|
|
|
|
Letter to America No. 3 - By Robert Kolb
Robert Kolb reflects on dealing with death; hollow words and empty sentiments cannot help us to come to terms with death-only Christ's victory over it.
Letter to North America 3. December 2006.
It happens more and more. There are more sympathy cards to write this year. It seems harder to write them from across the ocean although it ought not be. I stopped by a shop in Oberursel and picked up a few extra a month ago. I sent off the last one now – and noticed one more sign of the times. A generation ago an American sociologist, Ernest Becker, analyzed the status of the idea of death in the American consciousness. In The Denial of Death (New York, 1973) Becker argued that, unlike most people in the history of the world, Americans were able with some success to drive death out of their everyday lives and their consciousness. His fascinating study still deserves attention, for it shows how death, real and earnest as it is, twists life subconsciously when we try to obscure it from our conscious recognition.
Apparently the Germans have the same problem with not knowing how to come to terms with death that we do, for one of my “Kondolenz-Karten” had an extra slip of paper laid inside, with the kind offer to assist me with some words for writing into the card. “To enable you to convey a personal message with your condolence card, we have produced some suitable texts for you.” The texts reveal the impoverishment of spirit and the incapability of functioning human relationships in a world in which people do not know what death is and why there seem to be no suitable reactions to it all.
Here are the nine expressions of sympathy that the manufacturers of the card thought I might want to write. “She/he left behind many traces of love and concern, and the memory of everything beautiful that we experienced with her/him will always be live in our memory.” “When such a dear person dies, he is not really dead, but lives on in our hearts.” “Lovable was his/her nature, all he did the best. The gifted active hands must now forever rest.” “It is difficult to find the right words, but we want you to know that we are near you in our thoughts.” “Strength for you! We know that our words can give only a little comfort. Only times teaches us to live with that which we cannot grasp.” “Life passes away. However, the traces of his/her life, the work of his/her hands and our time with him/her will remain alive in us.” “You are not alone, even if our comfort in these difficult hours consists only in loving silence and in silent compassion.” “In this time of darkness and pain only thankfulness brings comfort, thankfulness that we could spend so many years with him/her. The light of love is stronger than the shadow of death.”
Comfort is a relative word in the face of the loss of loved ones, and apart from “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!” all words fall somewhat short of the gift we would like to give the grieving. Even the confession of our faith in the One who raises the dead to life does not solve the problem of the emptiness created by death for the survivors. These attempts to address the problem, however, do not engage the deeper dilemma of both the dying and grieving. Memories do not solve the problem. Silence, not even silent compassion, does not solve the problem. Even the denial of death cannot cast out the fear and dread. There is no solution to death apart from death itself. For death is nothing more than the payment sin gives those who have volunteered to work on its team. And sin is a trustworthy paymaster. Sin pays the wage in full.
Seven years ago a Harvard professor of English literature issued his second biography of Martin Luther, Martin Luther, the Christian between God and Death, a play on Heiko Oberman’s Luther. Man Between God and the Devil. Marius proposed that Luther’s entire career and thought was driven by his fear of death. Even a casual reading of Luther’s writings demonstrates that Marius spun his theory out of his own imagination. That is the only explanation in view of his failure to cite evidence to back his interpretive theory throughout the book and in view of actual Luther texts.
In conversations with students and colleagues, in letters of condolence on a variety of acquaintances, in sermons on pericopes that deal with death, Luther himself acknowledged that death brings sorrow to the dying and to the grieving. He recognized how devastating honest fear of God’s judgment can be for sinners who come to sense what stands behind death. But in general he told the dying, the grieving, and those actively engaged in every day living repeatedly that Jesus Christ had conquered all the enemies of his people, including death. He described Jesus as the one who has gobbled down death. He sketched a conversation God had with death in a sermon on 1 Corinthians 15: “For a long time death sang, ‘Hurray! Triumph! I, death, am king and lord over all human beings. I have the victory and am on top.’ But our Lord God permits himself to sing a little song that goes, ‘Hurray! Triumph! Life is king and lord over death. Death has lost and is on the bottom. Previously death had sung, ‘Victory! Victory! Hurray! I have won. Here is nothing but death and no life.’ But God now sings, ‘Victory! Victory! Hurray! I have won. Here is nothing but life and no death. Death has been conquered in Christ and has died itself. Life has gained the victory and won” (D. Martin Luther's Werke [Weimar edition], 49, 768-769). He said that the success of the Reformation lay in teaching people how to believe, live, pray, suffer, and die.
As with every form of evil also death cannot be met with a human explanation that sets death aside or sets it right. God’s answer to death is the person of his Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, not an rationalization or clarification As his followers we are called to help those around us go beyond the empty sentiments that at best reveal our normal, natural, frail frustration with the monster, death, and find the words that do not reverse death but rather swallow it and make this last enemy the doorway to life in spite of itself.
Written By: admin
Date Posted: 1/10/2007
Number of Views: 884
Return
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|