Beyond the Grave.....

My mind has turned recently, in an entirely non-morbid way, to one of the biggest topics of all: life and death.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave
Awaits alike th'inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

So wrote Thomas Gray over 260 years ago in his ‘Elegy Written in a County Churchyard’.

He was entirely right. Regardless of how we live our lives they end in the same way: all paths alike lead to the grave. Much ink has been spilled and many words have been spoken, reflecting on what might lie beyond. With various degrees of certainty heaven, hell, bliss or oblivion have been promoted by preachers, philosophers and magazine columnists. Martyrs have endured the flames, suicide bombers have strapped on their vests of destiny and quieter souls have bowed their heads in prayer, each in the hope of a greater life after death.

What lies beyond the final closing of our eyes none can know for certain. Faith promises a gateway to eternal life, scepticism suggests an end of the road. Either way, there is nothing I can do about the reality of it. No amount of faith will alter my final demise if all that I am comes to and end at death; no amount of scepticism will obliterate God if the presence of God awaits me. How strange it is then that I should ever allow myself to treat the question of life after death as if it were a fantastically difficult version of a Rubik’s Cube that I ought to be able to solve if only I were to think long enough and hard enough about it.

All of this suggests that I ought to concentrate on something that I can do something about: life before death.

‘God is love’ wrote St John; ‘love is all you need’ wrote John Lennon.  If St John is right so too is John Lennon. What this means for me is that I can spend considerably less time thinking about the other side of the grave and considerably more time determining how I will live this side of the grave.

As Thomas Gray observed centuries before the advent of our empty celebrity culture, nothing of substance will remain of our fame, riches or ambition. What might remain on earth, if we are truly blessed, will be lasting memories in a few hearts of love that we gave and love that we shared.  To hell with the rest……

The Great Bible Fraud

This week, I came across a group of people offering passers-by a free booklet entitled. ‘What the Bible Really Teaches’.  I was hit with a mixture of anger, sorrow and irritation.  The individuals looked perfectly pleasant and, as far as I could tell, had no idea that they were engaging in spiritual fraud. Harsh words, I know, but I believe justified.

In claiming that the Bible teaches anything and that they were able to discern what that teaching is, the group of evangelists were unjustifiably crediting both themselves and the Bible with accomplishments and qualities that do not exist.

In the first instance, it ought to be blatantly obvious that there are myriads of interpretations of the Bible; for any group to believe that they have got it entirely right is stunningly arrogant and narrow-minded. Of course, everyone is entitled to argue the rightness of their interpretation and the wrongness of everyone else’s, but can we really take seriously such a grandiose claim?  It would be merely ridiculous if not for the fact that many vulnerable people constantly fall prey to such absolute claims and end up in bondage to others, afraid to question whatever orthodoxy is being peddled in case they fall foul of whatever version of God is being promoted.

Even more pernicious than a group claiming to have all the truth is the idea that the Bible teaches anything.  The Bible is not a person.  If we say that the Bible ‘teaches’ we enter the realms of idolatry (or for those who don’t believe in God, the realms of fanciful fundamentalism).  If God exists, as I believe God does, and if God has revealed God-self in and through some of the experiences of the ancient Israelites, culminating in the great self-revelation in Jesus, it is God who teaches us, not the Bible.

This is not simply splitting hairs.  It seems to be part of human nature to want both to take short-cuts to achieving what we most desire while, if at all possible, wielding as much power and influence over others as we can.  I believe that the Bible contains invaluable truths and that we can learn invaluable lessons from God as we read it, but it is not something out of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings; it has no ‘magic’ or ‘power’ in itself. With genuine respect to my atheist and agnostic friends, I believe that all truth is God’s truth and that God desires us to seek and to discover the truth; it does not come pre-packed on a plate or in a tome and it is certainly not restricted to the pages of a booklet (or the utterances of preachers) claiming to know ‘What the Bible Really Teaches’