Heaven

Earlier this week, my spouse (in that knowing-someone-intimately-way) told me – not observed or mentioned I might add – that she had found something that would make it into this week’s blog. Of course, I admit, I was busy and not listening fully. When I finally opened the email, which had followed her confident declaration, the link to the video and song (above) by Brett Dennen featuring Natalie Merchant began. At that point, I – begrudgingly with some shared mirth – had to admit she was right!

Heaven is a rich and nuanced word in the Christian tradition. Its range of meaning and potential ways of expressing an idea or concept that (likely) exists beyond the confines of language remains yet (if ever) to be fully explored. Language – let’s face it – immediately limits everything.

Message to the mail man
Image: gajman

Words may define or describe with efficiency and/or beauty – and can certainly do so at the same time – but the moment they are used, an idea becomes tethered to what is and not what it might be. I know that I myself have blogged about heaven and the Kingdom more than once and – even then – I admit they are simple glosses of a word that has both united and divided. The concept of heaven has and remains a difficult and rich expression of what might be for those of us who endeavour to live into the Christian expression of faith.

I think what strikes me most in the song is the repeated reframe: what the hell is heaven? How that question might be heard is varied: declaration, challenge, dismissive or rejection all seem plausible as initial possibilities. What I heard unfold throughout the song is an idea that is intimately bound to the identity that is The United Church of Canada (UCC): social justice or the social gospel.

One of the many ways in which heaven has been described (by those who feel a connection with the social gospel) is a place that begins now, but whose ultimate coming-into-being will never be seen. This place-to-be is often called the Kingdom or Kin-dom. What is central to the connexion between heaven and the Kingdom (through the lens of the social gospel) is that it has to begin with the choices I, you and we make in the Now. And – as often the case in any human endeavour and struggle – it is the questions that point to what might be in the context of what currently is.

Now I don’t claim to know the artist’s political or religious affinities or preferences, but I do admit that his questions are important for anyone and everyone who is contemplating and reflecting on living in the world today. In a growing globalised planet, in which our collective diversity intimately shares space in ways never seen before, the final stanza of the song must be taken seriously:

How any of us – regardless of political, ideological or religion persuasion – begin to individually and collectively respond will point to one way this heaven thing might come to be. Whether it’s a place of inclusion filled with diversity or a place in which who is in and who is out is clearly evident begins with the choices we make in response to the artist’s challenge. The question, at this point, is how do we currently respond? And – if we are beginning to have an open conversation with ourselves and one another – is that how we will continue to respond if we take each stanza seriously?