This past Sunday our church ended a ten week Christian
Formation, (also known as Sunday school), series on death and dying. I know, what better way to ring in the start
of the Fall season then with DEATH and DYING!?
But it struck me as early as the first Sunday class…this is not
something that many people talk about.
We started out kind of heady discussing theology of the resurrection,
new body, second earth (meaning heaven is HERE not some far away cloud
kingdom), and the connection between the body and the soul and not the separation
of the two.
With the theology as the foundation we moved into the
practical: have you ever planned your funeral?
Have you discussed your wishes with a loved one? Have you thought about what it means to die
well? We discussed suicide, long term
illness, sudden death, and the impact for the people left behind. As a twenty-eight year old single female, I
have never discussed my hope for my funeral with a loved one or even given it
much thought.
But why not? Death is
a reality that all of us will face one day and the stigma of it comes from a
place of lack of hope. But I do have
HOPE! And I am SURE of what I hope for
and CERTAIN of what I do not see, (Hebrews 11:1 à
Definition of faith). Death does not have
to be scary and planning for my funereal, near or far does not have to be abysmal. In fact, I can make my funeral a
celebration. I can take the opportunity
to in planning my funeral to tell my family and friends just how much I love
them and appreciate them. I can make
decisions now, so that my family will not be faced with struggle and heart ache
in the chance that death comes suddenly and they do not know what I would want.
This might all sound morbid, but here is the truth. I can face my fear of this life ending, and
look forward to the hope I have in the final resurrection, where all creation,
human and non-human, will be redeemed and have new life.
No comments:
Post a Comment