What Happens After We Die?

#AskAPastor

• 17th Sunday After Pentecost

with 1 Corinthians 15:35-49

www.FirstChurchBville.com   @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk

• #AskAPastor: “What Happens After We Die?”

•  15 years ago USA and world entered new era as nearly 3K died in terrorist attacks. As I say at every wedding, sin came into the world through the devil’s deception, and human beings have carried it on since then.
We live in a world racked by violence.

Even when death is natural, our lives are upset.
When a friend loses a loved one, what do you do?
What do you say?

Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying
Nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.

One of the powerful things about death is that there is nothing we can do about it, it is not under our control, and we hate not being in control. You can define death scientifically, you can discuss it philosophically, you can read books about it or watch movies about it, but it remains surrounded by a shroud of mystery.

• But, some things we know: It is inescapable.
Death will happen to every one of us.

• Christians believe there is life beyond death, that there is something about us, an individual soul or spirit which lives on.
We vary on the specifics, but in general, it is believed that this soul, created by God, is immortal, that after death this part of us remains conscious, and that we in fact are endowed with some kind of new body.

For the faithful, in addition to receiving peace and rest, that soul remains in God’s presence forever, which is very desirable. (see Philippians 1:21-26 For to me, living is Christ, and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.)

• Some other thoughts on the desirability of heaven:
No handicapped parking in heaven (because no need).
No wheelchairs. No glasses (maybe sunglasses).
No streetlights. No lawyers! No hospitals. No churches.

The list goes on.

Yet many people are defined by what they do.
Pastor. That’s who I am.
Nurse. Craftsman.

New definition: not what you do, but who you are.
Whose you are. Beloved child of God.

• What will we look like? This week we learned of the death of Isabelle Dinoire, who received a partial face transplant in 2005. After a year she said, “It may be someone else’s face, but when I look in the mirror, I see me.”
There is something inside that is the “you” and the “me”.
The “living thing” from Puff the Magic Dragon.

Consider the butterfly. There are no baby butterflies, you know? All butterflies are adults from emergence. The adolescent butterfly is a caterpillar. Genetically identical, same DNA. Not different creatures at all. Old theory was egg, caterpillar, death, pause, reincarnation/resurrection into new critter.

Not exactly. Caterpillar, chrysalis, organs dissolve, most cells die, but some reorganize. “Imaginal discs,” present in the egg and caterpillar, consume the caterpillar soup and grow into the adult butterfly.

In fact, and amazingly, there’s some kind of memory transfer. Expose a caterpillar to, say, the scent of lemon, and then shock the caterpillar. It learns to avoid lemon. The same creature when it’s a butterfly retains the aversion. Its life continues though its form is very different.

• What will we look like? Perhaps as similar as caterpillar and butterfly, an acorn and a tree.

Yet risen Jesus had a body, was recognizable, ate… also went through walls…

Retain individuality, reflect God’s glory in every way, nothing to complain about.
All new.

• Hymn 707 from 1985 Hymn of Promise

1 Corinthians 15:35-49     (Common English Bible)

³⁵ But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?” ³⁶ Look, child! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t come back to life unless it dies. ³⁷ What you put in the ground doesn’t have the shape that it will have, but it’s a bare grain of wheat or some other seed. ³⁸ God gives it the sort of shape that he chooses, and he gives each of the seeds its own shape. ³⁹ All flesh isn’t alike. Humans have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind of flesh, birds have another kind of flesh, and fish have another kind. ⁴⁰ There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The heavenly bodies have one kind of glory, and the earthly bodies have another kind of glory. ⁴¹ The sun has one kind of glory, the moon has another kind of glory, and the stars have another kind of glory (but one star is different from another star in its glory).
⁴² It’s the same with the resurrection of the dead: a rotting body is put into the ground, but what is raised won’t ever decay. ⁴³ It’s degraded when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in glory. It’s weak when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in power. ⁴⁴ It’s a physical body when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised as a spiritual body.

If there’s a physical body, there’s also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So it is also written, The first human, Adam, became a living person, and the last Adam became a spirit that gives life. ⁴⁶ But the physical body comes first, not the spiritual one—the spiritual body comes afterward. ⁴⁷ The first human was from the earth made from dust; the second human is from heaven. ⁴⁸ The nature of the person made of dust is shared by people who are made of dust, and the nature of the heavenly person is shared by heavenly people. ⁴⁹ We will look like – that is, we will bear the image of the heavenly person in the same way as we have looked like the person made from dust. X