THE KIRK OF KILDAIRE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

CARY, NC

www.kirkofkildaire.org

A sermon preached by Joseph Welker, Jr.

What Happens When You Die?

1 Corinthians 15:12-22 and 35-45

February 11, 2007

Last week I quoted a minister as saying, How is it when you're pastoring that you can't get to the people in trouble because of the troublesome people. I was talking about troublesome people in the church in Corinth… but let us not forget that also in that church were Christians who were troubled. Troubled by questions… dealing with doubt… looking for answers to life's most perplexing questions.

Today we overhear them asking basic and perplexing questions I hear people ask all the time. To put it simply, What happens when you die? The Corinthians asked it at least two ways:Paul, is there a resurrection of the dead? Or is this all there is? Paul, if there is a resurrection of the dead, how will the dead be raised? What kind of body will we have in heaven?

I'm guessing these were not theoretical questions from a college classroom, but real life questions born of the pain of having lost loved ones. Perhaps some had even suffered or died for having professed faith in Christ. Perhaps others simply died what we call a natural death. The letter is written about 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In the early years I doubt many were asking the question because to be honest, they thought Christ would return to end the world as we know it and to bring in the world of love and life as God promised. And they would live happily ever after. But 20 years have passed and that has not happened. So naturally, the questions about death and the afterlife begin to surface.

I've been thinking about those questions myself the last couple of weeks. Before heading off to my sermon study group, a young woman Stephanie who had visited the Kirk with her family died suddenly and unexpectedly. 35 years old. Husband and children left behind. Leaving behind lots of questions. While away I heard of the sudden death of Tom Zaliagaris-a member of the church I served in Newton. Tom played basketball for the Tarheels and was once the co-captain with Phil Ford. He checked into the hospital and 10 hours later he was dead. Even my friend Ken, his doctor who has seen quite a lot seemed a bit surprised by this death. While away I received an email asking for prayers for the mother and family of a three month old who died after being born prematurely. I received a request for prayer for the family of the serviceman who died in the helicopter crash off of San Diego. All leaving lots of questions.

And even if the death is not tragic or sudden… sooner or later it comes to all of us…. All of us. This came home to me while spending two days with my 89 year old dad in a retirement facility in Jacksonville. I ate meals at Riverside Presbyterian House and saw members of my home church who were my dad's peers… now coming to the end of their journey. While home I enjoyed reconnecting with those who had raised me in the faith…. but also a humbling time where you realize that even if you live 90 or 100 years… the end is still the same for all of us. You die.

And then the questions you try to keep below the surface because we prefer living in denial to dealing with death… those questions arise. Questions not too different from the ones the Corinthians ask:Is there a resurrection of the dead? Is there life after death? If there is, what is life like after death? Do we have bodies? What kind of bodies? These are not Christian questions… these are human questions. TV shows like Ghost Whisperer tap in the yearning for some after life in all of us.

That we have these questions is natural it seems to me. We are people who have been taught that seeing is believing and life after death is beyond our sight. Now we see in a mirror dimly is the way Paul put it. We may even wonder if when our time comes if we will have enough faith to deal with our questions.

I like the story about the skeptic who was talking to his friend Carlyle Marney, one of the great preachers of the last century. "I just can't believe the resurrection. I want to, but in this day of modern science, I can't trust in life after death." With great calmness, Marney answered, "Who told you that you have to believe it today?" "What do you mean?" the friend asked. "If I don't have to believe it today, when do I have to believe it?" "On the day you die," Marney said, "or on the day you die with someone else"

Marney was saying that faith becomes real when you need it. If you don't believe now in the miracle of life after death, if you don't know that God is going to carry you to a new and joyous life, don't fret. You will believe it the day you die or the day you emotionally die with someone else." [1]

I hear Paul trying to comfort those first Christians in the same way-giving them assurance as they deal with their questions. For Paul the answers to questions about death and the afterlife are discovered in the heart of our faith-the story of the death and resurrection of Christ.

