Some time ago a
person who is not a member of our church asked me what my thoughts were on
apocatastasis. Now, maybe you use that
word on a daily basis, and if you do, good for you… I guess. But I replied that the first thing I have to
do is to look up what apocatastasis means!
Now I could have pulled out my phone
and looked it up, but I was hesitant. In
matters of theological terms I don’t trust Google. I like to turn to stodgy old textbooks and
dictionaries. Google is too often wrong,
and also other books are often wrong.
This may seem like an aside, but it
will be relevant in a couple minutes, with all our Reformation celebrations in
the last few months I saw a posting in the Sunday School wing about the five
solas in Lutheran thinking, and they were linked to the Luther’s Rose
symbol. Five solas? No.
There are only three: sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura. Grace alone, faith alone, scripture
alone. But online people will tell you
there are five. They add Christ alone,
and sola deo gloria, which means, “To God alone be the glory.” And not just online. I’ve seen a children’s book that lists five
also.
You have to be able to go to the raw
sources if you want to be right. Even
Wikipedia notes that the extra two solas are not supportable.
Anyhow, so I turn my Handbook of
Theological Terms to apocatastasis and read this, “a Greek word referring to
the final and complete salvation of all beings.
It suggests universal redemption or universalism.” The idea developed in Christianity in the
second century by church leaders who could not believe that if God was loving
he wouldn’t condemn anyone to eternal punishment. In other words, everyone goes to heaven
regardless. This is a key teaching in
the Unitarian Universalist Church.
The idea of apocatastasis is both
supported by scripture and rejected by scripture. In support we have passages like Ephesians
1:9-10, “With all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of
his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ as a plan
for the fullness of time, to gather up
all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
But of course
there are other passages like our gospel reading today. Some go to heaven. Some go to eternal punishment. The Matthew scene is a frightening one. But what is perhaps the most disconcerting
about it is that it contradicts the idea of the three solas: grace alone, faith
alone, scripture alone. From the Matthew
text it looks like not only is it all about doing the right works to earn God’s
pleasure, things like grace and faith have no part! If all we had was Jesus’ words in Matthew
we’d have to teach that salvation come exclusively by helping the poor and
needy. That is a mess too!
After doing a bit
of research I got back to this person saying I don’t know. (How’s that for a professional
answer!?!) And truthfully we don’t
know. It is God’s business, not our own. In regards to salvation this is what we
teach. We know we are loved by God and
we live in confidence in that love. That
confidence drives and shapes our lives.
As for those who from our perspective appear to be outside of God’s
love, or who reject God’s love, we just can’t speak. As St. Paul wrote, “It is God who
justifies. Who is to condemn?”
So how should we
understand Jesus’ teaching in our gospel?
Commentator Eugene Boring says that we should not force our gospel writer
Matthew to be more consistent than he is.
We spent the first half of this year reading through Matthew’s gospel
and you may remember that it is full of contradictions. In fact, teaching in contradictions is a
technique often used in ancient Hebrew thought.
That doesn’t do much for you if you want a concrete answer, but some
things don’t have concrete answers.
If someone asks
you, do you believe in universal salvation; or do you believe God eternally
punishes some people for their wrongdoing on earth? they’re actually asking an
entrapping question. They’ve gotten the
whole idea of life and salvation wrong.
My kids used to
like playing Mario Kart with a neighbor boy.
And if you’re familiar with that game there are twelve competitors in
each race. The fastest six characters
seem happy and cheer when the race is over.
The slowest six seem sad and moan and groan. The neighbor boy used to call it the, “happy
cut.” If you at least made the top six
you should be happy.
Questions like
heaven and hell and who goes where make an artificial distinction. They’re asking who made the happy cut. And being the humans we are, we’re going to
try to leverage it.
I remember guys
in college asking, “What’s the least I can do yet still get a passing
grade?” That’s missing the point of the
course! The point of the course is not about
passing. The point of the course is to
learn and to be effective. Passing or
failing just shows whether you understand the material or not.
Life is not about
doing the minimal amount necessary to get to heaven. Life is about knowing you are loved by God,
and then you live out that love.
In the weakness
of our faith I think we all ask ourselves the heaven or hell question. But a deepening and maturing faith stops
asking the question, because it isn’t a real distinction at all. Simply trust God and live in that trust. God will work out the rest. Live in trust and all the judgment stuff that
Jesus talked about in our gospel reading will automatically be taken care
of. The faithful ones even answer Jesus
that they didn’t know that what they were doing was actually serving him.
Thanksgiving was
last Thursday and I asked myself what I am thankful for. I can list a lot of things, but central to
the things I am thankful for are things like my ability to work, my ability to
learn, and my ability to grow. I realize
that the things I value the most in life are not things that have come cheap or
been free. They are things I have worked
and worked hard to have. Somehow in
working for something you invest a part of yourself in it. Because of that you appreciate it more. If I were to win the Publishers Clearing
House sweepstakes I don’t know what I’d do with the money. Many people would be thrilled to be able to
buy just about anything they wanted for the rest of their lives. I don’t think I’d be so happy. I’d have lost appreciation for all that I
get. It wouldn’t cost anything.
I think our
ability to work and to earn and to grow are actually examples of God’s
grace. God doesn’t make life easy for
us. That would deny us appreciation, and
it would make our lives meaningless.
If God
miraculously solved all the world’s problems simply because we prayed about
them then this would be a pretty pointless life. Instead we have meaningful work to do. It costs us.
It hurts us sometimes. We do
things right and we do things wrong. We
don’t see that work as getting us to heaven and keeping us from hell. That work is shaping our identity and making
us stronger and deeper.
May you do for
others not for the purpose of buying God’s favor so you make the happy cut after
you die. May you do for others because
you realize God has empowered you to do for others, and like God, you do not
overlook the broken parts of the world around you.
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