“Heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world.”

For most Christians, the focus of faith is to make sure that we go to heaven when we die.  There are “the saved” and “the lost.”  The saved have prayed a prayer, asked Jesus in their heart, and can now just wait patiently until they die.

I find that this language, while sounding spiritual, is woefully deficient in describing the reality of what salvation is and what it means here and now.  Finding new ways to describe it is difficult, but I think the apostle Paul can help a bit.

In Ephesians 5:14, Paul quotes what seems to be a hymn that the early Christians would sing:

“Wake up, sleeper,
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

If you examine the New Testament, especially the end of the gospels, you’ll find that there was little concern about going to heaven when we die.  The resurrection of Jesus meant much more than that.  A new world has dawned, God’s kingdom has arrived “on earth as it is in heaven,” and those who have been awakened to this reality are now given a mission:  to announce the kingdom to those who still sleep.

The problem with the old language is twofold.  One, we become lazy, because what more needs to be done?  I’m good to go, so I’ll just wait here, thankyouverymuch.  Following Jesus is optional.  How I live and what I believe can be two different things.  Secondly, we have little care for the outsider, the “lost”.  Instead of engaging them as fellow human beings, we treat them as projects – people who haven’t prayed the prayer yet.

I like the language of waking up, because it’s rich in imagery.  The death and resurrection of Jesus becomes a model for what happens in us – we die to sin (and death) and find a new reality.  Everything else was a dream compared to the experiences that follow.  We emerge out of the darkness and into the light and truth of Jesus.  Some of us wake up rather quickly, while some of us struggled to make it out of bed, pulling the sheets over our heads anytime the light hit us.

The reality of resurrection is the promise of a brand new day, a day full of potential, a day where there’s work to be done.  Our faith enlivens us to live a life that finds an overlap in heaven and earth.  We pray and live as Jesus taught:

“Your name be hallowed on earth as it is in heaven.
Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

How did you come to wake up and notice that the sun had risen? How is today different because you’re awake?