Watched the LOTR marathon again yesterday, for I think the sixth time. I love Gandalf's musings on pity, on wisdom, and on death. Here he speaks with Pippin, one of the youngest and most fool-hardy characters in the story, who is reflecting upon what he believes to be his imminent death:
“PIPPIN: I didn't think it would end this way.
GANDALF: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.
PIPPIN: What? Gandalf? See what?
GANDALF: White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.
PIPPIN: Well, that isn't so bad.
GANDALF: No. No, it isn't.”
What I especially love about this, aside from the certain faith that death is but one brief moment of transition to glory, is that this knowledge does not stop Gandalf from working for justice and good on Middle Earth. He never gives up, and he never allows those he counsels to give up, even though he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the white shores and far green country is waiting. If the blessed life is just beyond the veil, why not just give Sauron the victory and enjoy the Undying Lands? Tolkien's worldview simply would not allow for this.
Some like to say that the heavenly-minded are of no earthly good. I can see that in the theology of those who see things like war and the rape of creation as unimportant speed-bumps along their own personal journey to eternal life. But I don't think an appreciation for life everlasting necessarily implies uselessness in the world of here and now. I certainly have not seen this to be the case. Those I know who hold a deep anticipation of glory, but also understand that eternal life has already begun, are some of the most present and effective people in the world.
We can hold both a hope for glory and a passion for justice in the same heart (and not just out of fear of judgment either). To be captured by heaven is also to be convicted by the prayer of Jesus: Let your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. We don't just go to heaven when we die: heaven inhabits our reality, our hearts, here and now. Lord, let it be so.
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