Free Ride to Heaven
After taking a friend home from church today, I drove past a large Baptist church here in Washington. The marquee sign in front proclaimed, "Free Ride to Heaven. Deatils inside." More than some cute marketing campaign, this statement raises some delicate theological questions.
First, what is heaven? Growing up I remembered being told that heaven was a place, beyond the clouds, where people go when they die. I actually remember at a funeral where a well meaning pastor told me that the reason I could see the deceased's whole body was because everything below her waist was already up in heaven waiting on her! A good twenty years later, with some science and theology courses under my belt, I chuckle at the thought of a heaven where there are lower extremities walking around awaiting their counterparts currently in limbo at the local funeral home. Even the most theologically un-orthodox would also state that heaven is the place where God resides. Seems simple enough. And 0n the surface, I don't disagree with this statement. The crux of this concept of heaven comes when we image the God who resides in such a heaven. Historically this has meant that the old man with the long white beard sits on a throne among the clouds. But if we stop for a moment, and reconsider our concepts of heaven, maybe we come to imagine God in a way which we have never before encountered.
Second, the idea that a ride to heaven is free makes me a little uneasy. While I suppose uneasiness is a good thing, a free ride to heaven is another. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it "cheap grace," and I believe the concept is helpful here. The life of faith is not like a blue light special at K-Mart in which everything good happens at once. Perhaps this is why I have a difficult time with a dateable conversion experience. For me, my life of faith has been a journey - with mountains and valleys and plains. Making something like a "ride to heaven" "free" makes it sounds as if something miraculous will happen the moment one walks through the doors of the church. If it were only that simple, those of us with a call to ministry would have the easiest jobs in the world. When God lures us into the human-divine relationship, God not only claims us as God's own, but we respond to God in a multitude of ways. It's not only about accepting Jesus into your life - that's only one part of the journey. Maybe I'm too Wesleyan in my ideas of salvation, but I've come to more deeply understand faith, deep faith, as something that is always a work in progress, never completed, always striving for perfection. Such a faith journey is never a "free ride."
Finally, for those that may understand salvation to be a single event in the course of one's life, the coercive nature of this marquee posting makes me wonder about the miracles that take place inside. I also wonder about those who inquire about the free ride - those with broken lives - suffering from relationship issues, drug and alcohol abuse, financial uncertainty - does God change their lives so immedaitely that they know for certain that they have won a "free ride to heaven?" Or do they continue to struggle with the contexts in which they find themselves and at the same time wrestle with God? Are they welcomed into the institution of the church because they are "saved" or are they welcomed to join fellow pilgrims on a journey?
First, what is heaven? Growing up I remembered being told that heaven was a place, beyond the clouds, where people go when they die. I actually remember at a funeral where a well meaning pastor told me that the reason I could see the deceased's whole body was because everything below her waist was already up in heaven waiting on her! A good twenty years later, with some science and theology courses under my belt, I chuckle at the thought of a heaven where there are lower extremities walking around awaiting their counterparts currently in limbo at the local funeral home. Even the most theologically un-orthodox would also state that heaven is the place where God resides. Seems simple enough. And 0n the surface, I don't disagree with this statement. The crux of this concept of heaven comes when we image the God who resides in such a heaven. Historically this has meant that the old man with the long white beard sits on a throne among the clouds. But if we stop for a moment, and reconsider our concepts of heaven, maybe we come to imagine God in a way which we have never before encountered.
Second, the idea that a ride to heaven is free makes me a little uneasy. While I suppose uneasiness is a good thing, a free ride to heaven is another. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it "cheap grace," and I believe the concept is helpful here. The life of faith is not like a blue light special at K-Mart in which everything good happens at once. Perhaps this is why I have a difficult time with a dateable conversion experience. For me, my life of faith has been a journey - with mountains and valleys and plains. Making something like a "ride to heaven" "free" makes it sounds as if something miraculous will happen the moment one walks through the doors of the church. If it were only that simple, those of us with a call to ministry would have the easiest jobs in the world. When God lures us into the human-divine relationship, God not only claims us as God's own, but we respond to God in a multitude of ways. It's not only about accepting Jesus into your life - that's only one part of the journey. Maybe I'm too Wesleyan in my ideas of salvation, but I've come to more deeply understand faith, deep faith, as something that is always a work in progress, never completed, always striving for perfection. Such a faith journey is never a "free ride."
Finally, for those that may understand salvation to be a single event in the course of one's life, the coercive nature of this marquee posting makes me wonder about the miracles that take place inside. I also wonder about those who inquire about the free ride - those with broken lives - suffering from relationship issues, drug and alcohol abuse, financial uncertainty - does God change their lives so immedaitely that they know for certain that they have won a "free ride to heaven?" Or do they continue to struggle with the contexts in which they find themselves and at the same time wrestle with God? Are they welcomed into the institution of the church because they are "saved" or are they welcomed to join fellow pilgrims on a journey?
posted by Chett Pritchett at
3:47 PM
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