Monday evening I was driving back up to our cabin outside of Shell Lake, WI, after leading my once-a-month communion service at Stillwater Prison. I had Spotify on and connected to the car's speakers, and was letting it pick the songs. I was also turning over in my mind today's reading from John's Gospel (Jn 5: 17- 30), which includes a discussion of eternal life, and eternal condemnation, and the fact that Jesus is the one who does the judging in that regard. About half way to the cabin Spotify played John Lennon's "Imagine." As I listened to Lennon's lyrics, which ask us to imagine a world with no heaven or hell, no countries, no private property-- and suggests that such a place would be a place of peace and brotherhood, I was struck by the difference between Lennon's song and today's Gospel. Lennon asks us to imagine that there is no heaven or hell, and Jesus tells us that those places exist, and how we live our lives determines which one we will inhabit. Two such different visions. I have no doubt that both John Lennon and Jesus would each say that the vision he is preaching is designed to have us live the best life possible. Both would argue that their path leads to human flourishing. So who's right? Would we be better off just forgetting about all that heaven and hell stuff that Jesus speaks of in the Gospel? Doesn't that just fill us with fear and guilt, and hold us back? I think there is something in a lot of us that wants to believe that what Lennon says is right, that it would be great if we could just live life free from artificial rules and constraints, and all share in the bounty of the planet as brothers and sisters. But a moment's reflection reminds us that such utopian approaches have never worked. They have been tried at various times and in various places, and always failed miserably, sometimes with horrible consequences. Think of the lofty ideals of the original proponents of communism, and the terror that ideology produced. The problem is that we humans are fundamentally flawed. We have tendancies, instincts, predispositions to favor ourselves, and our egos, and our need for power, to the disadvantage of others. Some people give in to those tendancies more than others do, and are better at manipulating the world to get what they're seeking. Think of Stalin or Hitler or Mao. So we need rules and governments and religious belief systems to counter the darkest sides of our nature. Those things enable us to live our lifes as fruitfully as possible. But does that mean we need heaven and hell? After all, by definition those places are in the next life, not here. Wouldn't we do just fine without them, assuming we had social norms and morals in place that earthly consequences for misbehavior? I think the answer is that we do need them-- not every day but sometimes. Certainly living every day in quaking terror because of the fear of going to hell is not a path to human flourishing. But remembering that, as Jesus says today, our actions have eternal consequences can help in times when the opportunity to do evil seems particularly attractive. So can the prospect of heaven bolster us when life seems especially difficult. Perhaps it helps us to remember that the one who will judge our actions is Jesus Himself. When He says He will be the judge, He calls Himself the "Son of Man." I think He uses that term intentionally to remind us that He became human, and knows what we face. He can appreciate the need for mercy. Yes, heaven and hell exist. But we have a loving and merciful God and, who knows, hell may actually be empty. But don't count on it.