Thinking about dying?

To me, to live is Christ, to die is gain. Philippians 1:21 (NIV)

Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose. Philippians 1:21 (The Message)

There was a report in the paper recently that funerals are going out of fashion in Britain. It seems that more than 50% of people are opting for “direct cremation” (whatever that may mean), rather than more traditional ceremonies.

Two main reasons for this trend are suggested. First, expense: full-blown funerals and cremations are not cheap. And second, a general decline both in religious faith and also, presumably, in any sense of a need for a formal farewell for the person who has died.

Fair enough. As a minister, I have always felt uncomfortable when asked to conduct a funeral by, or for, people I don’t know. It’s hard to do so with any great warmth and - putting it bluntly – it can easily trigger the rather nasty thought, “If you’ve been happy to live without God, then be prepared to die without him”. Putting that a little more kindly: have the courage of your own unconvictions!

There are two problems with that. For one thing, it seems harsh and judgmental; after all, I don’t know for sure about that person, and who am I to judge anyway? And second, the words of a Christian funeral, spoken clearly and with conviction, are extremely powerful: am I therefore spurning an opportunity to present the gospel of Christ crucified and risen?

Whatever, there’s no getting away from the fact that matters of life and death are real and meaningful to most people - and that those of us who profess faith in Christ do indeed have something positive, challenging and comforting to say.

I personally have been doing a bit of thinking about it all recently – partly, perhaps, because of the grimness of the covid crisis, but also, I’m sure, because I have become increasingly conscious myself of getting old. It’s a bit sobering when you realise that your last birthday took you nearer to 80 than 70!

My wife and I chat about it, not sombrely, indeed sometimes jokingly, and of course against the background of a faith built and nurtured over many years. The verse I have quoted at the top, Philippians 1:21, has become a favourite for us; the Message translation is quite free, but I think it well reflects Paul’s great confidence: “Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose”. That changes everything!

If we ask ourselves the question “Am I ready to go?”, the honest answer of the Christian is likely to be that old stand-by “Yes, and no”.

Yes, in that we are, by faith, “in Christ”, to use a favourite expression of the New Testament: our sins are forgiven and his resurrection life has been gifted to us. We have become part of him. All is well.

But no, in that we may feel we still have a lot of living to do! – people to go on loving, work to go on doing, things to go on enjoying and learning about. Life is good! – at least for those of us who are privileged to be relatively free of the poverty, war, pain, sickness and hardship that blight the lives of so many millions. Even we have to tell ourselves firmly that, however good life may be for us, what we are to inherit after death is indescribably better.

Does the Bible offer us any guidance regarding funeral customs?

Not really. God’s Old Testament people were certainly unafraid to give vent to their grief, but beyond that there is little to satisfy our curiosity. One example is the burial of Abner, killed by David’s right hand man Joab but very publicly mourned by David (2 Samuel 3): “King David himself walked behind the bier. They buried Abner in Hebron, and the king wept aloud at Abner’s tomb…” He even sang a “lament” for him (verses 33-34).

The New Testament offers us just one “funeral” (that of Jesus, of course, doesn’t count!). In Acts 6-8 we read about the witness and martyrdom of Stephen, stoned to death by an angry crowd. In 6:2 we read very simply: “Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him”. No details at all.

That little verse sums up perfectly the twofold nature of any kind of Christian funeral. First, a profound hope of eternal life – those early believers would have been in no doubt where Stephen had gone! But second, a frank recognition of the great sadness which inevitably accompanies death, especially a cruelly premature one. No stiff upper lips, please!

Those of us privileged to conduct such services should plan and pray that both those strands might be clearly reflected.

Of course, what really matters is not so much services and ceremonies once a death has taken place, but the nature of the life that has gone before. As Christians we seek, of course, to live well – but should we not also strive, as earlier generations of Christians did, to die well?

And what does dying well mean? What else but dying in childlike faith, in solid hope, in glad obedience, and in firm allegiance to Christ who lived, died, and rose again? Loving Father, grant me grace so to die!

Father, thank you that your Son lived a perfect life, died a perfect death, and rose victorious from the grave. Thank you that that changes everything. Help me to live day by day in the light of this greatest of all truths, to be a light to all who know me, and to come to that day when I shall see Jesus as he is in glory. Amen.

