Luke 20:27-38
Sermon preached in Bishopton Parish Church, on 7th November 2010, the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost.
I was watching a trailer the other day for a film which was released in October this year, called Hereafter. The main character of the film, played by Matt Damon, is a psychic who has a gift for helping people to contact their dead relatives. Now I didn’t see the whole film, but what was very clear from the preview was that there seems to be a question on everybody’s mind which is inescapable: “What happens to us after we die?”
It doesn’t really matter how old you are: everybody asked this question at least once in their life. “What happens after I die? Is there another place we are going to? Is there a heaven and a hell? Will I ever be reunited with my dead relatives?” There is a torrent of questions that come from that initial one. Because we are conscious beings, because we are aware of our own finitude, our own mortality, the question regarding what happens after we cross that finish line can cause significant anxiety.