How Can I Truly Be Happy?
October 26, 2014What Should I Dedicate to God?
November 9, 20142
Nov.
2014
Is Death the End?
“Is Death the End?”
Listen to the sermon here.
This fall several saints in our Congregation died. One of you said to me at the door a few weeks ago, “Not one more, I don’t think I can take one more.” Another wondered how they could have gone so quickly together. Yet another of you wondered about the party which Betty, Arleta and Ellen and others might be having up in heaven.
In our second lesson the prophet Isaiah wrote to an exiled people in Babylon who had suffered great losses as well. They had been separated from many they loved, and missed their home city. Isaiah wrote to let them know of God’s care for them at home or in exile; from birth to old age and beyond.
Isaiah used the metaphor of God as a mother, carrying those in the line of Jacob. God would birth God’s people into a new life as they returned to their promised land. The world of their exile in Babylon was a preparation world. Perhaps surprisingly, their Babylonian rulers allowed the Israelites to practice their religion. Their practice of Sabbath kept their faith alive. They practiced their faith and prepared to be born anew when they returned to Jerusalem. For as the prophet said, God had made them, would bear them, would carry them and would deliver them as a mother would.
This belief that God would deliver God’s people into a new life became a hallmark of the Christian church as well. The most fundamental principle of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus. Without it there would be no church. Christianity as a faith is molded around the life of Jesus. What makes Jesus’ life so divine is that he is proof that death is not the end.
Much as what kept the Israelites going in exile was the prophetic belief that there would be new life to come, what kept early Christianity going amidst persecution was the knowledge that Jesus’ tomb was empty on Easter Sunday. People had seen him dead and then seen him alive.
The Christian movement succeeded with the main witnesses being women, some mothers. Women in the ancient world were not given great legal credibility. The Gospels tell us two women both named Mary and then Salome saw Jesus alive first. A movement focused around a miraculous event to which main witnesses were not given legal standing or credibility was not likely to succeed in that era unless there was something miraculous to witness.
The passionate belief in life after death among many of Jesus’ followers motivated their living. That fact inspired many to plunge into the world with conviction and confidence. They lived with hope for they knew that God would hold them in their struggle and success, in life and in death. That whatever gap separated them from God in this life would be closed, whatever sins they had would be forgiven, whatever came next would be more glorious than this life because Jesus had given them a glimpse of glory in his resurrection. So they were not afraid to talk about death. In fact, eventually their symbol became a cross.
Our society does often seem to avoid talking about death. Mortality is a reality. Modern medicine has increased life expectancy significantly. Unlike in previous generations of Americans where more people lived together, or lived on farms, and witnessed death more commonly, increased life expectancy and different living arrangements mean people today are often separated from the experience of death.
Yet the proliferation of social media has brought the subject back into focus.
Earlier this fall, Brittany Maynard announced that she was planning to take her life very this weekend. This terminally ill 29-year-old, recently married woman from Oregon chose November 1 as the day she would die. Shortly after her wedding in 2013, Maynard began experiencing debilitating headaches and was soon diagnosed with a severe brain tumor and a short time to live. Faced with a painful ending, she opted to choose her own ending, using medicine prescribed by her doctor. Then last Thursday she declared she was delaying her decision. Then she took her life earlier today.[i] The debate about doctor assisted suicide and the vast media coverage of Maynard and others may lead to more discussion of death in our culture.
Yeats wrote that we are all, “fastened to a dying animal.” Yet unlike Maynard, few of us have much control over death. In reality, she longed for control over death which she knew she lacked saying, “My glioblastoma is going to kill me and that’s out of my control.”[ii]
Last winter Michael Gerson of the Washington Post wrote of his kidney cancer years ago.[iii] Gerson described the seeming unpredictability of it all. He was a healthy 20-something, had no family history, never smoked, never worked in a uranium mine, yet like millions of Americans had cancer.[iv]
My friend Joe, barely 50, a college all-American skier and high school track coach in Virginia died of a heart attack in August.
Within my own family as many of you know one of our close relatives received a stage 4 liver cancer diagnosis last month and we are thinking about the realities of life and death.
Gerson wrote, “the tumor, the aneurism, the drunken driver.”[v] Death seems out of our control.
The Apostle Paul wrote that death and the afterlife are a mystery. The reality that we will die so certain. The hope for life eternal so mysterious. Yet the centerpiece of the Christian faith is the God is in control. That Jesus has the upper hand on death. Christ lay down his life freely and took it back up for your sake and mine.
Playwright Somerset Maugham wrote, “If one puts aside the existence of God and the survival after life is too doubtful, one has to make up one’s mind as to the use of life. If death ends all, if I have neither to hope for good nor to fear evil, I must ask myself what I am here for and how in these circumstances must I conduct my life, then life has no meaning.”
On the New York Times best seller list this morning, three of the top sixteen books in the non-fiction, not the fiction, the non-fiction category are entitled Heaven is for Real, The Map of Heaven and The Proof of Heaven. The incredible sales of these books and other books are testament to how people are interested in understanding what happens after we die. We may be reluctant to talk about death, but Americans are sure interested in reading about what happens next.
