Eternity Sunday

Immortality?

One of the interesting appeals about Christianity is eternal life. Immortality. Living forever and never dying. This Sunday (21 November) in Germany is called "Ewigkeitssonntag," or "Eternity Sunday." It is normally a very solemn day, memorializing those who have passed away in the previous year. In the Liturgical Calendar used by the German Protestant Church, the Scripture passage is taken from Isaiah 65:17-25. It is a very famous passage and a beautiful Hebrew poem and prophecy. God through the prophet is speaking:

Look! I'm creating a new heaven and a new earth: past events won't be remembered; they won't come to mind.

Be glad and rejoice forever in what I'm creating, because I'm creating Jerusalem as a joy and her people as a source of gladness.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad about my people. No one will ever hear the sound of weeping or crying in it again.

No more will babies live only a few days, or the old fail to live out their days. The one who dies at a hundred will be like a young person, and the one falling short of a hundred will seem cursed.

They will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They won't build for others to live in, nor plant for others to eat. Like the days of a tree will be the days of my people; my chosen will make full use of their handiwork.

They won't labor in vain, nor bear children to a world of horrors, because they will be people blessed by the LORD, they along with their descendants.

Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear.

Wolf and lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the snake - its food will be dust. They won't hurt or destroy at any place on my holy mountain, says the LORD.

Jerusalem
Photo by Haley Black from Pexels

I always like looking at the context for why a particular Scripture passage was written. Isaiah was written by at least 2, if not 3 authors. The first author, most likely Isaiah himself, wrote the first 39 chapters. The second half of Isaiah then suddenly shifts tone, speech, and context to another era. This is what we have here. The author, writing in the style of the original Isaiah, was looking forward to the return to Jerusalem and the peace that God would give them.

We have this beautiful imagery of the wolf eating grass with a lamb and a lion sleeping peacefully with an ox. This is a paradox we know does not happen in real life. The lion would definitely attack the ox, given a chance, and wolves prey on unsuspecting lambs. However, that is the beauty in this image:  Returning to Jerusalem would start this era of peace and Jerusalem would live up to the meaning of its name:  the City of Peace.

This peace, beautifully expressed in Hebrew and also in Arabic, does not mean only the absence of war, but of wellness, contentment, and wholeness. In Hebrew, as in Arabic, when someone asks you, "How are you doing?", they actually ask them:  "How is your peace?"

What does this have to do with immortality?

Not a thing.

If you read this passage, this is not a prophecy about the End Times. This isn't about Jesus' Second Coming. The writer of this passage knew nothing of Jesus at all. We Christians tend to superimpose images of Jesus on passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that had nothing to do with Jesus at all. There is precedent for this. Even the writer of the Gospel of Matthew misquotes Isaiah 7:14, misattributing this verse to Jesus, when it had absolutely nothing to do with Jesus.

There is no talk of "eternal life." In fact, the writer speaks of death, of people living to the ripe old age of 100.

This Scripture passage does talk about a new heaven and earth, but "heaven" in this case was not a kingdom of God. "Heaven" in Hebrew was synonymous with the sky. It wasn't like Mount Olympus, where the gods reigned.

What I do love about this passage is that it gives us hope for right now, something that we can accomplish with God's help:  a new Heaven and a new Earth. Heaven isn't a ticket for us to gain when we die, the Kingdom of God is for us to build right now on this Earth.

If we fail to do this, if we fail to bring peace to this Earth through the love of God by loving our neighbors, we have missed the whole message of Jesus and this passage from Isaiah.

Mea Culpa

Recently I have had to examine my own life. Am I doing everything I can to build God's Kingdom on Earth? Am I loving my neighbor like Jesus commanded me to do? I have to admit it.  Not always. I have failed many times. There have been times when I could have done better, loved a little more, brought a kind word instead of a harsh tone. For that, I can only ask for forgiveness.

And Immortality?

I don't know for certain if it exists. If you ask me if I believe in an afterlife with God forever, sometimes I can say "yes, most definitely." Other times, I am not so certain. What spurs me on, though, is the knowledge that it is my responsibility to bring God's Kingdom here on Earth, whether or not an eternal life is guaranteed to me.

Even if I were to die and ultimately cease to exist, with no one but my family, my sons, and my loved ones to remember me:  I will still serve God.

Even if there is no immortality.

Even if I cease to exist when I die.

Even if God does not really exist, I will bring peace to this world by loving others and following the teachings of Jesus.

My friends and acquaintances who are devout Christians might shudder at that. They would probably even say I am not a Christian at all.

I don't care.

I love God. I will serve God by bringing peace to this world.