"A Little Bit of Heaven" - Luke 13:18-30 - August 29, 2004

Recently, my wife and I returned from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Every year our family makes an annual pilgrimage to the beach during the summer. We started the tradition fifteen years ago. Since then, our family has grown. We now have five grandchildren and some of my relatives come from Florida to spend the week with us. Over the years the number of "Wagners" has multiplied.

Everyone in our family looks forward to the week. We bask in the sun, walk on the beach, eat dinner out, play miniature golf and shop. For us the week is "a little bit of heaven."

It all started because my wife, Lin, saw an ad in a magazine and thought it would be a great family vacation. She was right, and the experience has grown and we have had many rich experiences.

Heaven is like that. Like a tiny mustard seed which grows and grows and eventually becomes a tree, birds eventually nest in it. Other families we know have taken advantage of a week at Myrtle Beach too. In fact, during the summer months, there are about 100,000 people vacationing there during any given week.

Jesus wants us to imagine a heaven that grows and includes more and more folks. Just how it grows is a bit of a mystery. He illustrates this by talking about yeast which eventually becomes bread.

The first year we went to Myrtle Beach we all stayed in the same condo. At one point there were nine of us. I frankly can’t remember where everyone slept. But, somehow we found the room. Now, each family has their own place, since our numbers have grown. Looking back, I wonder how we managed. Perhaps since the experience is so "heavenly" no one cares.

To get to Myrtle Beach from Ohio is no simple task. It is a thirteen hour drive from Sidney. It is a long, tedious and sometimes very warm trip, one that includes a road through the mountains of West Virginia. We pass through several large cities and some very small towns, where you have to watch out for radar. Once you get to South Carolina there is only one road that goes to the beach. The traffic is usually bumper to bumper and often moves at a snails pace.

Jesus said the door to heaven was "narrow." In other words the way can be difficult. If you have too much baggage, you can’t get through. It’s like traveling on an airplane. You are only aloud to carry a limited amount of luggage.

Perhaps the reason folks might have trouble entering the doorway to heaven is they are carrying too much baggage. I don’t mean luggage. I mean too many burdens, or an overabundance of guilt. Experiencing heaven can never be a reality unless we can shed our excess baggage. As Jesus said, "some will strive to enter through the narrow door, but they won’t be able."

We have learned over the years to travel light when we go to the beach. When we pack for the trip, we then remove about half of what we have packed. The lighter the better.

Many of you are carrying burdens that are weighting you down. You are also harboring feelings of guilt and shame which are holding you back. You can experience a little bit of heaven when you are able to let go of those burdens and be forgiven for your mistakes.

For some, that is almost impossible and unfortunately their lives are filled with hopelessness and despair. Everyone should be able to experience heaven on earth. The key is learning to walk through that narrow door.

Early this summer I went to a Cincinnati Reds game. We got their early and the gates were still closed. There were thousands of people standing outside waiting for the gates to open. They finally opened and everyone rushed to the entrances. It was an experience in patience. You inched your way to the gate, people crowding all around you. There was nothing to do but move slowly, not panicking or trying to force your way.

We can’t force our way into heaven either. It is a patient, disciplined journey that requires faith and determination. I find it interesting that in this story from Luke we find Jesus traveling. "He went through one town and village after another." He didn’t stay in one place. He kept moving and traveling. If you will recall, some of his travels took him along the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. Who knows, maybe Jesus also enjoyed the beach.

Traveling helps me to clear the air. I find trips to the beach refreshing and relaxing. I believe one of society’s greatest problems is the inability to relax. People’s lives are overbooked, therefore they need time away, time to retreat from their busy lives and release themselves from the anxieties of the day.

Freedom from guilt through the forgiveness of God enables us to experience a little bit of heaven. Downsizing our lives gives us the opportunity to travel light and not be overwhelmed with excess burdens. Moving about, experiencing new places, new people and new ideas helps us to see more of the world God created.

In Chicken Soup for the Soul; Living Your Dreams, there is a marvelous story about two women who go on a trip to Lake Arrowhead.

"It was a bleak, rainy day, and I had no desire to make the drive from the beach to the cold mountain at Lake Arrowhead where my daughter Carolyn lived. A week earlier, she had called and insisted that I come to see the daffodils some woman had planted at the top of the mountain. So, here I was, reluctantly making the two-hour journey. By the time I saw how thick the fog was on the winding road toward the summit, it was too far to go back, so I inched my way up the perilous Rim of the World Highway to my daughter’s house.

‘I am not driving another inch!’ I announced. ‘I’ll stay and have lunch, but as soon as the fog lifts, I’m heading back down.’ ‘But I need you to drive me to the garage to pick up my car,’ Carolyn said. ‘Can’t we at least do that?’ ‘How far is it?’ I asked cautiosly. ‘About three minutes, she answered.’ ‘I’ll drive. I’m used to it.’ After about ten minutes of driving, I looked at her anxiously. ‘I thought you said it was three minutes away.’ She grinned. ‘This is a detour.’

We were back on the mountain road, in fog like thick veils. Nothing could be worth this, I thought. But, it was too late to turn back. We turned down a narrow track into a parking lot beside a little stone church. The fog was beginning to lift a little, and gray, watery sunshine was trying to peek through. Carolyn got out of the car and I reluctantly followed. The path we followed was thick with old pine needles. Dark evergreens towered over us, and the mountain sloped sharply away to the right.

Gradually, the peace and silence of the place began to relax my mind. Just them, we turned a corner, and I gasped in amazement. From the top of the mountain, sloping down several acres across folds and valleys, between the trees and bushes, following the terrain, were rivers of daffodils in radiant bloom. Every hue of the color yellow, from the palest ivory to the deepest lemon to the most vivid salmon-orange blazed like a carpet before us.

It looked as though the sun had tipped over and spilled gold in rivulets down the mountainside. At the center of this wild color cascaded a waterfall of purple hyacinth. Throughout the garden were little meditation platforms graced with barrels of coral-colored tulips. And, as if this bonanza of color were not enough, over the heads of the daffodils western bluebirds darted and frolicked, their magenta breasts and sapphire wins like a flutter of jewels.

I wondered who created such beauty, such a magnificent garden? Why? Why here, in this out-of-the-way place? How? As we approached the mountain home that stood in the center of the property, we saw a sign; Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking. The first answer was; One Woman-Two Hands, Two Feet, and a Very Little Brain. The second sign read; One at a Time. The third read; Started in 1958.

As we drove back home, I was silent. I was so moved by what we had seen I could scarcely speak. ‘She changed the world,’ I finally said, ‘one bulb at a time. Just think. She started almost forty years ago. And the world is forever different and better because she did a little bit with consistent effort.’ The wonder of it would not let me go. ‘Imagine, if I had a vision and had worked at it, just a little bit every day for all those lost years, what might I have accomplished by now?’ Carolyn looked at me sideways, smiling, ‘Start tomorrow,’ she said. ‘Better yet, start today.’" (Jaroldeen Edwards, "One at a Time," Chicken Soup for the Gardner’s Soul)

A little bit of heaven is waiting for all of us when we are willing to make the journey.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio