Plan of Succession
November 2, 2014 | Patrick Preheim
I think November could legitimately be labeled the “death month”. Yesterday, November 1, was All Saints Day—a day to remember the great cloud of witnesses whose varieties of holiness have deepened our awareness of and communion with God. Next week in this congregation we will celebrate the baptism of Tristan Brenneman, and baptism is a rite in which we voluntarily die to our old selves and take on a new identity. November 11 is Remembrance Day, and many of us will pause at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour out of respect for those who have sacrificed their lives for the common good. Memorium Sunday, a day we read the names of our loved ones who have died in this last year, always falls in November. Per square calendar footage November has more days to remember the dead than any other month of the year.
Mindful of this November theme my interest was piqued by the way in which the book of Joshua begins. At the end of Deuteronomy Moses ascends Mt. Nebo to die. It is the view from Mt. Nebo which appears on our bulletin cover, and the pictures you see are all from atop Mt. Nebo looking into Palestine. The book of Joshua begins by stating several times that, in fact, Moses has died. Moses is dead, and that changes things. The leader, the family hub, the mediator of God has died and the mantle has fallen to Joshua. Can you imagine the burden and anxiety which filled Joshua as he attended to the funeral details? Three times in these first nine verses God tells Joshua and company to “be strong and courageous” (vv 6,7,9), and we should take note when God starts repeating himself. Clearly Joshua and the children of Israel are rocked by the death of Moses. Oh yes, death changes things.
When a loved ones dies, we feel a part of us has gone missing—death changes things.
When a spiritual mentor departs, we wonder who will guide us.
When a soldier at a war memorial in Ottawa dies, a country grieves, attitudes of law makers shift, civil liberties get curtailed.
When three Israeli settlers are kidnapped and killed, Gaze is bombed into the stone age.
When Gaza is bombed into the stone age and after the hundreds of dead are finally buried,
young Palestinians protest with rocks and rockets.
When media shows fanatics beheading innocent people, fanatics send fighter jets to drop bombs.
When Jesus dies, and here I want us to pay close attention,hostility is put to death (Eph 2.16)
captivity is taken captive (Eph 4.8)
death loses its sting (1st Cor 15.55)
And because of his death in the face of all the other death before us we are to fear not, to be of good courage, to be strong in the Lord. We don’t make it to a good and Promised Land without going forward courageously. My thoughts this morning will explore ways we remain strong in the Lord as we go forward in the wake of fear and death.
First, theology matters. When death in our families, in our nation’s capital, in the news evokes its fear inducing paralysis it is critical that we Christians remember Jesus. Mary and Joseph could have named their boy anything, but they were directed to name him Jesus (Lk 1.31). Jesus is the Greek form the Aramaic and Hebrew name Joshua (John L. McKenzie, S.J., Dictionary of the Bible, p.432), which literally means “Yahweh delivers”. In the book of Joshua, Yahweh delivers land to the people through the instrument called Joshua. In the New Testament, Yahweh delivers peace to the people through the instrument called Jesus which as I noted is a linguistic translation of Joshua. In the book of Joshua, Yahweh conquers through the sword and trumpet of Joshua. In the N.T., Yahweh conquers through the call of Jesus—a non-violent victory. I have said that death changes things. Well, the non-violent life and death of Jesus really change things. Jesus lived and died and lives again to establish his way in the world and extend friendship to the living and dead.
- Because Jesus died and lives again we who still have a pulse can approach fear and death with confidence. Terrorism instills terror insofar as people like us give power to those who threaten. When we claim our inheritance as people of Jesus we are freed from the worst this world can do. This is the theological tact which Paul takes in his letter to the Romans (8.35-39): “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- Because Jesus died and lives again we can release our dead loved ones knowing they are in the care of Jesus. The Apostle Paul addressed this very situation in his first letter to the Thessalonians (4.13-18). He wrote, “we do not want you to be uniformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died...the dead in Christ will rise first.”
- Because Jesus is Lord of the living and dead we can put aside the need for vengeance. In the teachings of Jesus, in his crucifixion, in his resurrection ministry we are freed from the cycles of violence that tear at our souls and world. Again, it is a matter of claiming this rich heritage so that we can confidently leave Mt. Nebo and step into a good land.
Theology does matter. How we think about these things will contribute to the way in which we respond to fear and death. So let us affirm the pillar of our theology—Jesus Christ our New Testament Joshua—and be strong and courageous.
