You will be glorious! Philippians 3:20-21

I have really enjoyed this year’s confirmation class.  Teaching confirmation has always been one of my favorite things to do but this year it has been one of the most enjoyable years I have taught.  I think it has something to do with the fact that all my students this year are young ladies.  No offense to all the young men I have taught over the years.  I very much enjoy teaching young men what it means to be a godly man.  As the father of three young men, I am actually more comfortable teaching young men.  I am familiar with the way young men are wired, I understand why young men act the way they act and say the things that they say.  Young ladies on the other hand…. I have often boasted about being raised in a house of women and have claimed an insight into the workings of the female mind, but I must confess, little women, such as the ones I am currently teaching are a fascinating mystery for me.  I have taught young ladies before but always there was at least one young man in the class.  I didn’t appreciate it before, but young men seem to have a governing effect on young ladies; young ladies are shy and more reserved around young men.  A class, however, made up of only and completely young ladies… well, I didn’t know a person could talk that much or that fast and all at the same time, and the things they say are in one moment guarded and cryptic but in the next surprisingly vulnerable and revealing.

For example, last Wednesday we just started a new chapter in confirmation class on death.  You might think that would be a sad and somber class, and historically the chapter on death does have a more serious tone, but not this year.  I have to say so far this has been one of the more amusing classes about death I have taught.  It started off with Mia telling us that she doesn’t want to get buried underground when she dies because she is afraid when judgement day comes, and she is raised to life, she will have to dig herself out of the ground.  Mia had more to say on the subject, but she was interrupted and eventually overpowered by an excited Ainsley who told us that she always assumed people in heaven didn’t need bodies, because they were orbs of colorful light that just floated around up in heaven.  I wanted to hear more of Ainsley’s abstract theory, but she was interrupted by Frannie May who in her gangster slang said, “no way Bruh.  People be walking around heaven with bodies just chillin’ with each other.”  Or she said something like that, I honestly don’t understand half the words that come out of that child’s head.  But Janelle, who apparently understood Frannie said, “Wait… what!?!  We are going to have bodies in heaven!?!”  There was a millisecond of silence, so I took the opportunity to respond.  I told Janelle, “yes, we will have our own bodies in heaven.”  To which Janelle responded with flared nostrils, burning eyes, and an accusatory tone, “Why haven’t you told me this before!!!”  I of course quickly apologized for this previously unknown oversight on my part but before I could finish, the questions started to come fast and furious: “what will my body look like?, will it look the same?, will people be able to recognize me?, how old will I be?, will I age?...”  Desperate to regain some control of the class (in the hopes that we might read more than one bible passage that night) I told them saint Paul, in his letter to the Philippians 3:20-21, writes about what our bodies will be like in heaven and if they could wait till Sunday (today) I would preach on Paul’s words and try to answer some of their questions.

Several times in his letter to the Philippians Paul refers to the resurrection of the body.  In the opening chapter of his letter to the Philippians Paul wrote, “21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”  Paul looked forward to the day he would die because he knew his life in heaven would be better than life here on earth.  However, Paul concluded that it was more necessary for him to remain here on earth where he could continue to teach the Philippians and others about Jesus, but Paul’s desire to depart and be with Christ remained.  A few verses later, in Chapter 3, Paul again writes to the Philippians of his desire to depart and be with Christ.  Paul wrote, “10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Paul knew, from first-hand experience, that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.  On the road to Damascus the glory of the resurrected Jesus physically blinded Paul but spiritually opened his eyes to see Jesus as his savior from sin. Since that time Paul had learned the promises that Jesus had made concerning the resurrection; promises like the one recorded in John 11:25-26 where Jesus said, “25…  I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Paul believed and preached a physical resurrection from the dead; that on judgment day when the last trumpet sounds, body and soul, he and all who believe, will be with Jesus in heaven.

