Sunday Sermon

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, February 12, 2012, Greeneville TN

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 25:6-9; I Corinthians 15:53-57

"Dealing with Death"

I belong to a book club. Not everyone agrees with me in the group, and many of my assumptions are challenged just by being there. So it’s good for me. It was especially good for me the night I was asked a question about death. We were on the subject of medical treatment at the end of life, and some were bemoaning how ill-prepared we are for the decisions that must be made at that time. One of the book club members looked at me and asked, “Do you ever preach about death? You teach your people, don’t you, about these things?” I had to answer no. We do a good funeral around here. But helping people face death before it comes….I had to answer no.

So I’ve decided to preach a sermon on it. Some of us may be uncomfortable with the subject. Others of us simply may not feel the need to face the issue right now. But I pray at least some of us will be helped by dealing with death more directly. Here’s hoping the fearful among us will find courage; the grieving discover hope; the doubting, faith; and all of us the desire to be ready when the time comes.

The resources for dealing with death are ample in our tradition. Our faith has a long history of looking death eyeball to eyeball. And the first news and the best news Christians bring to the table is this: God has already dealt with death in Jesus Christ. If God hadn’t gone to work for us, we wouldn’t have much to say. The funeral home and the cemetery would still leave us speechless. We might be better off never bringing up the subject because death would still be the monster that takes possession of us at the end. But that’s not how the story goes. In our story, Godhas overcome death. And the person God used to conquer was Jesus Christ our Lord.

God’s victory, however, wasn’t a typical victory. To be sure, like all victors, Christ reclaimed lost territory, plundered the enemies’ storehouses and took away the enemies’ power to molest and control. But the means by which Christ conquered was strange. Christ overcame death by going through it, by experiencing death as we do, by becoming one of death’s victims. Apparently, death isn’t the kind of enemy you can fight with conventional weapons. You can’t overpower death from the outside in; you must undo it from the inside out. So when Christ, who is very God of very God, very light of very light, humbled himself and came to us in human form, he didn’t come to find a way of escape around death. Christ intended to suffer through it. All of it, from death on a cross, to the depths of the deepest hell, as our creed so wonderfully affirms. Then, on the third day, death, who had won the battle on Good Friday, lost the war. Christ was raised from the grave. Death had no bullets left. It had done all it could to capture our Savior, and it wasn’t enough. The artillery of faith, hope and love prevailed. God overcame death for our sakes by facing it, enduring it, and finding a way through it in Christ.

Christ’s victory allows us to face death with confidence. Our Lord knows the ropes. When our time comes, we won’t be travelling anywhere he hasn’t traveled. From our own painful crosses to our deepest hells, Christ will lead us until we, too, rise victorious by the power of God.

I had a friend in childhood named Billy. Billy was much more adventurous than I, which meant among other things he knew the woods behind our house like the back of his hand. One day, he wanted to venture down trails I never had travelled. I held back. I didn’t know the way. But Billy did. He had explored that region already. Finally, I followed, and though I was cautious and a little afraid, I found strength in Billy. I had faith in him. He knew the way. The one leading me in could lead me out because this wasn’t his first walk in the woods. As the psalmist said, “Yea, though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me….” Christ has walked all the way through death and has come out on the other side. He knows the way. We are right to put our faith in him to lead us out of the grave.

Our natural instinct is to avoid death, to push it as far into the future as we can. Medical science has been a big help. Once upon a time, death was unavoidable because relatives came to our homes to die. From an early age, we saw an aunt or a grandmother endure her last days in the back room of the house. People live much longer now – a great benefit, of course, and surely a gift from God – and when they finally decline they usually do so outside of our daily routines. They move to assisted living centers, nursing homes and hospitals. We don’t experience death up close and personal as we used to. It’s easier to ignore.

Body/spirit dualism also helps us avoid death. Most of us believe that we have bodies which are perishable and spirits or souls which are imperishable. The immortality of the soul is widely believed, but not really found in scripture. Scripture teaches the unity of persons. Biblical writers may speak of different aspects of our being. But the Bible teaches that when we die, all of us dies (body, spirit, personality, flesh, soul – all of it), and God resurrects all of it because God loves all of who we are. God created us, after all, and doesn’t want any of who we are to go to waste. So the whole person is restored, transformed. There is no aspect of us that is disposable. We got that idea from the Greeks.

Body/Spirit dualism shows itself whenever someone says that the body is only a shell; the true self, the soul, the real person lives on. This view minimizes death and leads to euphemisms like those we often hear at the funeral home: “this is graduation day,” “our loved one has passed away,” or “death is merely a transition.” Even as it attempts to diminish death, body/spirit dualism also reduces the need for a resurrection. Who needs a resurrection, if the body is only of secondary importance and the soul (the real us) floats off to God anyway?

But finally no theology, no medical achievements will allow us to avoid the reality of death. The mortality rate is still 100%. Our friends and loved ones will die; we are going to die. How do we face death with confidence?

