https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKZiUKChVRM

What are you gonna do When That Meat Wagon Comes For You?
(I'm mixing throw-back Thursday with meddling Miercoles.)

Or, to put it into more genteel vernacular, what do you think Heaven is really going to be like? Jesus says that in His Father’s house are many mansions. Taking a look at our earthly congregations you’d think Heaven is going to have a Baptist mansion, a Catholic mansion, an Anglican mansion, a Pentecostal mansion, a Hispanic mansion, an African mansion, etc. The old folks will be in the South Florida mansion keeping the kids off the lawn. The liberals will be in the Magic Kingdom mansion (forgive me, that was a cheap shot). The social conservatives will be in the all Caucasian all the time mansion. . . . You get my point.

Having said that, let me clarify something. I have two views of the plethora of Christian denominations. Roman Catholics consider all Protestants to be heretics and schismatics. They conveniently forget that the Eastern Orthodox considers them to be the same. I’m not criticizing either the Catholics, Protestants or the Orthodox. I only use the example to illustrate the general opinion that the multitude of different denominations is a result of rebellion against “True Christianity”. There is some truth to that opinion but I don’t hold that it is the only reason. I also opine that, just as it take billions of people to express God’s diversity of creation, so to it can take thousands of flavors of Christianity to express His love for them.

Never the less, why is it so difficult for each of us to reach across cultural divides to our brothers and sisters? Do we think we don’t need them? Do we really think that Heaven is going to be like “our” church, only better? Or, do we have the notion buried in the back of our mind that when we cross that river and get to the other side that we will be suddenly transformed, not only in body but also in mind and heart? Where Jesus sprinkles forget-me dust on us and all of our prejudices, opinions and attachments to the world will magically disappear?  

I don’t have an answer to that one but I tend to lean very strongly in the direction of CS Lewis and George MacDonald in the belief of God’s severe mercy. Not severe in the sense that we will be punished for our sins, Jesus already paid that price, but more in the sense of the difficulty each of will have in letting go of everything we found comfort with in this life. For some it may be a trial as if by fire.

So, what are you gonna do when that meat wagon comes for you?

If God’s Heaven is going to be populated with billions of diverse people with billions of different life experiences and stories it seems to me that our transition will be a lot easier if we begin to live out Jesus command to love one another in the here and now.