Like I Said...

...there is just something evil about this whole deal.

Where do I begin?  Well, let's start here, because, even without a crazy evil shooter, are you freaking kidding me?

Officials with Children's Hospital Colorado said six victims, ages 6 to 31 years old, have arrived at the hospital. Updates on their conditions were not available.

Somebody brought a 6-year-old to this movie?  Seriously?  That right there is cause for Child Protective Services to get involved, as far as I'm concerned.  Congrats, your kid is going to be scarred for life.  Physically and emotionally and spiritually.

Second, and this is the real issue here: There is evil in this world and we ignore it at our peril.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.  ~ 1 Peter 5:8

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  ~ Ephesians 6:12

We saw this with The Dark Knight, and Heath Ledger's suicide.  We see it now, with the deaths of at least 14 people in Colorado.  To be clear: I don't think that the directors, producers, actors, etc of these movies are themselves evil, or possessed by demonic forces, or whatever.  But I think that the storyline they have created and they way they've chosen to portray it provides a foothold for Satan to work his evil.  Did the dude who shot up the theater have other problems?  No doubt.  Did Heath Ledger have a lot working against him?  Definitely.  But I think when you combine "normal problems" (i.e., the known generic effects of sin, death, and the power of the devil) with specific, intentional engagement of evil, the outcome is multiplied way beyond anything we expect.  And it's horrifying.

As Christians, our job is to engage the enemy when she picks a fight, and then do so only with the intent of conquering her with the Blood of the Lamb.  That is all.  No other times, no other reasons.  Yes, Jesus already won.  Without a doubt.  But that victory has yet to be fully executed in this world.  We have no business mucking around in the evil and darkness, simply for the sake of morbid curiosity.  The evil one does still have power, and it is real, and it is dangerous.  There are consequences to playing with it. 

But take heart, Christians!  "In this world you will have trouble."  But Christ has overcome the world!  We know who gets the last word, and it is not the Evil One.  Be sober, be vigilant, but know this:

...the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 

"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where O death, is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  ~ 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

And this is that victory:

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.  ~ Revelation 21:4

 Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.

The Age to Come

Yeah.  I'm pinning my hopes on Christ, in the age to come, because I gotta tell you, there's a lot about the current age that I don't like.  Like death.  A good friend's mom passed away recently, and to be perfectly honest, the whole thing just sucks.  I don't like that people die, and leave grieving loved ones behind.  I don't like that it leaves kids without mothers and husbands without wives and the world with fewer good people to help make it a better place.  These are the times where I'm just completely, 100% ready for God to fix it already.

More on Death

Wow, I'm just Miss Merry Little Sunshine today, aren't I?

Anyway, this essay on "dying with dignity" by David Mills really hit home for me a couple weeks ago.  It came as I was getting ready for yet another funeral, and basically doing (to be blunt) "Death Watch" for another member.  I wish that I could just cut and paste the entire thing right here, but I think that violates all kinds of "fair use" restrictions.  So I'll put some of the best, and then encourage you to go read it all.

In discussing the current trend toward "Death with Dignity," he writes,

“Death with dignity” offers not only an escape from pain and humiliation, but a rational and apparently noble way to leave this life. All it requires is that you declare yourself God. Make yourself the lord of life and death, and you can do what you want. All you have to do, as a last, definitive act, is to do what you’ve been doing all your life, every time you sin: declare yourself, on the matter at hand, the final authority, the last judge, the one vote that counts.

But you are not God, and, the Christian believes, the decision of when to leave this life is not one he has delegated to you. To put it bluntly, he expects you to suffer if you are given suffering and to put up with indignities if you are given indignities. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord. And that, as far as dying goes, is that.

For the Christian, Mills says, "dying with dignity" means something else altogether:

This is what my father taught me: to die with dignity means to accept what God has given you and deal with it till the end. It means to play the hand God has dealt you, no matter how bad a hand it is, without folding. It means actually to live as if the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, and in either case blessed be the name of the Lord.

And here is why:

It’s what Jesus did: dying with dignity, in obedience to his Father suffering all the pain and humiliation this world could give. That is something to remember, after celebrating the feasts of All Saints and All Souls, of those who have gone before us, if we want some day ourselves to be among the faithful departed.

For some reason, Mills' thoughts here remind me of the Nunc Dimmitis, aka Luke 2:29-32.  The ESV Translation reads:

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people, Israel.

From years of the LBW, the "translation" in my head is

♪ Lord, now you let your servant go in peace, your word has been fulfilled.
My own eyes have seen the salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of every people.
A light to reveal you to the nations, and the glory of your people, Israel. ♫

Love, love, love this.  Read it at my funeral, mkay?

Tales of a Country Parson, Vol. VI

I've been thinking a lot about death lately, since there's been so much of it around my part of the world.  I myself have conducted 4 funerals in the not-even-three months that I've been here, and there have been 2 others that have taken place in my church building but that I wasn't responsible for leading/preaching.  There were another 4 or 5 over the summer, too, before I got here.  Part of what has made these deaths so hard is that they haven't all been the 90-year-old grandma who's been in the nursing home for 10 years and finally dies peacefully.  No, a lot of them have been younger people dying of cancer or other freak things, and that's harder on people too. 

Frankly, I'm getting sick of it, and so is my congregation.  Last week as I was chewing over the "end-of-the-world" texts in the lectionary, and trying to put together a sermon, it suddenly hit me.  So, so many people in my congregation had been saying to me all week, "There have been way too many funerals lately," or something along those lines.  And on Thursday morning, I made the decision to throw out the lectionary texts and go all-in on what this community is going through - so I preached on Isaiah 40, Galatians 6, and Matthew 11.

I'm fairly certain that I just replicated the 2nd Sunday of Advent in doing that, but oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, I guess.  That and the Sunday School kid who was reading the lessons was not at all pleased that he got stuck with like 20 verses out of Isaiah and another 10 from Galatians, and I read 2 whole verses in Matthew...  :-)

Nonetheless, I think it was the right decision.  It feels to me like preaching on that, like saying, "let's take a moment here and deal with the real crap of life instead of just blindly doing what the Revised Common Lectionary tells us to do" really was a sign to the community that "I'm here, and I get what you're going through, and I'm part of it."  Even just right after the service, it seemed like everyone was kind of breathing a sigh of relief, knowing that the fed-up-with-ness of death around here was out in the open.  Hugs were a little longer, handshakes were a little firmer, smiles were a little more sincere.  And as I said to a friend, it felt good to actually have something pastoral to contribute to the general atmosphere around here. 

Sermon after the jump: