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             How many of you believe in Heaven? (Show of hands) I do. Not that I can tell you much about heaven. Like Harry Emerson Fosdick said, don’t waste time speculating on the furniture of heaven or the temperature of hell. But I’m moved by the old Mercury recording of the song “Angel Band” by the Stanley Brothers.

My latest sun is sinking fast,
My race is nearly run
My strongest trials now are past
My triumph is begun

O come, angel band, come and around me stand
O bear me away on your snowy wings to my immortal home
O bear me away on your snowy wings to my immortal home

Do I believe that literally? Perhaps not, but I’m not ruling it out. For me there is something about those words, call it the “flavor,” that I really like and trust. If heaven is not like that, then it will be something better. What songs evoke a flavor of heaven for you? “Tears in Heaven” (Eric Clapton)? “My Heaven” (Mary Chapin Carpenter)?

            Dr. James Forbes of Riverside Church in New York says that preaching is really not, in the end, about exhortation, edification, or moral uplift, as important as those are. The purpose of preaching is to evoke heaven and invite people in. Wasn’t that the genius of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech? It pictured a heaven on earth of justice, peace, and inclusion, and invited us all in. A seventh century Greek Orthodox saint said simply, “The Church is an earthly heaven, in which the God beyond the heavens dwells and walks about.”  A few years back, a group from this congregation visited the old Soviet Union and attended Russian Orthodox worship. During the season of Lent, worship there went non-stop, 24 hours a day, for the six weeks until Easter. In that candle-lit sanctuary there were no seats, everyone stood, some prayed before icons, chant and liturgy filled our ears, and clouds of pungent incense filled our lungs. I remember a priest saying, “Outside the church our people’s lives are drab and sad and the landscape is depressing. So they come here to this sanctuary to experience heaven.” In the New England congregation I once served, during worship the sun often shone brightly through clear glass windows, revealing in season a snowy landscape or brilliant fall foliage. Sometimes you’d see deer romping by. It seemed like I was in heaven.

            The goal of worship is to invite people into the experience of heaven. Of course, heaven can mean many things to many people, and can evoke countless images. But I wonder if heaven – at least here on earth - is more like a flavor. A taste. I wonder if we come to church, at some level, longing for a taste of heaven.

            One struggles to put such experience into words. To respond to that invitation and enter heaven, means that we step into sacred space and eternal time. We taste, however briefly, holiness and eternity. Now, it goes without saying that in any congregation, decisions regarding the content, style, length, and hours of worship are very important. Each community must find what works for itself through its best open and respectful decision-making processes. And, especially at CCC, diversity of need and outlook must be honored. But such practical considerations must also be seen from the vantage point of heaven - that of the sacred and the eternal.

            Here, unlike the world of Washington politics (which unfortunately effects us all), decisions always have a practical level and a spiritual level. For example, what activities are proper for our church entry-way on a Sunday morning? Toko Ackerman wrote a little paper for her fellow Church trustees on this in which she suggested that instead of focusing the discussion simply at the level of determining what goes or what stays, why not approach the matter with the question, “What is the meaning of our entry-way as a place of preparation for sacred space?” See how that turns the question around? What is the best way to prepare to step into heaven? For that discussion, we need a theology of sacred space as well as practical wisdom.

            Before entering a Muslim mosque, Buddhist shrine, or Hindu Temple, worshippers remove their shoes. It is a way of showing that we leave at the door the accumulated dust and distraction of the world. We are then ready to step into sacred space and sacred time. And once you have stepped into heaven, what should you expect? Well, for one thing: beauty. That is why I am so appreciative of our sanctuary committee folks. In a spiritual sense, I sometimes think they are the most important group in the whole church.  Why? Because their task is to create beauty in our sacred space.  Create heaven on earth.

            But what about the community that worships? The invitation to step into sacred space and time is the invitation to become God’s beloved heavenly community here on earth. In worship we get a taste of what that community really is like. In this sense, heaven breaks in upon us as a grace from God. At CCC we now read the following statement each week: “At Christ Congregational Church we celebrate and honor people of all races, cultures, ages, abilities, and sexual orientations.” Why? Because it is what we believe God is calling us to do. It is a moral obligation. But also, because that is what heaven is already like. Whatever its furniture or temperature, the flavor of heaven is characterized by justice, peace, compassion, and inclusion. In the Book of Revelation we find the image of the New Jerusalem come down from heaven to earth, making heaven of earth. There is this lovely picture of the river of the water of life flowing through the streets of the city. “On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit,…and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Nothing will be accursed. Every tear will be wiped away. God invites us to begin by tasting it here and now. To taste the sacred and the timeless right here in our building; with its roof that will one day need replacing, its floors that need refinishing, and its mortgage that, God willing, we will one day pay off. God invites us into the experience. Then we will no longer be conformed to this world and its way of organizing life and making decisions. We will be transformed by the renewal of our minds, and all we do and say will reveal that we already stand in sacred space and time, and can now see everything from the vantage point of heaven. We are already lifted up on the snowy wings of angels. And not only here in this sanctuary, but everywhere – serving the hungry homeless at Shepherd’s Table, guiding a canoe over the waters of a silent lake, or with children sitting in your lap on a Saturday morning. Heaven.

            How appropriate it is to talk about the taste and flavor of heaven on a Sunday when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. “Take and eat,” said Jesus. Taste the bread. Relish the flavor. “Take and drink,” said Jesus. Sip the grape juice. Feel its tang, and receive its nourishment. Let the flavor of heaven go beyond words and concepts; beyond teachings and commandments. Just heed Jesus words: “If you hunger, come to me and eat. If you thirst, come to me and drink.” Do that and you will know heaven. AMEN.

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