September 28, 2025, Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
“Heaven Is for Real”
Psalm 102:18-28; Isaiah 40:21-26; Romans 6:1-11; Luke 16:19-31
Morning Prayer, p. 235
Hymns: #684 “Come Unto Me, Ye Weary”; #605 “Father Welcomes”; #818 “In Thee Is Gladness”; #739 “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”; #744 “Amazing Grace”
Dear Friends in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.
Most people are willing to accept the idea of someplace called Heaven, and that whatever it is, and wherever it is, it’s going to be good. But at the same time, many also believe that everyone is going to heaven, and that there is no real place called hell. But if both those places are “really real” (and they are!), how can we be sure we’re going to the good place when we die, and what makes the difference between going to one place or the other? This is something everyone needs to know!
The place we Christians call “Heaven” is known by many other names, in different cultures and at different times. Heaven has been called Paradise, or Eden, or the New Jerusalem. The ancient Nordic people called heaven Valhalla; our Native Americans call it the Happy Hunting Ground. The Hindu version of heaven is called Nirvana. The Greeks called heaven the Elysian Fields. The ancient Chinese called heaven Shangri-La. The Celts and Irish called heaven Cockaigne, or the Fiddler’s Green.
All these places have their unholy counterparts as well. Hell, as we call it, has been known as Tartarus, or Hades, or She’ol. Also the Netherwold, Gehenna, the Inferno, the Lake of Fire, the Bottomless Pit, Abaddon, the Abyss, or Perdition. All of those refer to a place awaiting those who are condemned for being wicked or evil, or for somehow displeasing whatever gods people happened to worship. Do such places as heaven or hell really exist? Where are they? In what place? In what location, in what universe, in what dimension that we here on earth are unable to visit or reach?
Our Lord Jesus ought to know. No ordinary human being has ever seen Heaven or hell or come back from either of those places to tell us about them; but Jesus is the Son of God, the “let there be light” God of Genesis, the God whose hand created all things. Can we believe what He says, and what the Bible says about Him, and what the Bible that He gave us says about heaven and hell?
In the Christmas story about the angels and the shepherds, where did the angels come from? They weren’t of this world; they had to have come from somewhere. At Jesus’ Baptism, heaven was opened for the Holy Spirit to come down as a dove and alight upon His shoulder. Heaven was opened at the mountain of Transfiguration, so Elijah and Moses could come from… somewhere… to talk with Jesus, and so His disciples could get just a glimpse of heaven’s glory. When Jesus ascended into heaven, with His disciples looking up after Him in jaw-dropping, wide-eyed astonishment, to where was He taken? To where did He disappear? And where is He now?
St. Stephen, in the Book of Acts, while they were stoning him to death, looked up to Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus seated there on His throne. The Old Testament Scriptures, and Jesus, too, describe heaven as being like a wedding banquet, an everlasting feast. St. John, in the Book of Revelation, describes for us “the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, like a Bride beautifully dressed for her wedding.” “Our Father, who art in heaven,” we confess in the Creed.
Jesus says in John 6, “For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me.” Jesus calls Himself there “the Bread of Life, come down from heaven to give life to the world.” Jesus told Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus says in Matthew 19, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not prevent them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
And He says in Matthew 10, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
“He descended into hell,” we confess in the ancient Creed. The book of First Peter says when Jesus was raised from the dead, the first thing he did was to go and “preach to the spirits in prison,” to declare victory over sin and death, and hell - which tells us that hell is real place, too.
The Resurrection of Jesus, though, is the final and glorious proof that we can believe everything He says, and that we can believe Him and trust Him. If Jesus had said, “I’m going to be crucified, and raised again on the third day,” yet He’d stayed there in His tomb and His bones could be found, that would make Him nothing but a liar and a fraud, and we could all safely ignore Him. But if He has been truly raised - and all the testimony of eyewitnesses to the fact, and all the historical evidence, proves that He was, to any reasonable person who cares to look at the evidence honestly - then everything else He ever said we can take as holy and true as well - including everything He taught us about Heaven and hell.
So here it is: Jesus, in His words in our Gospel reading from Luke, is pretty clear that there is a very real heaven and a very real hell. Please keep in mind that Jesus is telling a parable here, that He’s using a story to paint us a picture. The beggar named Lazarus isn’t an actual, historical person, but a metaphor for all the poor yet faithful people who are treated badly by the world. And the rich man is Jesus’ metaphor for all the people who are well off in this world, but don’t have the eyes or the hearts to see God, or to care about people God wants them to help. We’ll see in Jesus’ parable that in the end, it’s what’s in our hearts that will make all the difference when the time comes – and it will for us all - to stand before God and give an accounting for ourselves.
