Thoughts On Death – Sunday, December 28, 1980
Of the four seasons, winter is perhaps the least eulogized. Poets and artists alike have extolled the hope of spring, the vibrancy of summer, and the abundance of fall while depreciating the bleakness and stillness of winter. Indeed, nature herself appears lifeless during this barren season of the year.
And yet, we who observe this reoccurring cycle of birth, development, maturing, and death in nature must learn from the process, for we too are part of nature. We too have our mortal beginnings, our period of development and maturity, and we also await the inevitable hour of death, which is so graphically portrayed by the icy shrouds of winter.
There is no escape. Regardless of wealth or station, we are all to die. Late or soon our own appointed time will arrive and we will join the myriads of mortals who have left this earthly existence. Human life is as the apostle James noted, “. . . even as a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”1
Well, the purpose of all of this is not to make us unduly frightened about the prospects or death, nor cynical over the tentative nature of life. .
No, it is more hopeful than that. It is rather to help us accept death for what it is: a natural law of transposition, phase in the eternal process of development. For even as winter is a preparation for new beginnings, so too, death is the medium for renewed existence. Thus, this life is only the childhood of eternity, and death the bridge to all which lies beyond.
There are, of course, arguments to the contrary: persuasive and sophisticated arguments against an after life.
To these we counter with the irrefutable existence of life itself. That we are; that we live and breathe and are conscious of others who do the same is no less difficult a proposition. than the renewal of life. To deny an after life is to reject the present existence; it is to maintain that the reality of the past is less plausible than the reality of the future.
Thus, we believe in the indestructibility of our own existence. Our proofs are beyond argument and lie secure deep within the fortress of the human breast. Our confidence is as old and eternal as life itself.
No, death cannot be avoided; but neither can eternal advancement and immortality.
1 New Testament, James 4:14.
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December 28, 1980
Broadcast Number 2,680