Death-Throes Or Birth Pangs?
Sermon
I had the privilege to be with my father when he died. I'd never seen anyone die before, and although I'm sure it must be a different experience for different people, I was amazed at what a struggle it seemed to be for him.
He wasn't in any pain, but he struggled to take off his pyjama jacket, and he struggled to have the window open, and he struggled to breathe, and it seemed as though it was a struggle to die. And although he was given various drugs which relaxed and calmed him, I still felt that underneath that surface calm, perhaps the struggle was continuing.
And I was struck by how very much like birth this particular death was. It seems like it's such a struggle to enter the world, even though drugs may ease the passage, and it can be a similar struggle to leave the world, even though drugs may ease the passage.
And perhaps that's as it should be, for when we leave this world we're born again, literally, into a new world after death.
Perhaps the death-throes of the old are always the birth-pangs of the new. This is what Jesus seemed to be saying in today's gospel reading. He talked about the end of the old way of things, and possibly the end of the world as we know it today. There would be wars and rumors of wars, Jesus said, for nation would rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there would be earthquakes in various places; there would be famines. But all this, he added, would be but the beginning of the birth pangs.
Over the last months and years, we've been experiencing all those things. The weather seems to have changed dramatically, and many scientists blame global warming, which seems to be another way of saying that we've brought it upon ourselves.
But other scientists are beginning to say that changes in the weather on earth have always happened. It's just that the appearance of human beings on earth happens to have coincided with a relatively stable and warm period in the earth's history.
So are the present weather changes and wars and so on, the death-throes of humanity? Do they mark the end of one of earth's cycles and the beginning of a new cycle which can't support human life because the weather is too extreme?
If so, the death-throes have been going on for a very long time, for since time immemorial nation has risen against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there have always been earthquakes and famines and floods somewhere. Human beings have never had very much control over any of that, and certainly not over the earth's natural disasters.
How interesting that Jesus linked the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem to the beginning of the end and the birth pangs of the new. The temple was actually destroyed in AD 70, less than 40 years after Jesus himself died. But perhaps the destruction of the temple was symbolic of the death of the traditional, established religion of the day, and the beginning of the new, exciting religion of Christianity.
I wonder whether we are seeing the death-throes of our own traditional practice of Christianity? Our churches attract far fewer people than once they did, yet people are still hungry for spirituality. And those people are turning to all sorts of other interpretations and aids to spirituality, such as technical devices and CDs for relaxation, Yoga and other eastern practices for meditation, and New Age material for spiritual knowledge. Even the Prince of Wales who should eventually become Supreme Governor of the Church of England, wants to be known as "Defender of Faiths" rather than as "Defender of the Faith", if or when he eventually succeeds to the British throne.
Moreover, traditional religion is constantly knocked on every side. By the media, by ordinary non-churchgoing people, and even by its own, when priests and others in positions of trust abuse that trust by harming other, more vulnerable people. And we've seen a lot more of that in recent years.
All this might well be cause for alarm, and it might be the death-throes of traditional religion as it's been practiced for 2000 years. But it might also be the birth pangs of a new, spiritual era, and as such, be cause for optimism and hope as well as for alarm.
I firmly believe that Christianity can offer all the spirituality people are searching for, and I also believe that churches can provide access to this spirituality. I don't believe that Christianity is finished, or that the end is in sight for our churches. But I do believe we should be very seriously addressing people's spiritual needs and finding ways of accommodating them. And I do believe we need much more flexibility of approach if we're going to once again hold up Christianity as a serious rival to these "new" types of religion.
It has always been the case that Christianity must be interpreted anew for each new generation. Each generation receives new insights, and questions some of the insights of previous generations. For instance, Christians firmly believed for nearly nineteen hundred years, that God was to be found somewhere up in the sky. As a child, I often sang a hymn about "a friend for little children, above the bright, blue sky." But when astronauts began to explore space, that particular insight of previous generations had to give way to the gradual realization that heaven may not be a physical place after all, but more a state of being.
No cherished beliefs are given up without a struggle, sometimes a painful struggle. But that struggle, which feels like the end of everything held dear, so often turns out to be the birth of something new and something actually closer to God.
Right back in the beginning of Christianity, the struggle to retain the old religion exactly as it had always been, was marked by a death, a death on a cross. The High Priest even remarked that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. To the High Priest and to others like him, the struggle seemed like the death-throes of Judaism as they had known it, and they were deeply fearful for the future of their race and their religion.
But for God it was the birth pangs of Christianity, a new way of relating to God, a way that encompassed not just one race, but all human beings everywhere. Christianity breathed new energy into religion; new enthusiasm, new insights, new excitement.
I wonder what new insights and new excitement God has waiting for us in this new millennium, and I wonder whether we'll see those new insights as death-throes or birth pangs? And I wonder whether the Church will be sufficiently flexible to be able to identify those new insights when they come?
For a set of intercessions linked to this theme, click here
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A Prayer
God of the universe,
Just when I seem to grasp you firmly in my hands, you slip away. It seems as though when my cherished beliefs become too set in concrete, you escape from my rigid imprisonment and are to be found out in the world, wandering free and relating to all human beings outside your Church as well as inside.
Teach me to be honest but flexible. Show me which beliefs must stand for all time, and which I can safely drop. And help me to relate to other human beings just as you relate to them, with love and acceptance and delight.
