I am not sure how I let myself get talked into it… maybe in a moment of madness I volunteered – five weeks in Lent talking about death!
It is not that I object to the exercise of discussing the end of our lives. It is not that I find the prospect of discussing death particularly frightening.
We all share in common the fact that we are going to die. It is the one non-negotiable, irrefutable given of our existence. From the moment we are born, we are moving towards death. We may as well get used to the idea, and talking about it, is a good place to begin.
The problem is that, as soon as we talk about death, we are immediately forced to recognize that we do not know what we are talking about. None of us has any direct experience of dying that we can bring to bear in the discussion. None of us has left this physical life and been able to return to describe the experience.
When we talk about death we are driven inevitably to conjecture. We are always guessing. And, when we are guessing, it is good to resist being dogmatic about the direction our guessing may take. All discussion of death is stepping out into the great unknown.
Death is a blank impenetrable wall, beyond which, we may affirm there is light, but it is a light we are unable to penetrate with our senses or our intellects. Death is the ultimate question mark that stands over all human existence. Is there something beyond the divide that separates us from this visible, tangible realm, or is there simply nothing? If there is something, what can we possibly know now about that something? How can we begin to know what lies on the other side of death?
The Bible does not make our dilemma any more simple. As with so many of the most profound questions, the Bible seems to speak about death with a variety of voices. It is hard to nail the Bible down and say “This is what the Bible has to say about death.”
On the one hand, the Bible seems to suggest that physical death is a final end of human existence. Many scholars quote the statement in Genesis attributed to God who said to Adam after Adam’s disobedience in the garden,
you are dust, and to dust you shall return.(Genesis 3:19)
There is no hint in this verse of any aspect of the human creature that survives death. To return to dust is to return from the primal nothingness out of which God created.
The writer of “The Letter of James,” appears to share this view that death ends in fina annihilation when he writes,
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14)
The New Testament seems to suggest, in at least one place, that Jesus alone was immortal. Speaking of Jesus, the author of I Timothy says,
It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light. (I Timothy 6:16)
Yet, at the same time, Paul suggests that immortality and eternal life are possible for all human beings.
to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. (Romans 2:7)
And Jesus seems to make a distinction between the body that can be destroyed and the soul which is indestructible.
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. (Matthew 10:28)
Paul seems to point in the same direction when he says,
we have this treasure in clay jars. (2 Corinthians 4:7)
Traditional Christian theology teds to reject the idea of the immortality of the soul, a view that is held to be Platonic not Christian. Rather, Christians have generally held to a doctrine of resurrection which affirms that at the end of physical life, the whole human being dies to await final resurrection upon Christ’s return.
Many of the learned volumes in my library that purport to elucidate the Christian faith, simply avoid the topic of death altogether. It is remarkable how little real help I find in the books I own when I search their pages on the topic of death.
The only place we can really start a discussion of something as mysterious and unknowable as death, is with our living experience. We must begin by looking at our experience of life and asking ourselves what that experience suggests to us might be true beyond this physical realm.
I hope our five week discussion of death during Lent is rooted in our experience of living and is characterized by the degree of humility and openness that is merited by the mystery of death.
7 comments
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February 23, 2011 at 9:01 am
Kim
I am attending these discussions and hope to hear a few good inside jokes on who we find beyond the pearly gates!
February 23, 2011 at 9:59 am
Tress
My intellect tells me that reconnection with those we love is not practical.
However I have had two visions in my life which are difficult to explain.
My father in England had had a stroke , but was not in critical condition and I was back in Canada after visiting. I was making beds one day and suddenlya bright light was infront of me and his face in it rather like those old pictures that Roman catholics have of the virgin Mary. In fac t he had just died I found out afterwards . I felt that he wanted to say goodbye.
But that was possibly while he was still alive.
The second time , many years later,was about a month after my beloved husband died.
I was walking a labyrinth(not quite the correct word) with a hospice group
with some negativity about its supposed spirituality , I dutifully walked to the middle were we should sit a minute ,I was told.
It was a grey cool day in April ,and the only connective thing was that iIcould smell the sea. , that he loved and where his ahes are. I was not thinking of him just , slightly negative to the exercise. I sat a moment with my eyes closed , and a blinding light appeared and just a mask of his face was in it.
I suppose it could be attributed to some emanation of my own brain, .But somehow I cannot deny the love that it meant.
What would you think?
February 23, 2011 at 10:34 pm
Ernest
Hello Tress,
I would think that our intellect only has access to a fraction of the mystery of all that is. What beautiful experiences. What if reality is far more enchanted then we dare to think?
February 24, 2011 at 9:16 am
Tress
thank you Ernest
February 24, 2011 at 2:18 pm
Robliz
Those are moments Trish that we cannot deny nor define and yet you were given two beautiful moments of life that you did not request as in causing your mind to project. To my mind, a part of the mystery of life was shown you for a moment.
Beautiful to hold on to, lovely
My minister in Edmonton used to say if we live our lives on Earth as if we were already in Heaven then we died but it was not so, at least we were joyful. (something like that)
February 24, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Rob
Whoops, meant Rob wrote not ‘Robliz’
sorry
February 24, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Rob
Tress,,,,( not Trish.) .. bad day, perhaps I can blame it on my fingers being frozen today in Victoria. More likely though ‘speeding’ via the keyboard.