A person of many moods

Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. When I felt secure, I said, ‘I shall never be shaken’. Lord, when you favoured me, you made my royal mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed… You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy… Psalm 30

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

I think Psalm 30 is one of the most interesting and nourishing of the psalms, even though it’s only twelve verses long. Why? Because it travels through a variety of moods, from fear and misery to sheer joy and delight. (I’ve only quoted a handful of verses – please take a moment to soak it up as a whole.)

Just look at the way the psalmist describes what has been going on in his life…

He is like somebody rescued from the sea, “lifted out of the depths” (verse 1), “brought up from the realm of the dead” (verse 3). Has he had a serious bout of illness? – verse 2 certainly suggests so.

He has felt rejected by God himself, indeed, that God has been “angry” with him (verse 5). Do you remember times, perhaps as a child, when you felt the cold blast of an adult’s anger?

He has cried out to God, perhaps as never before (verse 2). He has even gone so far as to imagine that God’s arm can be twisted: “What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit?” (verse 9), as if to say, “Come on, Lord, it really doesn’t reflect very well on you if I, known as one of your children, should be allowed to go right under!”

Grim times indeed. I wonder if you can identify with that today? If so, be assured you are not alone.

But now notice the wonderful change of key…

God has “lifted him out of the depths…”; he has not let his enemies “gloat over him” (verse 1). He has been rescued, vindicated!

Certainly, he has known tears – “weeping” has “lasted through the night”, but he has made the wonderful discovery that “rejoicing comes in the morning” (verse 5). Yes, his “wailing has been turned into dancing”; and God has “removed his sackcloth and clothed him with joy” (verses 11-12). A new, bright dawn has arrived. (If you have a Good News translation of the Bible, take a look at the drawing under Psalm 150 – I like to think our psalmist is that chap on the left, really giving it everything he’s got…)

So… a man who has found God in a whole new way and who can’t contain his joy; and a psalm for us to squirrel away for when the dark times come. Make a note!

I’ve skimmed over the whole psalm; but I’ve left out one of its most important features: the writer also gives us an insight into what went wrong, and what led to his misery.

Our moods of course can swing quite violently from day to day, very often through no particular fault of our own. But here it seems that, putting it briefly, a particular sin had got a grip on the writer; he had had a bit of an arrogance problem: “When I felt secure, I said, ‘I shall never be shaken’. Lord, when you favoured me, you made my royal mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed…” (verses 6-7).

You can only admire his honesty, can’t you? He thought he had everything sorted out, and was, presumably, feeling pretty pleased with himself – “I’m all right, Jack” - but as he looks back and reflects, he is humble enough to pour his thoughts into this poem, and then to allow it to go public.

If the title, “Of David”, which has been added to the psalm, is in fact correct – and it very well could be – then we are looking at one of the characteristics that made this flawed, imperfect man so attractive: he was deeply humble and always willing to admit his faults.

One of the most dramatic and disturbing episodes in David’s life was his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. Nathan the prophet catches David out and confronts him with his sin. What does he do? Make excuses? Try and wriggle out of his responsibility? Laugh it off? Claim that, well, this is the way powerful kings behave – helping themselves to whatever women they like, thank you very much?

No. According to 2 Samuel 12:13: “David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’”.

Just that. No ifs, no buts. A beautiful simplicity. Yes, David was capable of great sin, but capable too of frank, open confession. Is this a word for some of us?

We who claim to follow Christ can easily slip into pride, arrogance, self-assurance, over-confidence, call it what you like. We have done well! We are successful! We are king of the castle! Our church is the biggest, the best-known, the most influential, the most doctrinally correct, the most Spirit-filled. We’re all right, Jack.

Until one day we discover that we aren’t. Perhaps, for us as for the writer of Psalm 30, a helping of humble pie might be just what we need.

Or perhaps the stark warning of the apostle Paul: “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

It’s only a matter of time, be clear about that…

Father, please forgive me for the proud, arrogant spirit that so often hides behind a smiling face. Bring me low, so that in time I will be lifted high in Christ. Amen.

Jesus and the children

People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these”. Luke 18:15-16

It used to vaguely bother me when evangelists stressed the importance of winning converts while they were still young.

