Resurrecting Chicago

“In everything you do, act without grumbling or arguing; prove yourselves innocent and straightforward, children of God beyond reproach in the midst of a twisted and depraved generation –among whom you shine like the stars in the sky.” (Philippians 2:14-15)

“We possess the prophetic message as something altogether reliable.  Keep your attention closely fixed on it, as you would a lamp shining in a dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2Peter 1:19-21)

Me, a shining star in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation with the morning star of prophetic witness rising in my heart? It got me to thinking; What if there were no stars?  What if all we lived through was darkness as we went around stumbling through life?

Darkness as a spiritual condition is the absence of grace, the emptiness of despair.  It’s ignorance.  Ignorance of life, my part in that life, the unawareness of others in that darkness, the missing-ness of God.  If the heavens were all dark we’d never look up.  There would be nothing to see.

The darkness, though, is a bit more complicated.    Paul says the twisted and depraved generation exists in a world is a kind of darkness that we inhabit,too.  With human nature grotesquely crippled by original sin, it’s paralyzed and contorted, unable to walk to the light. If depraved, then, it is deprived of the wholesomeness of  human existence.  All is darkness.

We followers of Jesus, the Light of the World, bear his flames to the world.  Whether we are blazing or flickering, that light is human light (“John –the light was the light of men and the light shone in the darkness which did not comprehend it.” John 1: 1& ff)

Who sees us shining like stars? God does and so should those who look to Him for guidance and grace. We only see one another; we don’t see God. We Christians ought to be so like the stars so that people, looking at our lives can see something of the glory of God.

I just finished a novel by Michael Chabon called “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.”  This guy can write. To me it doesn’t matter much what the subject of a work is about.  I want to read a good writer.

Maybe it’s because I have read science and theology too much.  Science, for example,  can be detailed and boring and often looses itself in breaking down  whatever it is talking about.  I remember pouring over a long chapter on digestion in my physiology book.  The author broke down the process in exquisite detail from ingestion to digestion and the storing of energy released in  this process to maintain the living organism.  Of course, energy comes from the sun and through photosynthesis energy is stashed in the carrot I am eating. When I digest the carrot, my body stores that energy to maintain my existence.  The author had me riveted by his analysis of the process of digestion.  I spent the better party of a day working to understand that chapter.  I will never forget the gist of the last line of that chapter. It went something like this: Our highest flights of fancy and our deepest thoughts are nothing more than a little bit of the sun. Nothing more?  What happened to the carrot?

Although a poet may say that, a scientist should know better. This is a reduction ad absurdum similar to describing your Mercedes-Benz as nothing more than plastic and metal combined according to plan in a workshop.

Back to Chabon and his writing. Please give yourself a treat.  Buy the book and take your sweet time reading it.  You’ll find words you’ve never seen before and scenes you never dreamed before. Read Chabon and he’ll draw you into an adventure you’ll be glad you took.

Assisted suicide is acquiring rituals before life is snuffed out like a flickering candle.   Invitations are sent out to family members and close friends inviting them to a celebration of life.   Songs are sung. Dinners held, The pre-deceased may offer some parting words.  A friend or family member will try to give a eulogy.  This event is held, of course, before the person’s planned demise. Usually at the end of the festivities, the doctor and other care-givers take the person in to a side room and administer the last rites of  IV lethality.

Jesus talked all the time of His promise of new life that does not end, where sickness and death are not present, only eternal happiness. So, bringing on death is pretty much a fundamental rejection of Who gives it and takes it away.

Can’t control your “ins” and “outs?”  Pain is excruciating or debilitating or both?.  Lived long enough?  Or, want to go out at the top of your game before inevitable deterioration sets in?  Then, assisted suicide is an option for you in some states and countries.

Painful, lingering, terminal illness is a burden for the sick person and a lingering sadness  for the friends and family members of the pre-deceased.  Why not opt for a death with dignity?  By the way, how dignified is it to stretch out your forearm to receive a life-ending sedative with the sharp penetration of a needle?

For believers, assisted suicide is unthinkable. We believe everyone has to walk down the passage of death. We remember that Jesus has told us that He will walk with us. “I have come to bring you life, abundant life.” Those words are a great comfort to believers as they approach the last days of their lives. His Resurrection is the sign and proof of His victory over death. “O death, where is your victory?’  “O death. where is your sting?”  We Christians ask for courage to face our last days.