An unquenchable trust

The below train of thought was prompted by reflection on my grandmother’s death and the opportunity I had to officiate her funeral. She was quite certain about what awaited her on the other side.

I, on the other hand, am deeply agnostic about what happens to us when we die. Perhaps this is an odd position for a pastor to maintain. When people are mourning the loss of a loved one—or when they contemplate their own mortality—they are more interested in assurances of peace and happiness in the afterlife than uncertainties or ambiguities. But I have always been troubled by the certainty with which so many Christians talk about what happens when we die.

Back in my “sola scriptura” days, it occurred to me that the Bible is rather vague about what happens after death, so I always thought it was theologically misguided to speak about the afterlife with much certainty. When I began to study the histories of ancient Israelite religion, Second Temple Judaism, and early Christianity, I realized that beliefs about the afterlife were clearly works in progress that changed and evolved over time. It seems to me that our hopes about what lies beyond death is wishful thinking and speculation at best.