In coming to terms with fear and death we also remember those who have passed. Yes Moses is gone, but much of the material in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy in a reminder of his walk with God. We, too, remember our loved ones who have not made it down from Mt. Nebo. Often our remembrances include laughter as well as gratitude. I heard a story recently which holds these two sentiments together. The funeral for Bernice Regier was Wednesday of this past week. Elva Epp is a niece and she, along with husband Ernie, attended to many details leading up to and after Bernice died. One task entailed calling many of the Regier clan to notify them of Bernice’s death and the date of the funeral. Elva said she had two phones on the go and sometimes three as she made the calls. In the midst of all this telephoning, Bernice’s cell-phone started to vibrate on the table. Someone was calling the deceased! It couldn’t have been Jesus, he had already reached her. Family was all aware Bernice wasn’t picking up those last days in hospice, so who exactly calls a dead person? It is kind of eerie to think about. Well, curiosity got the best of Elva and she picked up. Wouldn’t you know it, Bernice had won a cruise in the Bahamas. All she had to do was press #1 on the phone, answer a few questions, and she would be sailing the Caribbean. What they didn’t know is that Bernice had already punched her ticket for a better trip.
It is good for us to honour the ministry of God through those who have died.
It is good for us to laugh at the craziness of the good times and the hard times.
It is good for us celebrate that suffering ends.
Remembering in these ways takes the fear and sting out of death. For as we tell these stories we discover that the dead are not gone, they are with us in a different form.
A third reflection I have on remaining strong in the Lord as we go forward in the wake of fear and death centres on those times that we find ourselves alongside the traumatized. There are and will be times that we called to support those who have lost a Moses in their lives and face the onerous task of stepping into new territory. A report which gets at this idea comes from Palmer Becker. Palmer is a long time service worker for Mennonite Institutions. While his credentials are extensive perhaps his greatest coup is to be one of the few who has married a Preheim. He marriage to Ardys Preheim, originally from South Dakota, not only upgraded the Preheim gene pool it made him distant kin of mine. Anyway, Palmer recently returned from the Middle East touring some of the Mennonite Central Committee projects in the area. In an e-mail correspondence he wrote:
Dear Friends and Family: Yesterday I explored how MCC, through skilled, sensitive local partners, is responding to the tragedies of the 45-day war. While all the other NGOs fled to Jerusalem when the war began, MCC was in daily contact with local workers. Over 400 families whose homes had been destroyed each received four mattresses and cooking supplies. Now, with the help of the Canadian Food Grains program, those families are receiving two large sacks of rice and other food items each month. The practical work of MCC and its positive reputation make me proud to be a Mennonite Christian...
I am thankful that my textbook, which has been published in Arabic, is filling a need. The chapters on overcoming grief, depression, trauma, abuse, and conflict seem especially relevant for this situation....
Politically, where are things going? Nobody seems to know. Some fear that the next war will be even greater than this one. Violence breeds violence. While their governments are very hostile, both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples appear eager for peace. Their views regarding the land, however, are totally opposite. On the airplane from Toronto to Tel Aviv I sat beside a Jewish lady who said "The problem is that this is our land and the Palestinian people refuse to share it with us." When I came to the West Bank I heard the people saying, "The problem is that this is our land and the Israelis keep stealing it from us!" If there is going to be peace, the occupation that began with the six-day war in 1967 will need to end. Who will enforce UN resolution 362 that says, "Palestinians who lost their homes shall be allowed to return or be compensated for them." (Palmer Becker “My last days in Gaza” (18 October, 2014))
Fear and death stalk both Israeli and Palestinian communities. More than ever there is a need of Jesus people rooted in non-violence to be a presence in the conflict. The people of good will on both sides who wish to share the land may require outside support to withstand the extremists in their perspective camps who promote death and destruction. I was taken with the news story at the end of this week in which two mosques in Ontario reported a religious fanatic to the local police and RCMP. The Imams of these two mosques were preaching against extremism and violence, and this fanatic started to heckle them, so the mosques reported him. We need to thank and support peace minded Moslems like these. We need to advocate on their behalf when people at the curling rink or water cooler smear all Moslems with an extremist designation. When we provide beds for those who are bombed, when we offer resources to the traumatized of war, when we hear everyone’s passion for the land, when we advocate for a just peace, when we support Moslems denouncing violence, we are in the tradition of our N.T. Joshua—Jesus Christ—in being strong in the Lord and of good courage in the midst of fear. When we do these things we are following after him into a Promised Land where wolf can lie down with the lamb.
How do we remain strong in the Lord as we go forward in the wake of fear and death? We participate in rituals which will come to us this month. In the baptism next week, let each of us again resolve to put on our new identity. On Nov 11 pause to remember those who have given their lives for the common good. In Memorium Sunday will be an opportunity to remember loved ones again. And every morning, let us resolve to take up our cross in following after Jesus as we seek the welfare of our congregation and communities. In these rituals, religious and civil, God will strengthen us for the work yet to be done. And may God deliver us from the fears that haunt and the losses which continue to sting. Amen.
