A Needle Pulling Thread

A Needle Pulling Thread--April 17, 2018

"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." [Romans 6:3-5]

Here's the bottom line: wherever Jesus goes... we go.

Through life... together.  Through death... together.  And into resurrection life... together.

It is vitally important to be clear about this, because the pop theology around us usually totally misses the boat here.  A lot of the time, in fact, you'll hear people say almost the opposite.  You'll hear, "Jesus rose from the dead and is alive in heaven... now, do YOU have what it takes to get there, too?"  You'll hear it like there's some giant disconnect between Jesus' future and ours, like we know Jesus gets to be in heaven, but as if there's no way of knowing what lies in store for us.  You'll hear them say that we had better get our act together so that we'll be acceptable one day waiting our application forms to be processed in some kind of heavenly customs and immigration office.

I distinctly remember hearing that kind of bad (but pretty common) theology as a kid from songs on the radio that dared to delve into the subject.  I remember hearing that classic of the early 1960s, "Last Kiss" as sung by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, and the recurring refrain,

"Oh where, oh where can my baby be?

The Lord took her away from me.

She's gone to heaven so I've got to be good--

So I can see my baby when I leave this world."

And I can remember thinking as a kid, "That's not how it works--you don't get to heaven by being good!"  (Something of my formative childhood years steeped in Lutheranism must have stuck, it would seem.)  But in all seriousness, that song is exactly how conventional wisdom generic pop theology assumes it works:  when someone you love dies, you might be reasonably sure that they, in all their kindness and niceness and pleasantness, have earned themselves a spot in glory... but oh dear, we down here still enduring the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune here in our daily live, we're all afraid that we won't make the cut and we'll be separated from the good and holy ones, and of course, from God--the true Good and Holy One.  Sometimes our assumption is, "Well of course Jesus is alive and risen and now in glory with God, and good for him.  But I have no way of knowing if I'll get to be where he is one day... I just don't know if I've been good enough.

And we do the same to others as well.  Religious folks dangle the hope of heaven like a carrot in front of listening ears... and then comes the fine print.   "Well... if you want to get to heaven, you'll have to be good enough... you'll have to show that you are a good little boy or girl... your acceptance will depend on how well you have kept the rules, succeeded at work, raised a handsome family, and lived the cookie cutter life of acceptableness."  It's all the same bad theology of the "Last Kiss" song--that because Jesus has gone to heaven, we have to worry about whether we have been good enough, so that we maybe, possibly, hopefully, could get to see him one day when we "leave this world."  And of course, if we are still hanging on to that "good enough" talk, we will never be able to shake it when we are filled with doubts in the night or take an honest look at ourselves in the daylight.  

But this is the truly scandalous thing about the actual writers of the actual Bible: they don't talk at all about whether we have been "good enough."  It just ain't so.  They don't leave hanging the open question of whether you or I have been good in order to be acceptable.  For writers like Paul, the question is not about me, really--it's about Jesus.  

Because, as Paul sees it, the only thing that matters is being tethered to Christ.  From there on out, he does the pulling, and we come along for the ride.  He goes through life--we come along.  He goes through death--we go through it as well.  He comes out the other side in resurrection life--guess what, we are promised the same.  No question of good behavior or measuring whether our righteousness points outweigh our bad behavior points.

As Paul says it, "when we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into his death."  We are stuck on Jesus, grafted in like a cutting from a rosebush.  We are transplanted into Christ and belong to him permanently.  We can't be cut off from him--he won't stand for it.  We are part of Christ's body, and he won't permit so much as a toenail to be trimmed off.  We are a part of him.

The Christian faith is not, then, a spiritual version of the Cavaliers' song, "Last Kiss," and we don't need to worry in the night whether we have been good enough "so we can see our savior when we leave this world," as it were.  It's not like that.  Rather, the Christian faith says, "You're tethered to Christ--he did it to you at the waters of baptism, and you belong to him.  He's got a hold of you in death, and he's got a hold of you in life, and you can't shake him no matter what."

It's rather like the way a needle pulls a thread along, if you think about it.  A needle's entire job is to hold onto thread... and bring the thread wherever the needle goes.  That's it.  The end of the string goes through the eye of the needle (placed there, of course, by a skilled and patient sew-er, who has the patient to get it through the tiny hole), and then needle does the pulling.  Wherever the needle goes, the thread goes.  Up on the top side of the fabric?  Yes.  Down into the darkness of the underside of the fabric?  Yep, there too.  Back up out the other side into the light--absolutely!  That's how it works.  And that's not a bad way of picturing us and Christ, either.  We are tethered to Jesus like a needle holds thread.  The goodness or badness of the thread really doesn't matter--the needle can pull the cheapest twine off the discount rack or the most expensive spools of silk thread you can order from across the globe.  What really matters is the needle doing the holding.  Being connected to the needle is the whole shootin' match.

And that means the end of "Last Kiss" theology.

To be joined to Christ is to be done with worrying that he has gone somewhere else that we are uncertain of following.  The resurrection is not simply good news for Jesus, while we are left wondering what will await us on the other side of death, dependent on our final test scores and application requests.  We are tethered to him, and he is determined to pull us through into resurrection life.  It is not about our successes or failures at test-taking, rule-keeping, or cookie-cutter-adhering.  It is simply about being united to him--like a needle pulling thread.

Lord Jesus, hold us close through life, through death, and out the other side.