An Irrational Faith in the Face of Death

On Monday I took part in an entirely irrational event. 

I sat in the front row of the balcony at Pete Stellpflug’s funeral at a packed St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Rochester.  We heard reflections on Pete’s life and the legacy that he leaves behind.  Those words were poignant and meaningful.  I found it helpful to remember Pete’s humor and willingness to serve his community

That’s when the irrationality began.  While Pete’s body lay in a casket in front of everybody, Father Kurt talked as if Pete still lived.  He spoke of Pete celebrating with Jesus and all the saints.  He talked of…eternal life. 

When I stop and think about it for a bit, this all sounds like crazy talk.  In my experience death seems final.  Once people pass away we don’t see them again.  We must learn to live without their comfort and company.  We put their bodies in the ground or scatter their ashes.  I can go to the grave of my mom, Edee Reuss and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that her remains lie in the casket beneath my feet.    Death comes as the end of life.  That’s the way the world works.  On my most cynical days, talk of eternal seems like something invented by people to take some of the pain out of death.  “While they SEEM dead…they are not REALLY dead.”  Is this faith thing just a sham?

In the face of such harsh empirical data, Father Curt proclaimed the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ.   It’s the same hope that I mentioned last week.

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ⁵ If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3-5)

How can we believe something so irrational?  On our own we can’t.  We need God’s help!  A Christians we proclaim a God who has not only come to conquer sin and death…we proclaim a God who works to give us the ability to believe it!   We all have our days of doubt and struggling, but God does not leave us alone.  God never gives up on us or leaves us alone.  God directs us forward in faith…even on days when eternal life seems too irrational to believe.

Today (November 1^st) is All Saints Day.  On this day Christians boldly proclaim that all who have died in Christ still live…and that as forgiven children of God we will live with them.  Nobody can prove that it’s true, but this is the hope that I proclaim for my mom, Edee Reuss…for my grandparents (Jim Bantz, George Reuss, Dave & Esther Meier, Charles Dodd)…for Max Cliff and Marianne Morton…and for Pete Stellpflug.  Jesus has come to be with God’s people in life…and in death.

Father Curt’s message rings true.  Death seems final, but it’s really the gate to life forever with Jesus.   That’s not just wishful thinking…that’s the promise of God!  May God work in your life (and mine) to help you believe it!

It's all about the cross

Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. (John 12:27)

On a recent trip to the Cities, I passed the new statue of Jesus outside the Christian Family Church and World Outreach Center just north of Owatonna.  The statue, titled The Coming King, depicts Jesus as a conquering warrior on a white horse, sword in hand, ready to slay his enemies.  It’s a powerful statue, based on images from the book of Revelation.

That statue raised some questions in my mind.  How do we depict Jesus?  When do we see Jesus the most clearly?

This is a good week to ask this question, for Holy Week has arrived!  It began on Sunday with the waving of palm branches and shouts of hosanna.  Jesus rode into Jerusalem as a conquering king with crowds shouting his praises.  Holy Week ends on Easter Sunday with an empty tomb and amazement at a resurrection.  Glory at the beginning.  Glory at the end.  The statue in Owatonna fits these days well.  Nothing can stand in the way of our conquering Lord!  But what about the rest of Holy Week? 

We can’t just build a bridge from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and pretend that nothing comes between them.  Even before Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he knew full well that he went to his death.  In these next few days we will join Jesus in his walk to the Last Supper.  We will journey to the Garden of Gethsemane to hear Jesus’ anguished prayers.  We will stand by as Jesus is arrested…convicted of trumped up charges…beaten and spit upon by the religious authorities…hauled before the governor…whipped mercilessly…mocked and laughed at…sentenced to death…nailed to a cross…hung to die.  We will hear Jesus’ anguished cries of pain…abandonment…and death.  The image here is of a beaten and bloody body nailed to a cross.  The Coming King statue makes little sense in this context.

We see Jesus the most clearly on the cross.  As powerful as the images of Palm Sunday and Easter might be, they cannot overpower the image of cross.  The cross shows how much God loves us, willing to die so that we might live.  Jesus conquered death by enduring death.  Jesus came to give his life so that others might live.  That's not weakness - that's love!

It can be tempting to only want to see the glory of our Lord.  Without the cross, the glory makes no sense.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

   did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

   by taking the very nature of a servant,

   being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

   he humbled himself

   by becoming obedient to death—

      even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

   and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

   to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11