Living in the fear of God and full life

He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge. Fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death. (Proverbs 14.26-27)

I don’t know if you have noticed, but we live in a culture that is scared to death of death. I have been noticing the fear that we have around death for some time. In fact every time I go to the cemetery, the fear I sense in others in palpable. No one wants to be there but they go because they must. And the funeral services industry tries to cover things up and make them more presentable so that those who are grieving don’t have to see the reality of what is proclaimed in liturgy (that we are but dust, and to dust we shall return) or the reality of what is happening in returning a fellow sojourner to the earth from which they were originally drawn. Our society fears that this life is all there is and that there is nothing more to be had. The idea of facing eternal darkness and emptiness is a terribly frightening thought and most try as hard as they can to avoid it.

Our culture likes to pride itself on the idea that only the villains die. Villians are often popular because they can be as bad as they want, do what they want, so long as at the end of the plot line they die an acceptable, horrific death. A death that is commensurate with the level of evil they brought to the heroes trough out the story. The worse the villain, the greater are the demands for the bigger death scene. So for example, think of the latest season finale of the HBO series, “Game of Thrones”.  One king dies of poison at his own wedding. His grandfather, who has been the architect of all kinds of villainy dies on the most ignoble of thrones: the toilet. The son who has murdered his former lover for being his father’s bed is applauded for revenging and shooting arrows into his treacherous father while he is on “the throne”. I share this with you because we can never see death coming and we always think ourselves as heroes until the moment that we face our mortality and then it is more than likely too late. No amount of bargaining will change things.

What does not seemed to be recognized is that, for the Christian soul, death is the gate to wider, fuller life. If we believe in God and we believe that God is there for us beyond this life then shouldn't we live this life for everything it is worth, knowing that there is life after this life and death? Shouldn't we consider carefully and prayerfully what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and recognize that this life is worth living and to the full because there is more life to come? Even when we face death, our own our someone near to us, do we not know that walking the valley of the shadow of death, we do not do so unprotected, vanquished? We are never alone there because Christ is there already. The valley is now only a reminder of death because Christ as been victorious; the valley is a shadow of its former self.

If there is a way I could explain it, it would go something like it did at the funeral of the Late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The blowing of “Last Post”, a moment of silence, recognition of the death and who the person was in this life and commendation for the next life. Then the call of the trumpets to reveille, to rising up to life again. So in this moment as we are called to rise in the new life, we are called to know the grace that God has given for this life and let us fully live it. And let us call to mind the peace God has granted for not only this day but also for the days to come that we might live on in the full and abundant life of God.

Jason+