Living is Christ, Dying is Gain: A Sermon on Life and Death

A few weeks ago I was asked to see a young man for spiritual counselling. It was at the same time joyous but also deeply disturbing. The young man in question wanted to convert to Christianity – joy – but he wanted to do so in order to be able to die as a Christian. It is not that he was sick, maybe sick of life and its circumstances – he wanted to commit suicide.

I struggled with it because I believe so strongly in life. And while I feel the privilege of guiding someone into new life in Christ, I do not want to do so to facilitate suicide.

I know something of the impatience of coming to God. When my mother was 57 she was diagnosed with cancer. She underwent 5 years of painful chemo therapy and radiation therapy. Towards the end she was so very ready to die – not die because she was tired of life, but die because she had a deep faith and understood that she was not leaving earthly life so much as taking on her new life in the presence of Christ the other side of those doors of earthly death we all must pass through. My mother was very aware that we were not yet ready for her to die – and so she waited, hung on, suffered more, waiting till we were ready. The truth is that it bought us precious time with her, she got to know her only grand child, but there was a price to pay. At 62, she died with all of us around her, holding her hands, and praying with her. She raised her head, looked at each of us, and then slipped into God’s eternal arms.

All this was known to me as I sought to help this young man. And shame on me for not knowing my bible better, for I should have been able to point him directly to this remarkable passage from St Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

Of course we have the beautiful passage here from Mark’s Gospel which speaks of our Saviour Jesus Christ’s power and authority over death, but it is the struggle St Paul expresses which for me, gives meaning to our theme – Life and death. Paul is facing the very real Christian yearning of being with God, but understands that God has purpose for us here on earth. Our role as Christians is not simply to hold faith in Christ, it is to live that faith for the benefit of all of God’s Children. St Paul understood this.

I do not in any way want to minimise the suffering St Paul had for the sake of his faith. If you go over to St Anna’s chapel here in this church, then on the right hand side you will see the stained glass window of St Paul. Immediately under his main figure, you will see the means of his death, he was publicly beheaded by the sword. Yes we can say he was spared the horror of crucifixion, but I am not standing in line waiting to be beheaded!

His journeys also took him into great conflict with people, and as he himself related in his second letter to the Corinthians:

1. Five times I received forty lashes minus one
2. Three times I was beaten with rods
3. Once I was stoned
4. Three times shipwrecked

Et cetera, et cetera.

So life was not always joyful for Paul, but still he can say LIVING IS CHRIST AND DYING IS GAIN. There is a part of God’s saving work which is given to each of us. Hopefully not all of us are called to a ministry like St Paul’s, but all of us are called to work our hour in God’s vineyard. All of us are called to do more than simply believe, we are called to bear fruit.

When Jesus restores earthly life to Jairus’ daughter, there is no time to rest. The little girl gets up, and Jesus says – give her something to eat. You will need your strength for the work ahead.

Perhaps you are not sitting here eagerly waiting for your death, perhaps you are. But know this, what we have now is simply the place where we choose for Christ, and then live that faith. What is to come is a continuation of what started here. If you are sitting here this morning not knowing where your next step in faith is, then hear the words of Jesus to you, Talita koum – Little girl, get up. We have work to do. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.