THE MEANING OF DEATH

What I hope to do: Make this aphorism become alive ­

"The more absolute death seems, the more authentic life becomes."
                                                      John Fowles, Human Dissatisfaction

Why is that necessary?

Because what has happened to death in the 21st Century

The more we became a death-denying culture the more we realized that there is something wrong with how we die

As we lost our familiarity with death, and the less we live with death, the more we lost our sense of how to deal with death

THE HEART OF THE APHORISM

Death and Life belong together

The Role of Death

Death gives life’s process a profound meaning and vitality. It has a positive, affirmative role, for it is essential to any realization of selfhood and life. Death is a key to self-understanding. It is an intellectual and moral revolution that helps us define human nature:

• by affirming death, we are on the way to becoming decisive

• by accepting death, we concentrate on essentials ß through awareness of death, we achieve integrity Death puts us in touch with our deepest feelings, anxiety and hope.

DEATH AND LIFE BELONG TOGETHER

Death is an intrinsic part of life; it arises out of existence itself. It belongs to life. The issue is not "to be or not to be." Rather, it is "to be and not to be." The "and" suggests that not-to-be (non-being) is an inseparable part of being. Death belongs to the very being of man. It is not something that is added on at the last stages of man’s life. Illustration: Story of George who died of cancer at age 67

BIBLICAL INSIGHT INTO THE RELATION OF DEATH AND LIFE:

Genesis 1:1-4 "In the beginning of creation, when God made heaven and earth, the earth was without form and void, with darkness over the face of the abyss, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light; and God saw that the light was good."

There you have it ­ before any creation, there is first of all: chaos. The human situation is ambiguous: without form and void; with darkness; with chaos over the face of the deep. Imagine, you haven’t read more than four lines of Scripture when bingo! There comes the unmistakable proclamation: the constant everlasting weather of our human life is: not order, but chaos; not faith, but process; not certainty, but ambiguity; not light, but darkness.

In the Bible, the question is not, "why is there chaos?" but rather "why is there order?" For the people of God, order was the outgrowth of daily living against the backdrop of chaos. The unique function of the people of God was to live in close, creative touch with chaos, and thereby experience the birth of order.

Church of the Crossroads, March 11, 2001, 9:00 am, Education Hour