About Death
Sermon
One of the world-wide (or at least Western world-wide) effects of the attacks on the Twin Trade Towers and the Pentagon on 9/11, was to bring us all face to face with our own mortality. Suddenly we were all staring at death, and feeling very vulnerable. Suddenly we saw human life as it really is - fragile, and able to be snuffed out in an instant. It's one thing seeing death on the screen in a film or a play, but quite another to see it on the screen in real life. I had thought that my senses were quite blunted by the plethora of violence which is beamed into our homes daily with ever increasing horror and ever increasing blood and gore, but nothing had prepared me for what I watched on September 11th. Real death is as different from pretend death as chalk is from cheese.
It has also become very apparent since September 11th, especially since the more recent Anthrax attacks, that most of us in the West are terrified of death. We have managed to sanitise death to such a degree that with luck many of us only come into contact with death a very few times during our life. And probably the majority will eventually die themselves without ever having seen another human being actually die. This is a sea-change from say, a century ago, when most families had at least one child who died in infancy, and where death occurred not miles away in hospital, but almost invariably in the home. The women-folk in the family were responsible for laying out the dead person, who then remained in the home until the funeral and who was visited and viewed in death by relatives and friends.
But we rarely see any of that now. The first task when death has been certified by the doctor, is to ring up the funeral directors, who then take over. The body is usually moved very quickly to the funeral home, and is taken from there to the funeral. Sometimes the family choose to go and see the deceased in the funeral home, but many people refuse that option so that the next thing they see is a closed coffin containing their loved one.
Death has been so far removed from us and so sanitised that it's no wonder we're terrified of it. And here we in the West are quite different from those in the East. In many Eastern and Middle Eastern countries people are still very close to death. They often see it either in their family or in another close family, the women-folk still take care of the body, and the men see to the funeral themselves. So in the East there's a much more "hands-on" approach to death, which is regarded as a natural and inevitable part of life and which isn't feared in anything like the way that it's feared in the West. Hence in the East and in the Middle East, sadly there are young men who are quite prepared and even eager to give up their own lives in suicide bombings.
We in the West tend to shy away from death, and yet Christianity has a great deal to say about death. Jesus' message was based upon death, the death of the self which would result in resurrection. "Whoever finds his life will lose it," he said, "and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39). Jesus had discovered the secret which is becoming increasingly difficult for us Westerners to discover. Jesus knew that in order to reach their fullest potential as human beings, his disciples must allow parts of themselves to "die". Eventually, to reach the best that we can be, the whole self has to "die", but perhaps only Jesus himself reached that state in this life. Even for him it came after physical death, when he experienced resurrection and was witnessed in that resurrected state by many of his friends.
Every time a bit of ourselves "dies", we have the opportunity to experience spiritual growth. Many people aren't aware of the opportunity and so for them "little deaths" simply involve a great deal of suffering and pain, and are best endured and got through as quickly as possible. But Christians who are able to let go of all that they hold dear and surrender themselves to God will find that something new and remarkable happens in their lives, and that they gradually become a new person.
It's difficult to face the death of self, but life itself often precipitates us into it. All the big life-changing events which we dread also carry within them the seeds of resurrection. Events such as death of a loved one, divorce, redundancy, moving house, serious illness in the family, and so on. Even small events can lead to resurrection if we're able to face them in such a way that they lead to a little bit of death of the self. Small events such as criticism of us or something we've done, failure, mistakes, facing our own sin, and so on. Mostly human beings tend to avoid such events in any way they can, such as evading the issues or justifying themselves and their actions, but through doing that the opportunity for growth is lost. In order to grow, those uncomfortable events must be faced and taken on board.
The writer to Timothy had discovered something of all this. "I am already being poured out like a drink offering," he tells Timothy, "and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day." So he's very aware that after physical death, which completes and gathers up all the little deaths, he will experience resurrection just as Jesus experienced it before him, although of course the writer's resurrection wouldn't be witnessed on earth as Jesus' resurrection was witnessed on earth.
But the writer then goes on to spell out some of his little deaths and to affirm God's response to those little deaths and his own subsequent increase in faith and spirituality. That increase in faith and spirituality, that growth of the soul towards God, is his experience on this earth of resurrection, for eternal life is available to us here and now as well as after death. We can begin to experience resurrection through "little deaths" on this earth before we finally have to face our own physical death.
The writer says, "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me." Standing alone is always a scary and painful experience, so having to stand alone at his trial, deserted by all his friends must have been a painful experience for him. But he grew through that experience, for he's able to add, "May it not be held against them." And he goes on to tell us why he can be so forgiving. He says, "The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength." And he realises too that receiving strength from the Lord also brings with it responsibility, for he goes on to add, "so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it."
It's amazing how sometimes awful experiences follow one another, and clearly the writer's unhappy experiences didn't stop with his trial and desertion by his friends, for he then says, "I was delivered from the lion's mouth." This was such a point of growth for him that it fills him with confidence, and he concludes with the words, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Since in the first sentence the writer makes it clear that he knows he is dying (...the time has come for my departure), he obviously doesn't equate "every evil attack" with physical attack. For him the physical death of the body has ceased to be important. He's more concerned with attacks on his soul, and he's confident that God will protect him from those attacks. So the writer's reaction was very different from that of people who, at the first sign of trouble say, "Why has this happened to me? What have I done to deserve this?" The writer is well past that point, for he's aware that life brings trouble for everyone at some time or another. He's also aware that trouble isn't sent by God, even though God can use that trouble to help us grow, if we let him.
