Lord. I’m always amazed how the Lord ties things together throughout the whole process. This week was a little different in that I didn’t get to the final writing of the sermon until Friday evening after getting home from Dorothy’s funeral.
As I was led to the passage I just read from 1 Thessalonians, I read it in the New Revised Standard Version. Then God led me to read it again according to Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Scripture, The Message. Here it is:
And regarding the question, friends, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don’t want you in the dark any longer. First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.
And then this: We can tell you with complete confidence—we have the Master’s word on it—that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they’ll be ahead of us. The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He’ll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they’ll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words.

When I saw the words, “family reunion,” I was stunned how the Lord was choosing in that moment of sermon preparation to encourage me. In this Penn State football season when I knew I couldn’t go to the games (or the family reunion as Kim McCurdy pointed out) in State College because of my grief, the Lord led me to this version of this passage to remind me (and all of us) that a much bigger & better family reunion is on the way.
So, yesterday, I went to the game. It was hard. But I did it. And I was reminded of a wonderful teaching video we have that will wrap this sermon series up in a way I never expected. For a few minutes, we’re going to watch Ray Vander Lann teach a group of travelers in Israel a wonderful way to think about those who have gone before us. He uses a coliseum as his setting, and the picture of those running a race as the metaphor for living our lives here faithfully and passionately for Christ. As I sat in the stands yesterday in Beaver Stadium, I know it’s a far cry from a ruined coliseum – but the image of some people cheering in the stands, and others on the field of play in the whole Kingdom in heaven and on earth, carried over in a powerful way for me – and I hope for you.
May God help us run alongside each other, encouraging each other along the way – all the way to Heaven! Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

11-04-2007