Rev. David Holwick M
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 14, 1996
Psalm 39:3-8
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I. The attraction of obituaries.
A. Recent dramatic deaths.
1) Ron Brown, the hyper-active treasury secretary.
2) Jessica Dubroff, 7-year-old pilot.
a) So tragic. Which is another way to say how avoidable.
B. Today's obituary.
1) (hold up, highlight some details)
2) I check to see if they are younger than me.
...and guess what they died of: suicide? AIDS?
3) I have to read this page - to see if one of you is listed.
C. Death does not have to ask our permission.
II. Death is coming.
A. Every day is someone's last.
1) We prefer to deny it.
2) Death is a foreigner to us, not a close neighbor.
a) Many don't have a will.
b) Not because we don't expect to die, but we don't expect
to die this week.
c) (New insurance. Cancel old one? or wait till after
long trip?)
B. Reasons for denial.
1) Death makes us sad.
a) I have done 66 funerals.
b) Weddings are more fun!
2) We are insulated by our surroundings.
Young people may forget that funerals are waiting on
the other end of weddings and baby showers.
When we segregate ourselves -- when we don't know anyone
who is suffering from cancer or Alzheimer's --
we can be lulled to sleep.
It is this unexpectedness of death that should encourage
us to take a second look.
We should reconsider our pleasant denial, and admit that,
yes, death might visit us as early as this week.
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C. The ancients learned from death, and we can learn from them.
Francois Fenelon, a seventeenth-century French mystic who wrote
the classic "Christian Perfection," spoke eloquently of death:
"We consider ourselves immortal, or at least as though [we are]
going to live for centuries.
Folly of the human spirit!
Every day those who die soon follow those who are already dead.
One about to leave on a journey ought not to think himself far
from one who went only two days before.
Life flows by like a flood."
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III. Are you ready to die today?
A. Deathbed scrambling.
Gen. William Nelson, a Union general in the Civil War, was
consumed with the battles in Kentucky when a brawl ended up
in his being shot, mortally, in the chest.
He had faced many battles, but the fatal blow came while he was
relaxing with his men.
He was caught fully unprepared.
As men ran up the stairs to help him, the general had just one
phrase,
"Send for a clergyman; I wish to be baptized."
He never had time as an adolescent or young man.
He never had time as a private or after he became a general.
And his wound did not stop or slow down the war.
Everything around him was left virtually unchanged -- except
for the general's priorities.
With only minutes left before he entered eternity, the one thing
he cared about was preparing for eternity.
He wanted to be baptized.
Thirty minutes later he was dead.
How was this general served by the remembrance of death?
Hardly at all, because he remembered it too late.
B. Atheists might be wrong.
As Vice President, George Bush represented the United States at
the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by
Brezhnev's widow.
She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was
closed.
Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife
performed an act of great courage and hope.
It was a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most
profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed:
She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's
chest.
There, in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of
the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong.
She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was
best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that
the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.
The thought of death came too late for an American Civil War
general and a Soviet head of state.
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C. Will death come too late for us?
IV. What we can gain from meditating on death.
A. Death gives us the Big Picture.
1) Remembrance of death helps us keep perspective.
a) Sort of like tithing and taxes.
We like paychecks and income, and flinch at our tithe.
But on April 15 you reject the income and rejoice at
the tithe.
b) Everything is turned upside down, or perhaps more
appropriately, right-side up.
2) Judgment Day.
a) Small things that frustrate us now and wreck our schedules
may seem important then - painting an elderly person's
house, doing a chore for a friend.
b) In eternity, we will remember the acts of kindness and
love, and we will be glad we took the time to do them.
c) Death filters our priorities.
B. It filters our passions.
1) Country song: "If morning's echo says we sinned, this is
what I wanted now."
Really?
Would you continue an affair if you knew you would be dead
in the morning? I don't think so.
2) What person would risk entering eternity in a drunken stupor?
What fool would ignore his loved ones and God for one last
night so that he could make another quick $10,000 just
before he died?
C. It encourages us to grow in grace and holiness.
Thomas Kempis agreed with this way of looking at things.
He lived 600 years ago, and he argued that the remembrance
of death is a powerful force for spiritual growth:
"If you spent more time thinking of your death than of living
a long time, there is no question but you would be more
zealous to improve your life.
The thought of avoiding hell should alone cause you to
be reformed.
But because these things don't cross our minds, and we
still focus only on the things that delight us, we
remain cold and sluggish in religion."
D. Death can be a comforter.
1) It can be consoling when we face trials and losses.
a) Loved ones are waiting for us.
b) Our broken bodies will be renewed.
c) We are ushered into the presence of God.
2) Christian faith makes no sense without eternity. 1 Cor 15:19
Because of the Resurrection of Jesus:
a) There will be an end to our struggle for righteousness.
b) A limit has been placed on our pain.
c) Our loneliness will not go on forever.
d) Another world is coming.
V. Keeping death alive.
A. Walk in cemeteries.
1) (Memorial Day, Holwick picnic in Weisenberg, PA.
We visit grave of Johann Jacob Holben and fly kites)
2) Someday our bones will be there.
3) What will matter then?
4) Graveyards can inspire us like few other things.
B. Live in the communion of saints.
1) Remember those greats from the past.
a) My generation thinks of John F. Kennedy, M. L. King.
b) They inspired a nation. But left plenty of dirty linen.
2) Perhaps better to remember genuine Christians.
a) (Examples from our church.)
C. Remember Easter.
1) Jesus' life had a beginning and an end.
2) Our lives also have a beginning and an end.
3) "Death is the destiny of every man; the living should take
this to heart." Eccl 7:2
[Main source: "Wise Christians Clip Obituaries," by Gary Thomas,
Christianity Today, 10/3/94, p. 24. #3551, 3552, 3620, 3621
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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