How do we get into heaven? In Western, religious lore and literature, the image is almost universal. Saint Peter, who was promised “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” stands at the pearly gates and greets or questions those who would enter.
The image is employed in everything from sermons to evangelistic tracts to religious humor. You have to get by Saint Peter to enter heaven.
When I was raising my eight-year-old son in Elsberry, Missouri, I served First Christian Church. At the time, my son, Ryan, had a pet hamster. He had named it M.C. Hamster (some of you will get that), and every week he would ask me if he could take M. C. Hamster to church.
“No, you may not take your hamster to church.”
It was the same every week: “May I take M.C. Hamster to church today?”
I said to him, “No, you may not take your hamster to church. Church is no place for a rodent!”
To get into church, M.C. Hamster had to get by me.
Now, in the winter, Missouri has its share of cold weather. More than once on Sunday mornings we had to shovel off deep snow from the church steps. Ryan usually wore his red flannel winter coat to church.
One winter Sunday, after the closing hymn, I was standing in the foyer shaking the hands of everyone as they departed worship. Next in line was Ryan. When he stood before me looking up, he slowly opened the collar of his red flannel coat, and peering out of his shirt pocket was M. C. Hamster. That’s where the rodent had been hidden.
In the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he writes this cryptic sentence: “...for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”
Regarding Saint Peter at the pearly gates, I believe most sermons, evangelistic tracts and religious jokes have it all wrong. You see, we don’t get into heaven because of something (obedience, morality, perfection); we get into heaven in spite of things (failure, sin, imperfection). And this, because of the beautiful, boundless, eternal love and grace of Christ Jesus.
More than once I have shared the story of Ryan’s pet with families as they grieve at the open grave of a loved one. And then I explain what I think it may be like to enter Glory. How do we get into heaven?
Well, here comes Jesus up to the pearly gates, and Saint Peter greets him as Jesus walks by and enters paradise. Then Jesus, clothed in his dazzling, white robe, walks right up to the Heavenly Father, smiles, then opens his robe; and there we are! Smuggled by the miracle of love into the presence of God.
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
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