Todd Burpo’s Heaven is for Real has been made into a major movie. It’s the story of Colton Burpo, Todd’s son, who had emergency surgery and after what was a near death experience, spoke about people and events that there was no way he could have known about. He spoke of family members and even Jesus.[vi] Near death experiences give us hints or suggestions of the life to come. I find the volume, consistency and sincerity of many of them hopeful and even persuasive in some cases that death is not the end. However, no one spends enough time dead and comes back to give me a satisfying amount of detail about it all. I wish I could give you more specifics, but Paul is right, the details remain a mystery.
I can point the way to the one who can give you confidence that there is something to look forward to. We look forward with meaning and hope because of our relationships.[vii] I watched three good friends in our community lose pets in the last two weeks. When our relationships whither or die, part of us withers or dies with them.
Yet as Martin Luther started the Reformation on All Hallows Eve, this is a good weekend to proclaim the reformed idea that we were made for the never ending relationship with the God who will never die. Whose relationship with us does not whither despite our sins. The one whose love is unbreakable, whose grace is undeserved, whose mercy is never ending, whose passion for eternal relationship leads God to come from the great world to come into our world to bear us, carry us and deliver us home.
The Apostle Paul believed it. He wrote to the Corinthians that there is life after death. Christ had been raised in bodily form. Its why some in the early days of the church suggested that the discomfort our bodies feel near the end of life are birth pains of something more to come. Death could not hold Jesus and he came back for us. Willing to be broken for us at the table. There is meaning to this life and much to look forward to in the life to come.
Because Paul believed that, he wanted the Corinthians to believe it, because when we believe that death is not the end, it changes life.
If you have faith that you will be carried and delivered again, then it changes how you view the phrase born again.
If you believe, as did those in the early church, that your future belongs to God, then you can have renewed and abundant life here.
That is in part what Isaiah wanted the Jewish exiles to realize. That they should keep going. For God would carry them, even until the end. God was getting ready to bear them, delivering them into something new. Importantly, the Hebrew word for womb in Isaiah 46 is a rare word, used only in the Book of Isaiah. It means mercy.[viii] It affirms here through God’s mercy that the birth metaphor applies to both ends of life. That old age is just as “much in God’s hands as is the beginning” of life.[ix]
In his Saturday Night Live monologue last May, comedian Louis C.K. gave a description of Heaven and earth. He joked that we say God is our father because God is really divorced and our lives here on earth are like a weekend with Dad. Louis said that as a single Dad, God is doing his best to raise us and doing pretty well. But, Louis jokes, in heaven we get to be with mom.
When our twins were born, someone sent me a copy of Henri Nouwen’s wonderful description of the hints of the life to come. Nouwen wrote, “Two twins were talking to each other in the womb. One said to the other, “I believe that there is life after birth.” The second child protested. “No, no, this is all there is. This is a dark and cozy place and we have nothing else to do but to cling onto the cord that feeds us.” But the first twin insisted, “There must be something more than this dark place. There must be something else where there is light and freedom to move.” Still she could not convince her twin. Then after some silence she said hesitantly, “I have something else to say. I think that there’s a mother out there.” The second twin now became furious. “That’s crazy! A mother? A mother? What are you talking about? I’ve never seen a mother and neither have you. Who put that idea in your head? As I told you this place is all that there is so let’s be content.” The first sister finally said, “Don’t you feel this pressure sometimes? It’s really unpleasant and sometimes even painful.” “Yes, the second twin answered. What’s special about that?” “Well,” the first twin said, “I think this pressure is there to get us ready for another place much more beautiful than this where we will see our mother face to face. Don’t you think that’s exciting?”
Jesus declared that unless we become like little children we will never see the kingdom of Heaven. We need to decide for ourselves if we are willing to have faith, childlike faith, that there is more on the other side. To trust Jesus who said that in God’s house there are many rooms. That he would prepare a place for us and come for us. Who suggested he was ascending. Who said to one of those crucified with him that they would be with him in Heaven.
In the meantime, we wait and prepare. But not for the end. For the beginning. Like the Israelites who waited, we wait for that birth into the life to come. In the meantime we gather together in the church, sing praises to our deliverer and develop childlike faith.
As we do, we participate in heaven every time we come to the communion table. If you are missing someone this day, you have only to come to this table where all Saints are welcomed and honored. For here we commune not only with God, but also with all of those who have gone before us in faith. In doing so we are nurtured by God, cared for by Christ, and fed by the Spirit in the faith.
God has made us. Will bear us and carry us. Will deliver us to a world we can only imagine. A world where we are no longer in exile but are home. A world where the mysteries are explained, the questions are answered and the sting is healed. A world where above all, we’ll see God face to face. That is exciting. Amen.
[i] http://www.people.com/article/brittany-maynard-died-terminal-brain-cancer.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Michael Gerson. Washington Post. December 13, 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-after-cancer-diagnosis-seeing-mortality-in-the-near-distance/2013/12/05/36a79f16-5dd9-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html4
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Gerson.
[vi] Todd Burpo. Heaven is for Real.
[vii] Leo Buscaglia. The Fall of Freddie the Leaf.
[viii] John Sawyer. Isaiah Vol. 2. The Daily Study Bible Services. Philadelphia: Westminster Pres. 1986. p. 103.
[ix] Ibid.