So, says Jesus, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. And at his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores, and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.” Lazarus the beggar, poor man, wasn’t hidden someplace where no one could see him. Like all beggars in those days, he sat by the rich man’s gate out of necessity, asking and hoping for mercy, for just a coin or two to feed himself. (Jesus says nothing about the poor man’s faith, but we can make an inference about that from where he ended up later).
And the rich man, dressed in purple and linen and finery as he was, chose to ignore him. That’s a cold heart right there. He’d been blessed with the means to help the poor man. He could have done so much to at least ease his suffering; but instead the rich man held his nose as he walked right by him every day, pretending like he wasn’t even there. What’s in your heart comes out in what you do.
I don’t know why God allows some people to suffer, while others get rich and fat. I guess the world will be that way until Jesus comes. When we all get to heaven we can ask God why. But I do know that the reason God blesses some of us, is so that we can be a blessing to others, if we have enough love in our hearts to do so. The rich man in Jesus’ parable did not.
Now, says Jesus, “The time came when the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. And the rich man also died and was buried.” That’s one thing the rich and the poor have in common; death is coming for us all. Did you happen to see that little news clip, where Vladimir Putin and President Xi of China were walking along talking together? And a microphone caught them discussing the idea that if a person had enough money, and access to a steady supply of organ transplants, theoretically they could just keep updating their organs and live forever. That two men so powerful could be that delusional…
Now then the beggar Lazarus died, says Jesus. God in His mercy sent His angels to carry him home, his precious soul to be cradled in the bosom of Abraham, awaiting the day when Jesus comes at last. The rich man also died and was buried, our Gospel says, and all his money bought him on earth was an expensive funeral and a fancy headstone. And where did his soul go from there, cold-hearted and merciless as he was? To a real and terrible place called hell, or Hades or Tartarus or whatever name you care to give it.
And here’s the thing about hell; it’s not oblivion or nothingness; it’s not just “ceasing to be.” That would be a much easier option, compared to what Jesus describes here as the reality. “In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.” The rich man in the parable is very much aware of where he is, and also of what he’s lost. His punishment is more than just oblivion; it’s an eternity of knowing and seeing all the good he could have had and not being able to reach it – like putting a dog on a chain just out of reach of a water bowl. It’s an eternity of everlasting regret. He never took a moment while he was alive to see Lazarus sitting by his gate; but man, he can see him now.
In the parable, the rich man calls out to Father Abraham for mercy, but it’s too late. Everything we’ve heard about hell, Jesus says is true; no water, the burning tongue, the agony of the fire. The rich man calls for Lazarus to bring him water to cool his tongue, but Lazarus will never have anything to do with that terrible place. The rich man can see Lazarus, but Lazarus doesn’t have to look at him; he’s at peace.
Abraham says, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”
Heaven and hell are eternally separate from each other. They never touch. Heaven is perfect and pure and glorious and joyful and holy. Hell is every bad and unholy thing there ever was, all cast down into the same terrible place.
The rich man begs Abraham, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” So the prospect of hell is bad enough, but the thought of your brothers and sisters and children and loved ones coming to sit in the fire with you is more terrible still, especially knowing that while you were alive, you could have done something, said something, to keep it from happening.
Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.”
“No, Father Abraham,” the rich man said, “but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” And Abraham said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” Those brothers of his, that family of his, were still among the living, and they still had God’s Word to pick up and read and listen to. They still had time. Maybe they were just as evil as their brother, who knows? Jesus doesn’t say. Maybe they’d listen, and maybe they wouldn’t; but while there’s life, there’s hope.
Now enough about hell. The fact that there is a real and perfect and beautiful heaven, a Paradise, an Eden, a heaven that will be ours if we’ll confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord; and that there’s also a hell too terrible to even want to think about, if we should turn away when God calls us and refuse His invitation to come - is why I and all Christian pastors and all Christian people do what we do. Knowing this, says St. Paul, “we try our best to persuade men.” It’s why we build churches to preach the Word from. It’s why we send pastors, preachers, teachers, and missionaries out into the world. It’s why we obey the words of Jesus Himself, and “go ye therefore” to baptize and teach. It’s why we baptize our children and pass our faith along to them. I don’t want my family or my friends, my loved ones and dear ones, to be left sitting in the fire one day, and looking across that chasm at what they could have had. I want them all to be happy and rejoicing in heaven with me. Like St. Paul says, “I believe, and therefore I speak.” What else can I do?
Isaiah says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?” God brings out all His children one by one and calls them each by name. We’re called and we’re carried to the waters of Baptism, to be “buried with Jesus through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” God in His mercy calls us out of the darkness of this world, to stand in His glorious light. We get to be His children, adopted by His marvelous grace, marked on our foreheads with the sign of the cross as “redeemed by Christ the crucified.”
Tell the Good News! Put the saving Word in people’s ears! Bring your friends, bring your families, bring your children, bring your babies, until we’re all safe in heaven together. In Jesus’ name; Amen.