It is a simple enough question. We want to know if other people will be present–and so we ask–will anybody be there?
I believe that there will be lots of people there. People you know and people I know. People I long desired to know and people that I never knew. Lots of people.
Not spirits, but real people. No ghosts or apparitions but people who are alive and vibrant and full of anticipation about being all that is happening.
You ask, what are you talking about? A party, perhaps? Is someone getting married? No, though those are great things to attend.
I am talking about life after death after life.
Somehow or another a lot of folk either believe that once your body ceases to be animated with life that it is the end. And then there is a lot of other people who think that when you die the real you gets released from your body and becomes some sort of spirit-being that goes up to heaven to sing in the choir or play 2d harp to David!
And the sad thing about both of these points of view is that is you really believe either of them, then what you do in this life with your body or with anyone’s else’s body doesn’t really matter! On one hand, if there is nothing beyond this present reality, why bother. And on the other hand, it is, after all, only a body, so the false narrative goes; is just the package used to transport that which is really important–the soul–through life.
These are interesting ideas and certainly commonly held. But neither of them find much traction in Scripture.
See you Sunday when we explore how believing in the resurrection of the body not only has meaning for our future; it speaks to our present as well. Because, there is more to a body than just bones, blood, and skin!