Unfortunately, not everyone shares that belief.  Ancient Greek philosophers, called Gnostics, taught the physical body was inherently evil and a prison for the soul.  The gnostic view of salvation was an escape from the mundane and material world through thought and separation of the soul from the body.  In short Gnostics believed the soul was good and the body was bad.  Gnosticism, like most fanciful philosophies, has gone in and out of fashion more often than bellbottoms and bomber jackets.  Chances are no one here is a practicing Gnostic.  However, chances are most of us here have been influenced by Gnosticism.  We may not see our bodies as evil prisons for the soul, but we don’t always treat our bodies very well.  We demean our bodies when we use them to gratify the desires of our sinful nature, and we degrade our bodies when we are embarrassed or ashamed of their form and function.  Further, we abuse our bodies with substances that alter the mind, wreak havoc on our organs, and are known to cause cancer.  But Marijuana, margaritas, and Marlboros aren’t the only substances we use to abuse our bodies, sugar, salt, and saturated fats, consumed in the amounts most of us consume them, are not exactly good for our bodies.  Finally, we neglect our bodies.  Many of us don’t exercise on a regular basis and most of us don’t get enough sleep.  We may not be Gnostics who believe our bodies are evil prisons for the soul, but we don’t always treat our bodies very well.  Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says to the practicing Gnostic and to those who have not always treated their bodies very well, “19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.”[1]

We have not always honored God with our bodies, but Jesus did.  Jesus didn’t demean or degrade His body, He didn’t abuse His body, and He didn’t neglect His body.  Jesus perfectly honored God with His body and then Jesus offered His body as the atoning sacrifice that paid for all the times we have failed to honor God with our bodies.  Jesus used His body to redeem our bodies, and that redemption will have a transforming effect on our bodies in heaven. 

In Philippians 3:20-21 Paul writes, “20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” In heaven our lowly bodies will need to be transformed.  You see, though we have been forgiven, our bodies, like our souls, continue to be corrupted by sin.  That is why our bodies are subject to disease and decay, that is why our bodies experience strain and stress, that is why our bodies die.  But when, on the last day, our bodies depart to be with Christ, when, at the sounding of the last trumpet, our bodies are resurrected and reunited with our souls, when that day comes Jesus will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  Our bodies will no longer be subject to disease and decay, they will no longer be afflicted with strain or stress, they will no longer die.  Our bodies will be glorious! 

I don’t know exactly what that means.  Does that mean I will no longer wear glasses or does that mean I will look glorious in glasses?  Does that mean I will once again be able to grow hair on the top of my head or does that mean that my bald spot will radiate glory?  Does that mean I will finally be able to whip my dad body into shape or does that mean that my belly will be glorious?!?  I don’t know exactly what it means that this body will be glorious, I don’t know what it means that your body will be glorious, but according to Paul, in heaven, your body will be like Jesus’ glorious body. 

Every time someone looked upon the resurrected body of Jesus they were overwhelmed by His glory.  In the book of Revelation, the glorified body of Jesus is described with these words “14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace… 16… His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” And when John saw Jesus’ glorified body he fell at Jesus’ feet as thought dead[2].  Even if our resurrected bodies are only 1% like Jesus’ resurrected body, our bodies will be more glorious than we can currently imagine.

So, Mia, you don’t have to worry about how deep in the ground your body has been buried or how far flung your ashes may be blow, on judgement day the Lord Jesus Christ will raise your body from the dead.  Ainsley, I think your description of our souls in heaven is beautiful, but Frannie May is right, one day your beautiful soul will be reunited with your resurrected body in heaven.  Janelle, I can’t tell you exactly what your body will look like in heaven, but I can tell you it will be glorious. 

I hope y’all don’t mind me using this sermon to teach part of my confirmation class, but I knew with so many other people in the room I would have more than a millisecond to speak.  Plus I suspect it is not just confirmation students who question what happens to their bodies when they die; I suspect it’s not just confirmation students who need to be reminded that their bodies are not evil prisons for their souls, and I suspect its not just confirmation students who need to told one day you will be glorious, because “the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”  Amen.

[1] 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

[2] Revelation 1:14-17