Scared to Death of Death (Mid-week Message)

 

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

Scared to Death of Death

February 5, 2014

Last Sunday, we read from the Tractate To the Hebrews the following:

 “Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, [Christ] himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15). 

The modern paraphrase translation of the Bible, The Message, translates the last phrase as “and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.”

Death is about as final as things get. The one thing we all know about death is that when you’re dead, you’re dead, never to come back again in any pedestrian sense of the word.  It appears to be the ultimate isolation, the ultimate loneliness.  As the great “undiscovered country,” its mystery and seeming finality can at times seem overwhelming, particularly when we are bereaved of a loved one, or facing our own mortality. 

But it is also powerful as an image, a symbol, of something much broader than the end of biological life and daily sociability.  What Hebrews calls “the power of death” is much broader, and much more powerful than the thing death itself.  It is a loss of hope, a sense of ultimate failure, futility, randomness and meaninglessness. 

Our Christian faith is based in the resurrection of our Lord, the wondrous act of God that shows that death is not final, nor life a meaningless and pain-filled decline into isolation and oblivion.    Where Dylan Thomas told his father to “rage, rage, against the dying of the light,” our hope in the resurrection tells us to 'love, love, despite death’s fright.'  Faith in our Lord’s glorious coming forth from the grave teaches us to be fearless in the face of death, and joyous in the actions of kindness and compassion that make life worth living.    

A beloved blessing used at Trinity comes from Henri Frédéric Amiel, who wrote “Life is short, and we have little time to gladden the hearts of those who travel the way with us. So be swift to love, and make haste to be kind.” 

The impermanence of our life is not the only reason to be swift to love and make haste to be kind.   We should do this because these are in and of themselves good and loving, beautiful, and right.  And our faith in Christ frees us from “cowering through life, afraid to death of death,” and tells us that the good, the beautiful, the loving and the right will have the final say and enjoy the ultimate permanence. 

Bishop and Biblical scholar Tom Wright has put it this way: “Every act of love, gratitude and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; ... every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings, and for that matter one’s fellow non-human creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed which spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honoured in the world - all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation which God will one day make" (Surprised by Hope [London: SPCK, 2007], p. 219).

May we live each day as if it were our last, in full hope and assurance that greater things are in store. 

Grace and Peace,  Fr. Tony+ 

 [Thanks to Mthr. Jemma Allen and Fr. Andrew Coyle for the basic idea of this message.]