We’re
starting a new sermon series today.
It’s called “This Is Country Music”.
We’re going to look at some popular and relatively current country songs
and see what they say about the way people in our society look at faith and at
life.
Now, I want everyone to understand
right up front that these are not particularly religious songs. A couple of them at least have something to
do with faith, like the one today, but some of them don’t. Some of them are not the kind of songs you’d
normally expect to hear played in church.
The reason we’re doing this is
that, regardless of what you may think of these songs, they’re popular. Songs are popular for a reason. There’s something about popular songs that
people like. There’s something about
popular songs that speaks to people.
Whether it’s something we’re dealing with, something we wish we had,
something about the general condition of living, or whatever, songs get popular
because they say something that speaks to us.
We’re looking specifically at country songs because that’s the type of
music that tends to be most popular around here.
The song we’re going to hear today
to start this sermon series is by Justin Moore. I’m sure at least some of you have heard it before. It’s called “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away.” The lyrics are below:
Every day I drive to work across Flint River bridge
A hundred yards from the spot where me and Grandpa fished
There’s a piece of his old fruit stand on the side of
Sawmill Road
He’d be there peelin’ peaches if it was twenty years ago
And what I wouldn’t give
To ride around in that old truck with him
If heaven wasn’t so far away
I’d pack up the kids and go for the day
Introduce ‘em to their Grandpa
Watch ‘em laugh at the way he talks
I’d find my long-lost cousin John
The one we left back in Vietnam
Show him a picture of his daughter now
She’s a doctor and he’d be proud
Tell ‘em we’d be back in a couple of days
In the rear-view mirror we’d all watch ‘em wave
Yeah, and losin’ them wouldn’t be so hard to take
If heaven wasn’t so far away.
I’d hug all three of those girls we lost from the class of
‘99
I’d find my bird dog Bo and take him huntin’ one more time
I’d ask Hank why he took those pills back in ‘53
And Janis to sing the second verse of “Me and Bobby McGee”
Sit on a cloud and visit for a while
It’d do me good just to see them smile
If heaven wasn’t so far away
I’d pack up the kids and go for the day
Introduce ‘em to their Grandpa
Watch ‘em laugh at the way he talks
I’d find my long-lost cousin John
The one we left back in Vietnam
Show him a picture of his daughter now
She’s a doctor and he’d be proud
Tell ‘em we’d be back in a couple of days
In the rear-view mirror we’d all watch ‘em wave
Yeah, and losin’ them wouldn’t be so hard to take
If heaven wasn’t so far
If heaven wasn’t so far
If heaven wasn’t so far away
So far away
So far away
Death is one of the few constants
in life. It’s been around for thousands
and thousands of years. It affects each
and every one of us. You’d think, by
now, we’d have learned how to deal with it, and in some ways I guess we have. Still, death is hard on all of us.
That’s true in pretty much all
circumstances. Even if a death is expected,
it’s still hard when it comes. Even if
we’re fully confident about faith, both in our own faith and in the faith of
the person who’s passed away, death is still a very sad thing. Even if we are completely convinced that
someone has gone to heaven, we’re still sad when death comes.
If we want proof of that, we don’t
need to look any farther than the story we read from the gospel of John, the
raising of Lazarus from the dead. You
know, in some ways, the raising of Lazarus is not the most remarkable part of
this story. I mean, it’s incredible of
course. Still, if we accept that Jesus
Christ is the divine Son of God, we’re able to accept that Jesus could raise
someone from the dead. After all, if
Jesus himself could be raised from the dead, it’s not surprising that Jesus
could raise someone else, too.
In some ways, the most incredible
part of this story is these three verses, verses thirty-three to
thirty-five. “When Jesus saw Mary
weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply
moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where
have you laid him?’ he asked. ‘Come and
see, Lord,’ they replied. Jesus wept.”
Jesus wept. Why?
Jesus knew what was going on. He
knew what he was going to do. He knew
Lazarus was not permanently dead. He
knew that, in just a very short time, he was going to raise Lazarus from the
dead. Still, Jesus wept. Jesus cried at the death of a close friend,
even though he knew that death was not permanent. If even Jesus, who conquered death itself, reacted that way to
death, we don’t have to feel bad when we don’t always handle it well.
It hurts to be separated from
people we love. The more we love them,
the more it hurts to be apart from them.
I start missing Wanda when she’s just gone for a couple of days to visit
friends or relatives. That’s a
situation where I know she’ll be back soon, and where I also know that I could
go and get her if I really wanted to.
Now imagine having someone you love gone, and knowing that they’re not
coming back. They’ll be gone the rest
of your life.
Many of you, of course, don’t have
to imagine that. You live with it every
day. It could be a spouse, it could be
a child, it could be a parent, it could be anyone you feel close to who’s
passed away. It hurts to be apart from
people we love.
I think this song hits on one of
the reasons why it hurts so much. Even
if we’re convinced the ones we love are in heaven, heaven seems so far
away. If only there was some way to
bridge that gap between us and heaven.
If only we could just go and visit our loved ones for a while. If only we could just picture what heaven
is, and see our loved ones there. Even
if we could not talk to them, just to see it, just to have some idea of what
it’s like there. If we could do that,
it would not hurt so much to lose people.
If only heaven was not so far away.
It’s not that way, of course. We’re not allowed to see heaven while we’re
on the earth. It’s been said that if we
could, if we really knew how incredibly beautiful heaven is and how incredibly
happy we’re going to be when we get there, it’d make our lives on earth
miserable. If you believe that theory,
God is not hiding heaven from us to be mean to us, but to be kind to us.
I think there may be something to
that. I knew a guy once who had a death
experience, who was dead and then brought back to life. He said he really could not describe the
experience very well, but for about a year after he was brought back to life,
he went into depression. He did not
want to be on this earth any more. He
wanted to be in the next world, where he’d been so briefly.
In our reading from Revelation, we
heard a description of the New Jerusalem.
Now, New Jerusalem may not be heaven, exactly. Some would say it’s not.
We’re told, though, that it’s the place of the throne of God and of
Jesus Christ, and that’s about as good a description of heaven as there is.
Listen to the beauty of it. It’s brilliance is like that of the most
precious jewels. It’s as clear as
crystal. There’s every kind of precious
stone. The streets are made of pure
gold. There’s a river with
crystal-clear water. The trees bear
some kind of fruit year-round. Can you
even imagine it?
None of that’s the best part
though. The leaves of the tree of life
provide healing of the nations. Total
and complete healing. No longer will
there be any curse. It’ll be Eden, the
way the world is really supposed to be.
None of that’s the best part of it,
either. Here’s the best part. It shines with the Glory of God. There’s no need for a temple, because God is
there, and God is the temple. There’s
no need for a sun or a moon, because the glory of God gives all the light
anyone needs. The throne of God and of
the Lamb, Jesus Christ, are there.
We’ll be in the presence of God forever and ever.
Dealing with death will always be
hard. Heaven still seems far away. It’s really not, though. It’s as close to us as God is. If we can feel God’s presence in our lives,
we can feel a little bit of the joy of heaven.
If we can feel God’s Holy Spirit in our hearts, we can feel a little bit
of the love of heaven. By feeling God’s
presence and God’s Holy Spirit, we can feel connected to our loved ones who’ve
gone before us. And then, maybe heaven
won’t seem quite so far away.
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