Expansion

We are told by astrophysicists that our universe began with the explosion of something smaller than an atom. A universe that is measured in billions of galaxies (each containing up to at least a billion stars) and trillions of miles should create in us a gigantic sense of awe and wonder. And to think it all began with something smaller than an atom. Contemplating such immensity often brings humans to an acute sense of their own finitude and mortality. We cannot help but ask questions and wonder about what may happen to us and those we love after we breathe our last.

I don’t know what to expect as far as the details and processes that come after that last minute in this life. Deep down I know I need to trust God with my death just like I need to trust God with my life. I don’t expect mansions (based on an erroneous translation by the King James Version of John 14:2), Pearly Gates, or streets of gold. And I certainly don’t anticipate receiving wings (although since childhood I have envied the fun birds must have when soaring through the air. What little boy has not wanted to fly like Superman? Even at 70 I still fly in my dreams.) And neither do I expect an eternal worship service similar to what we experience in this life.

My hope is that with that transition God will hold me in those “everlasting arms” and encompass me with unconditional and joyful love so that every part of me that has been closed to such a compassionate embrace may finally be healed and, like the prodigal son, come home. And at some point, I expect God to say something like this: “Ron, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” (By the way, I expect every person and every part of creation to experience and to be healed by this unconditional love. The “timing” of such a transformation is in the hands of God and will not violate our freedom to choose. But I have to ask which is greater—our puny, stingy, pathetic, stubborn rebellion or God’s amazing grace? I’m betting on God’s amazing grace because I know deep down that’s my only hope.)

One of my favorite images of God is that of an Eternal Spring. A spring is always the same (in the sense that it’s there in one spot and continually gifting the world with fresh water). But that spring is also new every second of its existence. The new water from the spring is not the water offered just seconds before. I trust that God is an inexhaustible source of possibilities and expansion. Brian McLaren writes that he does not believe in eternal states. He believes in unending stories. I love the implications behind that statement. After death I expect all of us will continue to expand as God creates and offers new horizons. What part we will play in such an eternal expansion is not possible to imagine. But if Jesus is the key to understanding both the character of God and the destiny of humans and indeed all creation, then we can expect to continue to grow in love, joy, creativity, freedom, and beloved community. We need not fear that God will run out of new horizons or that we will “one day” reach our final expansion. If we did reach our final expansion, what more is there to expect and experience? That’s one reason McLaren says he believes in unending stories. Each one of us has a story and together we form many stories. God will one day weave all those stories together which will provide the space for new stories and more expansion. And the Spring continues to refresh, recreate, and bless.

Just like the universe began to expand from a tiny speck of something, so we were destined to expand from those first steps we took as a toddler. And just like that toddler had no concept of what might be possible after those first steps, neither do we have any idea of what kinds of expansion are possible with a God who is an Eternal Spring. And just like the toddler takes those first steps trusting the parent to be there to catch her as she falls and encourages her to try again, so we must trust God with our lives—both life in the here and now and life in the New Creation (which is this creation healed, liberated, and glorified). Love is the destiny of everything and trust is the path which allows us to discover and rediscover time and again how deep and inclusive God’s love truly is.

[The New Testament assumes that all of creation is destined for resurrection, healing, and wholeness. We humans will experience our resurrection, healing, and wholeness as a part of creation’s destiny. This perspective was lost in the West after the Great Schism between Western and Eastern (as in the Eastern Orthodox tradition) Christianity. Eastern Christianity never forgot this amazing truth. Western Christianity, beginning with Augustine, began to focus on individual salvation and the elevation of the spiritual over the physical. Perhaps this is one reason so much American Christianity has so little concern for the earth and ecology. If this world is just a temporary and disposable stage for us to live our lives until our bodies die and our “souls” can go to heaven, then why care about the earth?

But what if this universe is also included in a cosmic resurrection? What if this universe is our eternal home destined for transformation and healing? The New Testament hopes for “a New Heaven and a New Earth”—not a few souls snatched from death and spending eternity as disembodied spirits. There are prominent theologians who have written and are writing today about this way of understanding what has traditionally been called eschatology. One of them, an Anglican priest named John Polkinghorne, is also a quantum physicist who taught at the Cambridge University in England. A lot of exciting work is being done in the area of eschatology—most of which, unfortunately, has not filtered down to the pulpit or the pew.]

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