Dying is a matter of the heart
DR. F.D. BURROWS SR., Special to The Herald
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As we prepare for Lent in 2008, I would like for us to concentrate on matters of the heart and hope, for these are things of ultimate value to our lives. Hope is born when we are willing to die for the right things. Jesus said: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”(Jn 12:24)
Jesus not only was defining the central reality of Christian discipleship for individuals, but also was describing a basic principle of life for the church. We will never be ready to live until we confront the possibility of death. And so, as we participate in Christ’s dying and rising, we die to our old selves and find a future not bound by the past. The focus of this dying and rising is the Christian practice of baptism and it also involves a lifelong practice for living into that baptism, of daily dying to old selves and living into the promise of an embodied new life.
The sad reality is that many congregations are so afraid of dying that dying is about the only thing they can do. Worse yet, many are terminally infected with petty, small-time ailments when they could be raised to new life if they were willing to face the risk of death for things that really matter: what they believe, who they are, and the mission God is calling them to fulfill. The truth is that declining congregations are more willing to die with their past identity intact than to live into the future with a new one. The irony is that if they are willing to die, they would find new life. By refusing to die to their past in the present, they ensure their decline and death in the future.
New life is not an option rather a prerequisite if we believe the message of faith as contained in the Gospels of our Lord. We are reminded that we will not all die but we will all be changed. Change is the only way to inherit the fullness of life that God offers on earth and in heaven. As you ponder these things in your heart, I pray you are able to die in order to have life and life more abundantly.
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