I ask this through the one who showed the way, Jesus Christ our Lord.
He wasn't in any pain, but he struggled to take off his pyjama jacket, and he struggled to have the window open, and he struggled to breathe, and it seemed as though it was a struggle to die. And although he was given various drugs which relaxed and calmed him, I still felt that underneath that surface calm, perhaps the struggle was continuing.
And I was struck by how very much like birth this particular death was. It seems like it's such a struggle to enter the world, even though drugs may ease the passage, and it can be a similar struggle to leave the world, even though drugs may ease the passage.
And perhaps that's as it should be, for when we leave this world we're born again, literally, into a new world after death.
Perhaps the death-throes of the old are always the birth-pangs of the new. This is what Jesus seemed to be saying in today's gospel reading. He talked about the end of the old way of things, and possibly the end of the world as we know it today. There would be wars and rumors of wars, Jesus said, for nation would rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there would be earthquakes in various places; there would be famines. But all this, he added, would be but the beginning of the birth pangs.
Over the last months and years, we've been experiencing all those things. The weather seems to have changed dramatically, and many scientists blame global warming, which seems to be another way of saying that we've brought it upon ourselves.
But other scientists are beginning to say that changes in the weather on earth have always happened. It's just that the appearance of human beings on earth happens to have coincided with a relatively stable and warm period in the earth's history.
So are the present weather changes and wars and so on, the death-throes of humanity? Do they mark the end of one of earth's cycles and the beginning of a new cycle which can't support human life because the weather is too extreme?
If so, the death-throes have been going on for a very long time, for since time immemorial nation has risen against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there have always been earthquakes and famines and floods somewhere. Human beings have never had very much control over any of that, and certainly not over the earth's natural disasters.
How interesting that Jesus linked the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem to the beginning of the end and the birth pangs of the new. The temple was actually destroyed in AD 70, less than 40 years after Jesus himself died. But perhaps the destruction of the temple was symbolic of the death of the traditional, established religion of the day, and the beginning of the new, exciting religion of Christianity.
I wonder whether we are seeing the death-throes of our own traditional practice of Christianity? Our churches attract far fewer people than once they did, yet people are still hungry for spirituality. And those people are turning to all sorts of other interpretations and aids to spirituality, such as technical devices and CDs for relaxation, Yoga and other eastern practices for meditation, and New Age material for spiritual knowledge. Even the Prince of Wales who should eventually become Supreme Governor of the Church of England, wants to be known as "Defender of Faiths" rather than as "Defender of the Faith", if or when he eventually succeeds to the British throne.
Moreover, traditional religion is constantly knocked on every side. By the media, by ordinary non-churchgoing people, and even by its own, when priests and others in positions of trust abuse that trust by harming other, more vulnerable people. And we've seen a lot more of that in recent years.
All this might well be cause for alarm, and it might be the death-throes of traditional religion as it's been practiced for 2000 years. But it might also be the birth pangs of a new, spiritual era, and as such, be cause for optimism and hope as well as for alarm.
I firmly believe that Christianity can offer all the spirituality people are searching for, and I also believe that churches can provide access to this spirituality. I don't believe that Christianity is finished, or that the end is in sight for our churches. But I do believe we should be very seriously addressing people's spiritual needs and finding ways of accommodating them. And I do believe we need much more flexibility of approach if we're going to once again hold up Christianity as a serious rival to these "new" types of religion.
It has always been the case that Christianity must be interpreted anew for each new generation. Each generation receives new insights, and questions some of the insights of previous generations. For instance, Christians firmly believed for nearly nineteen hundred years, that God was to be found somewhere up in the sky. As a child, I often sang a hymn about "a friend for little children, above the bright, blue sky." But when astronauts began to explore space, that particular insight of previous generations had to give way to the gradual realization that heaven may not be a physical place after all, but more a state of being.
No cherished beliefs are given up without a struggle, sometimes a painful struggle. But that struggle, which feels like the end of everything held dear, so often turns out to be the birth of something new and something actually closer to God.
Right back in the beginning of Christianity, the struggle to retain the old religion exactly as it had always been, was marked by a death, a death on a cross. The High Priest even remarked that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. To the High Priest and to others like him, the struggle seemed like the death-throes of Judaism as they had known it, and they were deeply fearful for the future of their race and their religion.
But for God it was the birth pangs of Christianity, a new way of relating to God, a way that encompassed not just one race, but all human beings everywhere. Christianity breathed new energy into religion; new enthusiasm, new insights, new excitement.
I wonder what new insights and new excitement God has waiting for us in this new millennium, and I wonder whether we'll see those new insights as death-throes or birth pangs? And I wonder whether the Church will be sufficiently flexible to be able to identify those new insights when they come?
For a set of intercessions linked to this theme, click here
To receive a weekly email, notifying you of the forthcoming sermon (and story) click here
If you like this sermon, Tell a Friend About This Site
A Prayer
God of the universe,
Just when I seem to grasp you firmly in my hands, you slip away. It seems as though when my cherished beliefs become too set in concrete, you escape from my rigid imprisonment and are to be found out in the world, wandering free and relating to all human beings outside your Church as well as inside.
Teach me to be honest but flexible. Show me which beliefs must stand for all time, and which I can safely drop. And help me to relate to other human beings just as you relate to them, with love and acceptance and delight.
I ask this through the one who showed the way, Jesus Christ our Lord.