I was in a meeting once when the speaker asked us to raise our hands in groups according to what age we were when we came to faith in Christ. I can’t now remember the numbers with any precision, but it was something like this… Below ten? – just a smattering. Ten to sixteen? – quite a forest of hands went up (including mine). Sixteen to twenty-one? – again, a significant number. After that? – just ones and twos.

So what was it that troubled me? Well, that break-down might seem to imply that Christianity is a faith for the immature or gullible. Not, of course, that the speaker intended such a suggestion – he was, after all, himself a Christian evangelist! - but it could be taken that way by people opposed to “religion” in general, and Christianity in particular: Oh, it’s a need you grow out of as you develop into adulthood, like believing in Father Christmas. Clever, sophisticated, experienced people don’t get taken in by all that religious stuff! The message seemed to be “Grab ‘em young, or the chances are you won’t grab ‘em at all”.

On the face of it there is some truth in such statistics. The majority of new converts do indeed seem to be younger people: as I look back over my 40-plus years of ministry, what I might call “elderly converts” are few and far between (though I do particularly remember with a smile the baptism of a couple of sprightly, jolly, 80-plus ladies).

The answer to that feeling of being “vaguely bothered” is, of course, the story of Jesus welcoming the children and rebuking the disapproving disciples. It’s a story important enough to appear in each of Matthew, Mark and Luke. But Luke has a tiny detail the others don’t have. In Matthew and Mark we are told that unspecified people (presumably the parents) were bringing their children to Jesus. But Luke goes out of his way to tell us that Jesus himself “called the children to him": in other words, he didn’t just allow them to be brought, he actively invited them himself.

And then follow those beautiful - and very challenging - words: “… the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Luke 18:15-17).

Jesus didn’t focus on children only because of their innocence and receptiveness, but because they model the attitude with which we all need to come to God, whether we are nine or ninety. Remember that prayer he once prayed: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” (Matthew 11:25).

Remember too his rebuke of other adults disapproving of noisy children (they were joining in the traditional Jewish shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David”): “Yes,” says Jesus, “but have you never read, ‘from the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’” (Matthew 21:14-16).

How beautiful such passages are! Children aren’t receptive to Jesus mainly because they are naïve and gullible, but because they bring with them into this world an instinctive openness to spiritual realities and other precious things you can’t measure. Putting it another way: they haven’t yet learned to be jaded, cynical and twisted – something that so easily happens to us as we grow.

In other words: the responsible Christian evangelist (parent, teacher, preacher) working with children is not exploiting their naivety; he or she is feeding and nurturing a natural appetite that the “adult” world, tragically, has lost sight of. They need our prayers, our support and our respect – especially given that the openness of children leaves them vulnerable also, of course, to false ideas.

As I said, my hand went up in the 11-16 category. I sometimes wonder how things might have turned out for me if my undramatic little conversion had not happened when I was a spotty 15-year old. Perhaps I would have embarked on a life of crime and become enormously rich!… or discovered a talent for music and had a career to match Beethoven or the Beatles!… or developed my stellar sporting ability and ended up opening the batting for England!...

Or perhaps not. Just slipped into a typical conventional life, more likely.

True, it might have been exciting to have a spectacular conversion experience in, say, my fifties. But how much then to unlearn! How much damage to clear up! How much time to reclaim!

No - there’s a lot to be said for a life as a run-of-the-mill Baptist minister! No regrets; oh, no regrets! Thank you, Lord, for calling me young!

Thank you, Father, for the wonderful gift of children. And thank you for those adults who are specially gifted in teaching and nurturing them in Christ. Especially when it seems a hard and thankless task, please reassure them that their work is not in vain. Amen.

A big ask!

Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love… Philemon 8-9

I wonder how Philemon felt when he received this short letter from the apostle Paul? (Please take a minute to read it right through; it’s only 25 verses.) Still more, I wonder if he actually did what Paul asked of him?

To get the background, let’s ask a few questions…

First, who was Philemon?

In verse 1 he is described as “our dear friend and fellow-worker”, suggesting that at some time he had been a member of Paul’s missionary team.

In verse 2 we learn that he and his wife (assuming that’s who Apphia is) host a church in their home in Colossae. (Was Archippus their son?)

