The Gate of Heaven
“Jacob was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."” Genesis 28.17
So Father Murphy walks into a notorious pub in Donegal, and says to the first man he meets, "Do you want to go to heaven?"
The man said, "I do Father."
The priest says, "Then leave this pub right now!"
He approaches a second man. "Do you want to go to heaven?"
"Certainly, Father."
"Then leave this den of Satan," says Father Murphy.
He walks up to O'Toole. "Do you want to go to heaven?"
"No thank you very much Father.”
Father Murphy looks him right in the eye, and says, "You mean to tell me that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?"
O'Toole smiles, "Oh, when I die, yes, Father. I thought you were getting a group together to go right now."
Today’s collect reminds us that ‘Jesus Christ has overcome death and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life’ - the gate of heaven.
The opening chapters of the Bible describe an open and ungated Garden of Eden. But after the Fall, an angel is set as a gate to keep humankind out and away from the Tree of Life - of everlasting life.
“God drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3.24
At one level the Fall is an aetiology of fears that run deeply within the human psyche.
There is the fear of exclusion, being shut out; of alienation and of being alone; and the ultimate fear, the old enemy, death, and oblivion - being cut off forever from the tree of life.
Gates and doors are potent mythic symbols common in most religions and folk tales. They are often hidden, or guarded or require a key or an ‘open sesame’ to admit the seeker. In Christian folk religion they are the familiar pearly gates, guarded by St Peter with his book of life, with all the overtones of exclusion and judgement.
They are symbols used powerfully by Jesus, who describes himself as the door, the gate to the sheepfold.
In the Old Testament and into the time of the New, the City Gate is the place of discussion, of welcome and business; where the elders sit and offer advice; where the judges make pronouncements; where the guilty are executed.
So the writer to the Hebrews takes up this rich vein of imagery and reminds his readers: “Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.” (13.11)
In a positive light, the gates becomes the symbol of security and safety. So for the suburban English family, the garden gate is the drawbridge into the castle. My mother’s instructions still ring loud and clear on any trip to the neighbours:
“Have you got a clean handkerchief? Remember to say thank you. And close the gate when you leave.”
I love Alan Bennett’s line in A Cream Cracker under the Settee, when Thora Heard has been visited by the Christian sect who push tracts through the door and call through the letterbox that Jesus loves her. She remarks with fine British bathos: “Shouting about Jesus and leaving the gate open - it’s hypocrisy is that!”
Our Lord emphasises this sense of security that a gate brings by describing himself as the gate of the sheepfold. The Good Shepherd is the door of the pen, as he lies across the opening protecting the sheep from robbers and wolves.
But he goes on to take the imagery further, providing the basis for today’s 1549 collect. “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (John 10.9)
However, we must always remember that metaphors are just that - metaphors. There is no literal gate, nor key, nor mystical password.
When Christ says he is the gate to eternal life, it is because of the way Christ lived and all that he accomplished: his life, his death and his glorious hope-inspiring resurrection.
And for us the ‘narrow gate’ that we are commanded by our Lord to enter, is similarly about a way of life. There is no such thing as a death-bed conversion. There may appear to be, but it could not have happened without a process that went before.
Jacob’s encounter with God (our text this morning) through the dream at Bethel was a sort of conversion, as was his wrestling with the angel 14 years later. But it was all part of a divine process which had been going on in Jacob since before his first self-conscious thoughts.
I think this is what CS Lewis is getting at in his wonderful little fantasy, The Great Divorce, where he describes heaven, not so much as a place, but as a process– the process of becoming fully alive, fully real.
“I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. Evil can be undone, but it cannot "develop" into good... If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth), we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell... But what, you ask, of earth? Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been all along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning, a part of Heaven itself.”Lewis is right, I believe. Heaven's gate is narrow, and the meaning of our lives is to be found by engaging in the quest to find it and enter it. And that means paying attention, living mindfully rather than mindlessly, never trying to live on the energy of past religious experiences, but always being open to the new promptings of the Spirit: to renewed conversions.
It takes discipline, it takes much prayer, and a great deal of courage and faith to be a pilgrim.
But the journey of faith and hope and love is its own reward, and a precursor of its destination. And if we walk it faithfully, we shall not have to wonder fearfully if anything or anyone awaits us beyond death's door; we will discover that our pilgrim journey itself was, in fact, that very gate of heaven, which Christ at his resurrection flung wide open.
Now as it’s Easter Sunday, and you can never have too much risus paschalis (Easter laughter), I’ll finish with another joke.
A church member who was a devout golfer came to talk to his priest one day. "Tell me, Father," he demanded, "are there going to be golf courses in heaven? I have to know."
"Well," said his priest, "I'm not really sure, but tonight I'll say a special prayer and see if God will tell me the answer."
The next Sunday, when the service ended and the congregation was shaking hands with the priest on the way out, the golfer cornered him again. "Did you get the answer, Father? Are there going to be golf courses in heaven?"
Well, George," the priest replied, "I've got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"
"Tell me the good news first," George said.
"The good news is that, yes, there are golf courses in heaven. Beautiful courses, where the sun is always shining, the rough is not too deep, there are no sand traps, and you never have to wait to tee off."
"Hey, that's great!" exclaimed the golfer excitedly. "But what's the bad news?"
"Well, the bad news is that St Peter has you down to tee off this coming Tuesday morning at 8."
On this Easter Sunday as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, we have a foretaste of heaven and if we will be open to his Holy Spirit, this place becomes for us the gate of heaven.
“Jacob was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."” Genesis 28.17
