A WORD FOR TODAY, April 19, 2022
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, April 19, 2022
“But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, WEB
I don’t usually quote so much of another person’s writing, but I recently read this from C. S. Lewis and thought it was a good reminder to us today. Change a few words and every generation of human beings since Adam and Eve have dealt with the same fear.
“In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’
“In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
“This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”
There is a certain power to being afraid of death because it means that we take better care of ourselves. We eat right and exercise so that we can be healthy. Science has worked to create cures and medicines to lengthen our lives. We take precautions so that we won’t die from foolish accidents. We pray and work toward peace so that we won’t destroy our enemies or risk our lives. We do what we can to make our little corner of the world safe from natural disaster. Without that fear, we might just let the world destroy our flesh before our time.
The message of Easter reminds us that we need not be afraid as they were at the dawn of the atomic age because Jesus Christ has defeated death and the grave. We should be aware of the dangers and do what we can to live our best life, but we need not live as if the dangers of our time are any worse than the danger of death that every generation of human has faced. As Lewis suggested, we should not spend our time focused on the way we will die, so frightened that we can’t accomplish anything. Rather, we should spend our time living, doing sensible and human things. Most of all, we should spend our time sharing the Gospel of our Lord so that our neighbors will know that because we have faith by God’s grace, death no longer has a hold on us. We will die, but we will live forever.
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