This "Death Thing"

My Uncle Teddy died last week.  He had cancer.  He was my mother's brother, a loving husband, father of three sons, and a Vietnam veteran.  I grieve for him and his family.

So far in 2021, I've served at over 20 military funerals with our local Veterans Honor Guard, including a funeral for one of our own leaders. 

Since January, our church has had quite a few funerals, close to as many as we'd have in a year.

And this past year, I've lost several college classmates.

I have to say, "I don't like this death thing."  

The majority of our prayer requests are for people who are ill, hospitalized, whose bodies are breaking down.  We cry out to the Lord, "Please heal him.  Please heal us.  Don't let us get sick."  We pray this especially for our children, for our friends, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. 

And our prayers really come down to this, "Lord, don't let us die."

The fact is, we weren't created to die.  But when sin came into the world, death came.  And man dies.

For the wages of sin is death.  Romans 6:23a

Years ago, I often listened to a popular Christian radio host, and he liked to say, "The death rate is one per person.  Everybody's going to make it."

It's sobering; it's scary; we don't like to think about death.

These days, we don't even like to say "death."  Instead of saying, "He died," we say, "He passed away."  It just sounds more pleasant.

"Passed away" - I've never really liked that phrase.  It's almost like denying that death isn't real, that losing someone doesn't hurt. 

Then one day I read:

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.             John 5:24

And there it is!  

Even though sin has condemned us to death, we know that, because of Jesus, we don't just die.  We don't face final judgment; we don't even "pass away."  But when we die, we "pass from death into life!"

...but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 6:23b

In dying on the cross for our sins, Jesus defeated death.

We can now say with Paul...

O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting? Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 15:55, 57

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  Philippians 1:21

In the months before my uncle died, the good news, the gospel was shared with him, and he was baptized.  So when Uncle Teddy died, he also passed into life with Jesus.  That's our faith, our hope, our certainty - that when we die, we'll pass into life with Jesus.

We continue to grieve at death, but not like those who have no hope.

Our God, in His mercy, His love, His goodness, He saved us and continues to save us.

Spaghetti Sauce and Chili

At the beginning of each week, I often prepare several meals ahead of time.  Last week, I made some spaghetti sauce (I like to make my own) and a batch of chili.  I told my husband and son, who are both at home during the day, that these meals were in the refrigerator for their lunch, if they wanted.   

On Thursday evening, the spaghetti sauce was gone.  I asked my husband if they'd had spaghetti for lunch. And...well...you know the rest of the story.  Yep, seriously, he ate the spaghetti sauce.  He ate it for lunch, not once, but two days in a row, thinking it was the chili.  Until I told him that he'd eaten spaghetti sauce, he was sure that he had eaten the chili.  

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I've gotten a lot of mileage out of this story, and I figured there must be a faith lesson here as well.

So, what are you eating?  

I'm not talking about the daily food that we physically eat.  I'm referring to our spiritual diet.  

Jesus told his disciples:

I have food to eat that you do not know about.  John 4:32

We get our spiritual nourishment when we:

• Attend worship, listening to God's Word being read and preached
• Spend time reading God's Word and praying
• Partake of the Lord's Supper, during communion
• Share our faith with other Christians

These days, there's also an abundance of religious writings and teachers.  But Jesus warned his disciples to:

Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  Matthew 16:6

Beware of false prophets...You will recognize them by their fruits.  Matthew 7:15-16

For us today, I take that to mean that not all books, sermons, or teachers that are labeled Christian are actually edifying for the Christian.  But, like chili and spaghetti sauce, we can't always tell the difference.  

Being discerning is a tricky concept.  Some people think anything called Christian is good.  On the other hand, there are people who find flaws with everything.  

It's hard to know what or whom to believe.  And many books and teachings do have academic value to the Christian or are a useful guide for Christian living.    

But, and here's the rub, our soul desperately needs real bread, that real manna from heaven.  Our soul needs to be taken to that place of despair, of truthfully seeing how horrible our sin is, of seeing our need for a savior, of seeing our need for Jesus.  We need God's Word and preaching to convict us.

And then, we need to know and to hear the love of God for us.  We need to hear that Jesus lived among us, suffered with us, and died on the cross for our sins, and that He defeated death and rose again.  To have hope, to have peace for our souls and rest in this life, that's what we need to hear; that's what we need to ingest into our very being.  That's our bread and our manna from heaven.  We need to "take that in" lest we starve and die.

It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."  Matthew 4:4

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8