FOOTMARKS for February 2010
“Choosing Life in the Face of Death”
One of the marks of a follower of Jesus is that they courageously continue to choose life in the face of death. We do not do this by denying the reality of death but by continuing to live and let live in spite of it.
This month we begin the long journey through Lent towards the cross. Last Lent many of us walked a leg or two of the Walk for the Planet. One of the strongest dimensions of that experience for me was witnessing to life on State Highway One, a place often hostile to life. Walking on that road was a way of reclaiming it for life. Walking where many told us it was too dangerous to.
Appreciating the trees and paddocks and wetlands and birds along the way in a way not possible in a metal capsule travelling at 100km/h. As we know highways are often places of death not just for people but for countless animals and birds.
On our recent family holiday in sultry SE Queensland we also needed to make the conscious choice to choose life in the face of death. The day we departed we heard that the twenty year old son of close friends was back in hospital with a resurgence of his brain cancer and that he only had days to live. It was difficult to go so far away from home carrying this sad and tragic news with us. Our travel bags may not have been heavy but our hearts were.
Throughout our holiday we had contact with our friends and as expected Ben died halfway through our time away. It was very difficult not being some of the over 400 people at his funeral. Our sadness stayed with us but we continued to celebrate life in the beautiful places we visited and the experiences that helped us to grow.
The reality of death can both enrich us and deepen our relationships with each other if we do not try to deny it.
This year there is an impending death with the final year of my appointment at St. Marks. It is an ending that will affect us all in different ways. For some it will come as a relief, others will feel it very deeply. But if we live with this ending rather than pretend it is not going to happen it has the potential to be life-giving for us all, as well as for our ministry and mission as a congregation.
Endings can enrich and deepen our sense of mission in that they can heighten our sense of compassion for others, and for all life that suffers and is threatened.
Mark