Simply put, if Christ is raised from the dead so will we be raised. The resurrection of Christ is the first sign that we will receive that gift from God… "For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ".

Later in answering the question about what kind of Body will we have in heaven, he turns to nature… our bodies in heaven will not look like our bodies on earth. A seed does not look like a tree does it? And if you are like my dad, you really don't want an 89 year old body in heaven anyway, do you? No, Paul says, we have a spiritual body… that is a body that is appropriate for heaven. A fish has a body designed to live in the ocean. A bird has a body designed to live in the air. So God will give us a body that is designed to live with God… a body designed to experience the full joy of living in heaven for eternity.

Can we prove any of this? How does Paul know? As a friend of mine said, anytime we talk about the next life we are reading into the unknown. It can't be proven. Neither can we prove many of the precious things in life. We can't prove that a Beethoven Symphony is beautiful or that love exists. Someone has said, "To one who believes, no argument is necessary; to one who does not believe, no argument is sufficient." Some things we know without proof or understanding. We don't argue with Beethoven about an eight-tone scale. He is the master. Nor do we argue with Einstein about math. Likewise, we have no need to argue with Christ who is the master of such things as faith. Christ lived closer to God than anyone we know. And concerning death he promised (that he would prepare rooms for us in heaven). We simply trust him. Mrs Einstein was once asked if she understood the theory of relativity. "Of course not," she replied. "Then how do you know it's true?" they asked. "Because I know Mr. Einstein. "We may not understand all the things (Paul or) our Lord tells us about life after death. The concepts and symbols may be too much for us. But we can trust because we know Christ…" [2]

And since Christ rose from the dead, after this life is over, so shall we. That is our faith. That is our hope. Believing that can help us die without fear.

Someone asked a six year old child as she was hurrying out to play, "What does Easter mean to you?" She smiled and replied, "It means the Easter bunny will bring me a basket of candy. I will get a new dress." He asked a sixteen year old boy, who said, "It means that Christ rose from the dead." In search for a better answer, he asked a sixty year old man. "It means I have just begun to live." [3]

One of the gifts Christ would give us is to help us deal with our doubts, our fears about death so that we can begin to live now. Faith in resurrection frees us. Faith in resurrection helps us deal with the darkest of our days. Faith as someone said, is the ability to walk in the dark and remember the sunshine.

Paul believed in resurrection because be believed the God who loved us would care for us not only in this life but in the life to come. And that helped him face the unknown with a sense of peace.

I heard a story that says it well. Fire swept through the house. As the family gathered outside, they missed Jon. Without thinking, dad ran back inside. By the time he found eight-year-old Jon, the front of the house was engulfed in flames. They both pushed back into a corner. Suddenly, a section of the floor fell in and dad remembered a window in the basement. He jumped down into the dark.
Looking up from the basement below he saw his son silhouetted against the flames. "Jump, son" he cried."But I can't see you, dad." "It's okay, son, I can see you. Jump!" [4]

That is our hope. Not that we can see our way through death, but that God can see us. In fact in Christ, God has gone before us to show us the way… and to conquer death for us… and our fear of death, so we can find the peace to live fully today.

Ed Pickard had such a faith. Ed was the pastor of the White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh for years. Many of you knew Ed and he was your pastor. Last fall Ed died after a long and difficult time of illness at Glenaire. I visited with Ed a few times and I was always amazed at the sense of peace he seemed to possess. At his funeral, one of the people who knew him well shared the story of the time Helen, his wife, died years earlier. She was in the hospital and he was there in her room at the moment of her death. After Helen died, in a tender act of love, he went over to her bed, leaned over her and kissed her on the cheek and said, "Honey, have a nice trip."

Ed knew that his wife was okay. At peace. And that gave him peace. Now they are enjoying eternity together. Thanks to God's love and the resurrection of Christ from the dead. The God who promises us that because Christ lives, we shall also live. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

[1] Heaven Knows, Kate by Tom L Are p. 5-6
[2] Ibid p 10
[3] p 11
[4] Ibid p 19