The letter as a whole suggests that he was a well-to-do citizen of Colossae: for one thing, his house is big enough to accommodate a church; for another, he is a slave-owner.

In verses 4-6 it becomes clear that Paul values him very highly as a fellow-Christian; very likely he was one of the church’s leaders.

Second, what has occurred to bring about this letter?

Reading between the lines, Paul, who is in prison (probably in Rome), has met a runaway slave of Philemon, a man called Onesimus. Verses 17-19 suggest (we can’t be sure) that as well as running away he helped himself to a bit of loose cash as he did so, thus compounding his offence. Perhaps Onesimus met Paul by chance as a fellow-prisoner; or perhaps, having already heard about him, he made a point of looking out for him.

Whatever, and this is the key point: under Paul’s influence Onesimus has become a Christian – Paul says he “became my son while I was in chains” (verse 10).

And now, lo and behold, here he is back in Philemon’s house, clutching this letter – a letter in which Paul makes it very clear to Philemon that he expects him to receive Onesimus back, and with a massive proviso: “no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother… in the Lord” (verse 16).

As the letter unfolds, Paul puts considerable pressure on Philemon: in effect, “You will do as I ask, won’t you, Philemon – you won’t turn down the request of a poor old man banged up in prison, pleading on behalf of a young wastrel who has come to trust in Jesus and whom I have come to love as my very own son?” Some scholars have virtually accused Paul of emotional blackmail and, while perhaps that’s going a bit far, you can see their point (see verses 8-21)!

So back to the question I started with: how did Philemon react when he read this letter?  - and, presumably, found himself looking down his nose at this woe-begone young man?

We can only guess, given that we know so little about the kind of man Philemon was.

I certainly would suspect that he was shocked: “Treat one of my slaves as a brother in Christ? You cannot be serious!” We need to bear in mind that in the Roman empire at that time slavery was part and parcel of everyday life. Today, of course, we see it as a great evil, but at that time even the church hadn’t yet worked out that it was wrong. The question wasn’t “Am I all right to be a slave-owner?” but “Given that I am a slave-owner, what kind of slave-owner should I be?” (In Colossians 4:1 and Ephesians 6:9 Paul makes clear what he felt about that.)

Philemon might have been quite angry (even fine Christians can be angry, rightly or wrongly; have you noticed?). “What a cheek! How dare Paul tell me what to do with my own slaves? I paid good money for that wretched man Onesimus…”.

But I imagine that Paul was the kind of man you didn’t easily say No to! - and that, however uneasily, Onesimus was indeed reinstated in Philemon’s household. I wonder if he sat next to him in church the following Sunday? Some serious readjustment must have been required...

A simple point emerges from this little drama: Becoming a follower of Jesus is a wonderful thing, in fact, the most wonderful thing we will ever do; but, make no mistake, we may end up getting a lot more than we bargained for. Did Jesus’ fishermen-disciples ever have an inkling that their response to his call would lead to far-off travel and even imprisonment or death?

Do we sometimes overlook the fact that Jesus was always keen to point out the need to count the cost of following him? – and that “taking up your cross” wasn’t just a fancy metaphor but, for many, a gruesome reality.

Being a Christian isn’t a hobby or a Sunday pastime. It’s all or nothing. As the hymn puts it, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” Or as the psalmist didn’t quite say: “Serve the Lord with gladness – or don’t bother to serve him at all”.

So… Did Philemon receive Onesimus back “as a dear brother”? We aren’t told. And there is a reason for that: because what matters now is not what Philemon did or didn’t do, but what you do, what I do…

Father, please help me! I don’t like the idea of sacrifice, and I do like security and comfort. But I want also to be a true follower of Jesus. Help me to accept his call with full seriousness, not counting the cost, and give me the faith to trust that in the end the sacrifice will be a source of great joy. Amen.

From glory to glory!

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18

A book I was reading recently made a novel suggestion: if we are Christians we are not just human beings; we are human becomings.

Once I had worked out what the writer meant I thought, Clever! But it’s not just a witty trick with words, for it conveys a real – and very important – truth. To be a follower of Jesus is to be in a constant process of change, a process of transformation, of becoming.

