Dear Friends
A couple of weeks ago the gospel reading for the Sunday service was John chapter 14 verses 1 to 14. Just in case you are one of those who missed the service have a look at the reading in your bible and see if you can remember where you last heard verses 1 to 6. Most of us will have heard them at some time or other but we may not have listened to the words being read to us or even taken them in.
That’s because these few verses are so often read out at funeral services and we tend not to hear the words but just go through the funeral service process as if a ritual that has to be carried out and put behind us as soon as possible. The words are actually some of the most exciting and life enhancing that Jesus ever spoke. Our problem is that we hear the dreaded word “death” and put finality into its meaning rather than “new life” or “move on”.
More and more these days people talk to me about relatives or friends, mainly the more elderly but not always, who are increasingly frightened about dying. It is often close family who ask me to talk to an elderly relative who they believe is depressed or worried about dying. I sometimes find that it is in fact the close family themselves that are worried about how to handle a death rather than the person themselves.
Jesus said “In my Father’s house there are many rooms (or dwelling places depending on your bible translation).” He also said that he was going there to prepare a place for us. I imagine it will be a bit like a pilgrims’ hotel with the owner’s son waiting to greet us personally. Greet us not in death but in life, and that’s the exciting and life enhancing bit.
As a Christian I believe that death is a movement onwards not a finality. All we have to do is trust in Jesus and he will do the rest. We trust in so many dubious things in this life that having faith in, and trusting, something or someone that billions have trusted throughout the ages should be fairly straightforward! I sometimes think that God should have made it much harder to accept his love because we may then have been more likely to want it. How often do we all yearn for what we cannot have but ignore what is offered on a plate!!
If we have that trust and if we believe what Jesus told his disciples and us then our life on this earth can be immeasurably better and fulfilling. We need not waste our time thinking about a finish but about living this life to the full and in a way God would want so that when we meet up in the pilgrim’s hotel we are ready for the next part of the journey. How exciting is that!!
A loss of a friend or relative is a sadness for those of us who are separated from then for the time being but we can rejoice for them as they move on to far greater delights.
I am always very happy to talk to anyone who is worried about dying or what might be waiting for us, but you can find out all about it for yourself if you were to take an hour or so out once a week on a Sunday morning. A better idea than worrying yourself to death!
God bless,
John Baxter
