Last Sunday after Pentecost 22.11.09 What really counts
We have just had a reprieve from euthanasia in our state. This is a great relief as we know that euthanasia is a totally immoral process and is based on a godless understanding of life and death.
One of the arguments put forward for euthanasia is that people cannot bear to watch a loved one die slowly. It seems so cruel to see a person lose more and more of what they had during life and be reduced to almost nothing.
Granted, a strong emotional argument, but is there more to that process of losing everything?
In the Bible we often find that people have things taken from them, and it is usually to teach them to have more dependence on God. The Israelites lost Jerusalem and were taken into exile because of persistent disobedience to God. At other times they lost their crops through lack of rain, or through punishing hordes of insects. God, at such times, was not rejecting them but calling them back to faith in Himself.
Put not your trust in money, food, other people, having big walls around your city. It can all be taken away from you in an instant and it is not where to look for help. Only in God do we find the security we crave for.
So the process of dying is another way that God reminds us of the futility of clinging to earthly things. He forces us to give back to Him what He has given us. The power of sight, hearing, taste, mobility, memory. We are stripped of everything eventually. It is not pleasant to think about, but if we put it in terms of going back to the One who created us it makes a lot more sense.
Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. The words of submission of Our Lord become our words also.
And like the holy man, Job, everything will be restored to us in greater quantity, though not in this life.
Such sentiments are important for us on this the Last Sunday of the Church year when faced with another ‘end’ we consider also the end of our lives, the end of our world as we know it.
These things must come and will not be improved by trying to ignore them.
So how do we get ready for death and/or the end of the world?
By making a habit of giving everything back to God in acts of thanksgiving and trust. By reminding ourselves constantly of our dependence on Him; reminding ourselves that it is His world and only He can bring it to its proper conclusion.
When something is taken from us we face a critical choice. Do we allow ourselves to become bitter with God and turn away from Him? Or do we take the lesson and give thanks for whatever it was that has gone, and then say: but I still possess God and that is far more important.
It is not easy to be deprived of things but we can train ourselves to see that God and His kingdom is all that really matters.
As he came forth naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return, and shall take nothing away with him of his labour.(Ecclesiastes 5,15) We cannot take these other things with us.
At the end of our lives only one thing matters: are we or are we not in union with God (in a state of grace)?
If yes, then we have everything; if no, then we have nothing.
Are you with God or against Him? All our preaching and praying and striving are for the purpose of attaining union with God, and increasing that union.
We do not count what we lose when we stand to gain so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment