It’s been a long time since I was shocked by anything Donald Trump said. But when the president called in to Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” this week to discuss his on-going efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, he said something that stunned me.
“I want to try and get to heaven, if possible,” Trump said. “I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
I’ve been a pastor for 25 years, privileged to listen as folks share their most vulnerable spiritual fears and desires, frequently as they stand on the threshold between life and death. I was shocked because beneath the bluster and confidence, I recognized the raw vulnerability of the president’s words.
In his own way, he was asking the universal question. “What must I do to be saved?” The man who is seen by half of America as the literal messiah and by the other half as the literal devil is wondering on national television if brokering a deal that could save thousands of lives will be enough to earn him eternal reward. He seems to be worried that it may not.
To fear death is a terrifying and near-universal experience, and also a sacred gift that is often the catalyst for repentance and new life. It is unsurprising that the man who co-wrote “The Art of the Deal” believes that heaven is a luxury property purchased by good deeds. But while most wouldn’t articulate it so crudely, many American Christians also believe that heaven is another realm we are permitted to enter after death if the sum total of our “good” deeds outweighs the sum total of our “bad” deeds. And despite all our songs and slogans about grace, most pastors implicitly or explicitly encourage this theological world view. The prize of heaven is quite a carrot, the threat of hell is quite a stick. If a leader can convince people that obeying guarantees the former (and disobeying the latter), they’ve got an enormous amount of influence and control.
So, I have offensively good news for the president of the United States. Christians believe salvation is not a reward to be earned, but a gift to be received. It is a matter of righteousness, but the righteousness of God, not humanity. We don’t believe that any person, no matter how many lives they save, is able to earn salvation. But we also believe nobody has to. The righteousness of God is greater than any other force in all creation — stronger than sin, violence, hate, destruction and death. And in Christ, God reveals that righteousness is for us, not against us.
This is, in a word, grace. God’s love and goodness towards us is not trumped by all the terrible things we’ve done and the suffering we’ve caused. God’s goodness triumphs, not through our destruction, but in our healing and redemption. We currently live in a world ruled by the powers and principalities of violence and destruction, but on the cross we see Jesus has overcome the world.
Which leads me to the next revelation of grace, and this may or may not sound like good news to Trump’s ears. Heaven is not reserved for eternity, and it does not solely exist in some other realm. Again and again, Jesus declares to people that salvation is here, today, right now. Christians don’t wait until after death. We enter into the kingdom of heaven here and now.
That means that the president doesn’t have to end the war in Ukraine to “get to heaven.” The grace of Jesus allows him to immigrate right now. As a newly arrived citizen of heaven, he will begin to follow Jesus and use the enormous power and wealth entrusted to him to be a peacemaker. He may not be able to end wars abroad, but he can certainly end the wars his own administration is waging against undocumented immigrants, the incarcerated, the LGBTQ community and all the poor and powerless.
Having entered into heaven, Trump will no longer chase the kind of wealth that can be insured by the FDIC. He will begin to love, serve and live in community with those the world pushes to the margins. Like the apostle Paul, he will consider all his former awards and achievements “as rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord.”
I believe a day is coming when Trump will be made new by the beautiful power of God’s love. I pray that day comes quickly, for all our sakes.
Kate Murphy is pastor at The Grove Presbyterian Church in Charlotte.
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