Greetings!

I have been doing quite a bit of meditating [not just considering] on the whole matter of death, dying, the unavoidable reality of illness and how the Corona virus pandemic has brought these front and center, in a way that cannot be avoided. So many [loved ones] have died; it seems that no day passes without news of another who has transitioned and in what is like a vicious cycle, there is a sense in which the whole world is being challenged to embrace life in the midst of death.

 Job chapter 14 and verse 1 declares: “Man born of woman has a short time to live.” The Anglican Book of Common Prayer, from its earliest 1662 edition, took the essence of those words, situated them in its burial rite, and rendered them “In the midst of life we are in death.”

There is profound truth embedded in the Prayer Book’s interpretation of the verse. One can scarcely if at all, mount an argument rebutting the fact of death as a certainty in life and yet, contemplating Job’s words, from the starting point of the goodness of God, I am learning to embrace, amidst the loss, pain and sorrow that come with death and dying, a bourgeoning joy, indicating the presence of life.

This is without doubt one of the paradoxes of the spiritual journey, so there is no way of adequately explaining its uniqueness, particularly within this limited space. Last week, I read an interesting comment by guest writer Mark Batterson, in Ann Voskamp’s blog, the title of which is Who Is God Really and How the Next Generation Can Know Him. Batterson’s comment goes to the heart of what I am here trying to convey; he says…

“Before original sin, there was original blessing! That sequence is significant. In fact, it absolutely alters the way we relate to God. If we get that sequence wrong, the entire algorithm is off.”

In other words, to experience life in the midst of and therefore, not to fear death, is to begin from the premise of God’s benevolent goodness. It is to embrace the fact that God’s primary and ultimate goal in creating, is rooted and grounded in love, a fact borne out in the creation account[s] in Genesis, chapters one and two. I suppose one could conclude by saying that motivated by and in love, God created and declared everything good, bestowing upon humankind the freedom, to choose to love Him and the rest of creation.

Some theologians argue that the gift of free will was the risk God took, to ensure that humankind was drawn into relationship with the divine, not by means of coercion but in response to love, permeating every aspect of creation, love made visible in a way that transcends human thought and ultimately, in the person of Jesus the Christ. That is why the apostle Paul, writing to the Church in Galatia [Gal. 4: 4 – 7] declared… “When the time was right God sent his Son, born of a woman, to set free those who were under the law (of sin and death) and to bestow upon them the gift of adoption, that they could become children (like Jesus)”. The more intimate our relationship with God therefore, the more we find that fear [of sickness and death] is replaced by faith [in the graced gift of Immanuel]

I had better stop here before I get myself into trouble but not before I share with you another bit of wisdom that I have found to be helpful as I wrestle with the deaths of too many friends and acquaintances. It is from the pen of the late Henri Nouwen whose encouragement to ‘befriend death’ seems ludicrous at best and at worst, downright insane! But is it really? I have been finding that where there is a deep and abiding relationship with God in Christ, every day is gift and every moment sacred. There is also the fact that life as we experience it within the limitations of our mortality, is only a prelude to life beyond death when such handicaps will be no more and the essence of our divinity [see Psalm 8: 5 – 8, The Message] will have come to maturity. So then, because eternity is a future hope with a present reality, we must begin here, now, to open ourselves to experience, in part, that which then, we shall fully know [cf. I Corinthians 13]. So, listen to Henri Nouwen in his words below and allow them to usher you into deeper meditation on the gift and blessing of life in the midst of death.

“Our grief makes us experience the abyss of our own life in which nothing is settled, clear, or obvious but everything is constantly shifting and changing…in the midst of all this pain there is a strange shocking yet very surprising voice…of the One who says ‘Blessed are those who mourn; they shall be comforted.’ That’s the unexpected news” there is a blessing hidden in our grief…in the midst of our tears a gift is hidden…somehow the cries that well up from our losses belong to our songs of gratitude.

Until next time, stay safe and well as you remain in the grip of The One whose love will never let you go.

Grace+