We remember the story. Christ the Lord is risen today, triumphant over death. And God promises Jesus iss only the first of many to be raised. Death would be too much for us if Christ hadn’t been raised. But in fact, Christ has been raised, the first fruits of those who have perished, as the scriptures testify. Listen to the word of the risen Lord in the Revelation of John: “I died,” says the Lord, “but now I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys to Death and Hades. Because I live, you will live, also.” This isn’t Christ’s first walk in the woods. Those who trust Christ, even though they die, yet shall they live.

Those who face death before it comes reduce some of its power. As Fred Craddock says, death loves to charge into the room throwing darts of pain and fear. But when we let him in, when we don’t fight him off forever, death comes as a servant. Death teaches us to value each day as a gift because it may be the last. Death prompts us to live a life that matters while we’re here; Death reminds us to get our houses in order and to take care of business. You kind of feel sorry for death once we have the confidence of Christ. Death wants to undo us; but God uses him to get us prepared.

We don’t want to be ill-prepared when the time comes. If we haven’t faced death with Christ, then we might hold onto life too tightly when it’s time to let go of our loved ones. Do you know when most of our health care dollars will be spent? In the last six months of life, and often for heroic measures that everyone knows are fruitless: from the $10,000 of chemotherapy that will be pumped into a gasping person’s veins when the nurses know the person will die by morning; to the months and even years of life support when the life of the person has already gone; to the merry-go-round of pneumonia to hospitalization to antibiotics to the nursing home to a recurrence of pneumonia and back to the hospital again, and we know our loved one can’t get well. She’s 90 years old and ready to go. We want to be able to say we did all we could to help our loved ones survive. Currently, however, all we can do is sometimes too much. When our loved ones have lived long lives, or we know they have no prospect of recovery, our faith gives us the resources to say, “Christ has overcome death. God, we give our loved one to you. Your will be done.”

We don’t want to be ill-prepared when the time comes. So, in the confidence that we never face death alone, we’re going to take on the difficult tasks now to ease the burden of those we leave behind. Losing us will be hard enough. We won’t add to our friends’ and relatives’ burdens because we’re afraid to face the decisions that mortality places upon us. Instead, we’ll make sure our last will and testament is in good order (a goal I have for this year), and make sure key people know where to get a copy. We’ll put our end of life desires in writing and file it with our doctor, and possibly the hospital. We’ll also tell as many of our family members about our decisions as can bear it so they won’t be guessing when the time comes. We refuse to leave our spouses, children, extended family and friends more befuddled than they have to be.

All of you know my father died recently. My mother never would have guessed that she would be in the hospital during the ordeal. But she did figure a time would come when we would need her help. So when we went to the funeral home to make my father’s arrangements, we discovered she had made them already, down to how much to spend on flowers. What if she had left that to us? We could have done it, but we would be second guessing ourselves, worrying about offending each other, getting irritable. Our comfort wasn’t the main item of business at that moment. Having a good funeral was the main item of business. But my mother helped us all by facing death early.

She had made lists of my father’s relatives whose names we might not know and some of whom would need a call; she had the information ready for the obituary, the story she wanted told about her husband. My mother faced the inevitable, and I swear death lost a whole bunch of its sting for the rest of us. What a great gift she gave us so that strangely we could enjoy each other in a difficult time and grieve more freely.

We don’t want to get to the day of our burial unprepared. So ahead of time we let someone know the tenor and shape of our funeral service, hymns we wish to sing, scriptures read, persons in charge. Your church actually has an official statement about Christian funerals that may help you in the process. I’ll share my convictions with you. A funeral ought to do at least three things. A funeral should give ample room for us to grieve. The loss is real, and we need space to shed our tears without being accused of having a lack of faith. A funeral should help us remember with joy and thanksgiving the one who has died. What good is a generic funeral that fails to celebrate the life of the one who’s no longer with us? We need to acknowledge the importance of the deceased in our lives. And a funeral should preach the gospel. Christ is risen. Death is real, but overcome. We’re going to sing the good news, pray the good news, and wag the good news in the face of the grave. We ought to have some moxy in our funerals. Take that, grim reaper. And what better place to do all this than the church where we worshipped, married, were baptized, professed faith, got healed, tasted sweet grace, fled from our sins and turned our lives over to God? We pull out the big guns at funerals, not because we’re so important, but to testify that God is so good, and that we have hope.

And above all, don’t wait to communicate your love to those near to you. Eyeball your friends and tell them they matter in your life. Hold your spouse, and name the way he or she blesses you in his or her ears. Pray to God that prayer of deepest thanksgiving that you were given the privilege of living, even of knowing the pain of heartbreak. Touch your children’s cheeks and be not ashamed to let them know how impoverished you would be without them. You don’t want to wait too long before you bless those around you with words of grace.

Christ has undone death from the inside out. He reigns over it. That doesn’t mean we don’t have to go through it. It means we won’t go through it alone. With his help, we’ll endure and overcome. So I encourage us to face death since God has dealt with death in Christ. Face the reality and take care of business before the time comes. Don’t let death diminish our current lives through fear. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me….” Yes, even in death. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.