Of course, you could say that that is true of literally everybody, Christian or not. We get older (though not necessarily wiser). We put on weight (or possibly lose it). We learn things, whether by focussed study or by daily experience. We develop wrinkles and grey hairs. Our moods vary. Everybody changes.

But that isn’t what the book I was reading meant. No, it meant what the apostle Paul is driving at in this meaty, thought-provoking verse at the end of 2 Corinthians 3: “we all… are being transformed into his [that is, Christ’s] image from glory to glory…”.

To get the background, you need to go to Exodus 33-34 in the Old Testament. Putting it very briefly (and a little over-simply), Moses has a vision of God on Mount Sinai, and when he comes back down the mountain “he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord” (Exodus 34:29). His face, it seems, literally shone. That was wonderful, of course; but unfortunately it frightened the people and they kept their distance.

Moses’ solution to the problem was to put a veil over his face – but of course this was not necessary when he went back “into the presence of the Lord” (this is all summarised in Exodus 34:29-35).

Going back to 2 Corinthians 3, Paul compares himself with Moses. Just as Moses brought God’s word down the mountain “engraved in letters on stone” – the words of the law which could only lead to death, yet which also brought “glory” - how much more (he says) will my ministry through the Spirit bring glory!

Paul also draws attention to a small but vitally important difference from the Exodus story: it’s summed up in that little word “all”: “we all… with unveiled faces, contemplate the Lord’s glory…” Moses, in his day, was the only person who saw the glory of God direct – but Paul makes no such claim for himself, nor does he want to. No, every Christian, “we all”, has this privilege; for to see Jesus is to see the very glory of God.

And how can we possibly see the glory of God in the crucified and risen Christ without being changed! That’s what the book I was reading meant when it said we aren’t just human beings; we are human becomings.

Let’s bring it down to earth…

Do you see yourself as “a work in progress”, or as “a finished article”? - as static (I might even use the word stagnant), or as developing day by day?

We sometimes excuse our bad or indifferent behaviour with the thought, “Well, sorry, but that’s just the way I am”, or “I’m afraid it’s too late for me to change”. We may not actually say that, but that’s the truth. And it’s a sad truth, a defeatist truth, a truth that conflicts with Christian faith altogether, and which dishonours God. The person who says, for example, “Yes, I know I’ve got a bit of a short temper”, needs to be challenged, not tolerated: “Isn’t it high time that you worked on lengthening it a bit, then?”

Jesus didn’t suffer and die on the cross in order to tidy us up a touch, perhaps make us little bit more outwardly respectable. No, he died on the cross in order to make us into new people, to slowly but surely make us fit for the glory of heaven itself. Nothing less than that.

I saw a poster some time ago that somebody had stuck on the wall: “Be patient. God hasn’t finished with me yet!” I couldn’t help but smile – a  nice blend, I thought, of humour, humility and thoroughly good theology. I think it sums up 2 Corinthians 3:18 pretty well: God indeed hasn’t finished with us yet; that process of transformation is a daily, ongoing thing.

So why not take a few minutes to ask ourselves: in what areas of my life is change needed? Why not jot down a little list of areas where I know I fall short, and pray over it regularly? A bad habit, perhaps, that I have always been meaning to break, but never managed to? A new sphere of service that, deep down, I sense God is calling me to, but which I am putting off? A more determined discipline of prayer and Bible-reading? A more positive, cheerful spirit, to replace a tendency to cynicism or grumpiness?

We may not see immediate results, but a serious intention can set us moving in the right direction. We begin to grasp the reality of Charles Wesley’s truly great hymn: “Changed from glory into glory,/ Till in heaven we take our place,/ Till we cast our crowns before Thee,/ Lost in wonder, love, and praise”.

Yes! What a day that will be! As 1John 3:2 puts it: “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”.

Father, I confess that I am a pretty earth-bound, not-very-special follower of Jesus. Please stir me up by your Spirit so that day by day I really do move from glory to glory, and so bring me to that greatest day of all when I really shall see him as he is. Amen.

A note for the technically-minded: That word “contemplate” could, just possibly, be translated “reflect”. In other words, the Christian doesn’t just see the glory of Jesus, but makes it seen by others. Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others…”