Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Heavenly Oscars?

I have an issue with the notion of "rewards" in Heaven. Paul uses sports metaphors in his epistles (I Cor. 9:24, Hebrews 12:1 though Paul's authorship is questionable) to compare "running the race" to living a Godly life. But what about the central notion of "rewards" themselves? Are not rewards carnal in nature, in that they play to our covetous and prideful desires? If eternity is spiritual in nature, and we are to be freed from our carnal desires, of what significance are "rewards" and "crowns?" (I Cor. 9:25, 2 Timothy 4:8, James 1:12, too many others to list). Granted, some of these references are symbolic, where "crown" and "reward" represent eternal life itself. But I do not live my life a certain way in anticipation of some kind of Heavenly Oscar ceremony. I want to be freed of those sort of competitive, "me first" desires that plague me here on earth.

Could these references be the "human" influence of the epistle writers in their works? Does this speak to their carnal natures?

I don't want to hear eternal acceptance speeches in Heaven.

1 comment:

joannmski said...

Re: Heavenly Oscars - I think it's our earthly paradigm that makes it seem as though these rewards would be competitive. Why can't there be 100 Oscar winners per year in one category? There aren't here, but when we think about the unboundless world of God, we could have rewards for all who deserve it, without limit.