Today at church I walked into to see a pile of chairs held in mid air, and songs about those who were missing from the fellowship. Who had walked away from Christ, or never heard him. And how can these people be bought home. The children heard the minister going off (after deliberately starting a children’s hymn in three keys) and how God wants not to damn us but to forgive us: that God is a God of second chances.

And from there we dive into the text, which is about Christ preaching to those dead. That he entered hades, and those who believed him there would live. For (and this was the sermon) our own actions mean that we would be condemned. Regardless of our standards. It is the mercy of God that saves us.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

(John 5:25-29 ESV)

I am not sure what it means that Christ preached to those dead. I do know that there has been much speculation by learned theologians on this text. I also knwo that even the most learned and wise of us cannot understand the work of God in its fullness.

What I do understand is that we live not by what we have done, by by the work of God, and through the grace of God.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

(Romans 8:3-10 ESV)

The work of Christ is the work of the spirit. Now, we live in this world, and we should be concerned about this world. We should try to influence for good. But that is not our primary loyalty: that is not the source of life. Our life and our loyalty belongs to Christ.

And that is why, at church today, we removed the chairs hanging over us, and gathered at the table. For Christ knows his own, and he will gather them together.