And he ends on such a positive note of rejoicing. He may be dying, but he knows he's moving closer and closer to God through the process of death, and therefore death holds no fears for him.
Perhaps we too need to explore death a little more, so that we will no longer fear it and will be able to rejoice as it approaches, knowing, like the writer of the second letter to Timothy, that we will be going straight towards God.
It has also become very apparent since September 11th, especially since the more recent Anthrax attacks, that most of us in the West are terrified of death. We have managed to sanitise death to such a degree that with luck many of us only come into contact with death a very few times during our life. And probably the majority will eventually die themselves without ever having seen another human being actually die. This is a sea-change from say, a century ago, when most families had at least one child who died in infancy, and where death occurred not miles away in hospital, but almost invariably in the home. The women-folk in the family were responsible for laying out the dead person, who then remained in the home until the funeral and who was visited and viewed in death by relatives and friends.
But we rarely see any of that now. The first task when death has been certified by the doctor, is to ring up the funeral directors, who then take over. The body is usually moved very quickly to the funeral home, and is taken from there to the funeral. Sometimes the family choose to go and see the deceased in the funeral home, but many people refuse that option so that the next thing they see is a closed coffin containing their loved one.
Death has been so far removed from us and so sanitised that it's no wonder we're terrified of it. And here we in the West are quite different from those in the East. In many Eastern and Middle Eastern countries people are still very close to death. They often see it either in their family or in another close family, the women-folk still take care of the body, and the men see to the funeral themselves. So in the East there's a much more "hands-on" approach to death, which is regarded as a natural and inevitable part of life and which isn't feared in anything like the way that it's feared in the West. Hence in the East and in the Middle East, sadly there are young men who are quite prepared and even eager to give up their own lives in suicide bombings.
We in the West tend to shy away from death, and yet Christianity has a great deal to say about death. Jesus' message was based upon death, the death of the self which would result in resurrection. "Whoever finds his life will lose it," he said, "and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39). Jesus had discovered the secret which is becoming increasingly difficult for us Westerners to discover. Jesus knew that in order to reach their fullest potential as human beings, his disciples must allow parts of themselves to "die". Eventually, to reach the best that we can be, the whole self has to "die", but perhaps only Jesus himself reached that state in this life. Even for him it came after physical death, when he experienced resurrection and was witnessed in that resurrected state by many of his friends.
Every time a bit of ourselves "dies", we have the opportunity to experience spiritual growth. Many people aren't aware of the opportunity and so for them "little deaths" simply involve a great deal of suffering and pain, and are best endured and got through as quickly as possible. But Christians who are able to let go of all that they hold dear and surrender themselves to God will find that something new and remarkable happens in their lives, and that they gradually become a new person.
It's difficult to face the death of self, but life itself often precipitates us into it. All the big life-changing events which we dread also carry within them the seeds of resurrection. Events such as death of a loved one, divorce, redundancy, moving house, serious illness in the family, and so on. Even small events can lead to resurrection if we're able to face them in such a way that they lead to a little bit of death of the self. Small events such as criticism of us or something we've done, failure, mistakes, facing our own sin, and so on. Mostly human beings tend to avoid such events in any way they can, such as evading the issues or justifying themselves and their actions, but through doing that the opportunity for growth is lost. In order to grow, those uncomfortable events must be faced and taken on board.
The writer to Timothy had discovered something of all this. "I am already being poured out like a drink offering," he tells Timothy, "and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day." So he's very aware that after physical death, which completes and gathers up all the little deaths, he will experience resurrection just as Jesus experienced it before him, although of course the writer's resurrection wouldn't be witnessed on earth as Jesus' resurrection was witnessed on earth.
But the writer then goes on to spell out some of his little deaths and to affirm God's response to those little deaths and his own subsequent increase in faith and spirituality. That increase in faith and spirituality, that growth of the soul towards God, is his experience on this earth of resurrection, for eternal life is available to us here and now as well as after death. We can begin to experience resurrection through "little deaths" on this earth before we finally have to face our own physical death.
The writer says, "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me." Standing alone is always a scary and painful experience, so having to stand alone at his trial, deserted by all his friends must have been a painful experience for him. But he grew through that experience, for he's able to add, "May it not be held against them." And he goes on to tell us why he can be so forgiving. He says, "The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength." And he realises too that receiving strength from the Lord also brings with it responsibility, for he goes on to add, "so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it."
It's amazing how sometimes awful experiences follow one another, and clearly the writer's unhappy experiences didn't stop with his trial and desertion by his friends, for he then says, "I was delivered from the lion's mouth." This was such a point of growth for him that it fills him with confidence, and he concludes with the words, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Since in the first sentence the writer makes it clear that he knows he is dying (...the time has come for my departure), he obviously doesn't equate "every evil attack" with physical attack. For him the physical death of the body has ceased to be important. He's more concerned with attacks on his soul, and he's confident that God will protect him from those attacks. So the writer's reaction was very different from that of people who, at the first sign of trouble say, "Why has this happened to me? What have I done to deserve this?" The writer is well past that point, for he's aware that life brings trouble for everyone at some time or another. He's also aware that trouble isn't sent by God, even though God can use that trouble to help us grow, if we let him.
And he ends on such a positive note of rejoicing. He may be dying, but he knows he's moving closer and closer to God through the process of death, and therefore death holds no fears for him.
Perhaps we too need to explore death a little more, so that we will no longer fear it and will be able to rejoice as it approaches, knowing, like the writer of the second letter to Timothy, that we will be going straight towards God.
