This sermons grows out of my reading Rob Bell's Love Wins. Bell tackles the question of eternal life in some interesting ways. I resonate with his sense that Christians have put too much emphasis on "Are you saved?" instead of "Am I following the Savior?" (my words, not his). I also like his suggestion that believing in the sovereignty of God might mean believing that when God says Christ comes to redeem the world God will be true to that despite human sinfulness.
I have been listening to the soundtrack from the musical "Big River" (another Clergy Renewal thing because I was reminded of how much I loved those songs when I had lunch with the friend who first gave me that tape). The musical, which follows Huckleberry Finn's adventures, has a great song that has everyone in town asking Huck Finn "Do you want to get to heaven," and if he does he needs to learn to read and write or he'll "never learn how" to get to heaven. I suspect that historically lots of things have been suggested for others to do so that they can get to heaven.
It also occurs to me that the judgmental side of humans make us like the question of eternal life because it can serve as a way to separate -- they're out, but of course, we're in!
The rich young ruler asks Jesus a question about eternal life and Jesus returns the question with a challenge that most of us cannot meet -- not only obey all the commandments, but sell everything and give it to the poor. In a way, Jesus seems to be leading us into the trap of creating hoops to jump through to get to heaven. On the other hand, his tone and demeanor suggest that he will keep raising the demand until it becomes obvious that no one can achieve eternal life, at least of their own accord. Maybe, just maybe, that allows us to hear and claim the grace of God that sends Christ to save sinners, to save even us.
Peace,
Richard
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