Sermon: Remind yourself that you are going to die

Isaiah 55v1-9; Luke 13:1-9

Durham Cathedral 3^rd Sunday of Lent. 7^th March 2010

‘At that time there were some present who told Jesus about yesterday's bombs in Baghdad.' And Jesus replied "Do you think that the victims were worse sinners than all other local residents? No I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or the hundreds of thousands killed in earthquakes in Haiti and Chile - do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in those countries? No I tell you: but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."

In other words, in the gospel Jesus rather shockingly offers no sympathy at all to the bereaved or injured and refuses to be drawn on the political rights and wrongs of this incident in the ongoing tensions between the Jews and their Roman overlords, which were just as devastating in their time as terrorist threats are in today's world, but turned the tables to focus on the questioner's future.

The events recounted to Jesus could well have been an attempt to draw a political response from him - Jewish nationalism was seething against the Romans and two of his own disciples, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, had radical sympathies. But instead he tells a rather odd parable about a barren fig tree in a vineyard. It has had long enough to mature to a tree that should produce figs but it doesn't and the landowner wants to uproot it because it is a waste of valuable space. But his gardener, against all reason, pleads for one last chance and one more year of pampered treatment before the axe falls. Jesus appears to be saying that everyone - both the overtly wicked and the seemingly good - face judgement, indeed death, for failure to produce good fruit in life, but God in his mercy will withhold judgement for a while to give us all one last chance to repent.

That is politically incorrect in today's world. We don't like to think that we face judgement, let alone that our guilt might be compared to that of terrorists.

During Lent we begin our service with the Litany, which we also say at Morning Prayer every Friday. It includes a petition which becomes very vivid in the light of news from Haiti, Madeira, Kabul, Baghdad, and Chile, ‘From famine and disaster, from violence, murder and dying unprepared, good Lord, deliver us.' We can't be delivered from death, but we do ask to be delivered from dying unprepared. And we have to be part of the answer to our own prayer. One of the charges given to priests when they are ordained is that they help to prepare the dying for their death. Today's gospel reading reminds us that we are all - young or old - at risk of dying at any time. Without scaremongering, it is salutary to be reminded that life can be fragile.

St Benedict instructs his monks, ‘Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die.' In a society and culture that does all it can to deny the impact of death or to bring it under our control - that is central to the discussions about the right to die - Christians are instructed to remind themselves daily that they are not in control of their death, it is something to be prepared for at any time. Benedict's stark injunction is preceded by the words, ‘Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire' and is followed by ‘hour by hour keep careful watch over all you do.' We are to live attentively both to our eternal destiny and our hourly way of living. I once sat with a dying woman who, through tears, whispered to me, "I'm not ready to die. I haven't learned how to live yet." Her words have haunted me over the years. Part of our preparation for dying is learning how to live. Jeremy Taylor, a seventeenth century Anglican divine, wrote two books, ‘Holy Living' and ‘Holy Dying' in which he advised his readers how to live a virtuous life and how to prepare for a blessed death. this Lent, when Lenten disciplines focus on what can help to live a more virtuous life, I suggest that we might also give some time to preparation for a blessed death.

And that need not be morbid. Recently I have been re-reading the diaries of Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish woman in occupied Amsterdam whose journey from a chaotic childhood to wholeness and awareness of God is set against the backdrop of the horrors she knew were coming - eventually she died at Auschwitz. Before then she lived life to the full whilst also being constantly reminded of the probability of being sent to her death. If anyone can tell us about keeping death before our eyes, she is one of such person and I feel inadequate standing in this pulpit in the face of her experienced insight. The diaries are peppered with observations about the joys of life - the scent of flowers, the sight of a rainbow, a pretty blouse, and ‘that cup of coffee which must nowadays be drunk with reverence, for each day it may be our last' and she writes with great beauty and wisdom about the joy and beauty as well as the sorrow and terror of life at that time.

Death is the beginning of eternal life with God; that is our joyful hope as Christians. In the sixth century St Gregory the Great wrote, "Death, which nearly everyone regards as punishment, I cherish as the entry to life and the reward for labour." In Christ, the daily reminder that we are going to die is a daily reminder that we have a glorious hope through his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, opening the way for all believers. Like St Paul, we can say, "Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have died. As in Adam all die, so all will be made alive in Christ." We need not fear death itself if we are in Christ. But that still leaves the question of dying unprepared, as the Galileans did when making their sacrifice to God or like the people by the tower that collapsed. Are you ready to die today? If you are not, if you do not have the peace from God that you belong to Christ and death is the gateway to eternal life then that is your first stage of preparation and can I urge you to do something about it, and talk to one of the clergy or a Christian friends about it.

But it is not only preparing ourselves for what follows death, there practical arrangements to be made for our deaths. I am not only speaking to those of us who are past the half-way stage of life, but also to students and young people. Any one of us could die in the coming week.

So, have you eased the burden on your family will need when you die? First of all, have you made a will? And, if you have, is it up to date and do people know where to find it? Don't leave it until you think you are nearing death. Where do you want your money and possessions to go? Families are deserving of our legacy. But do they need all of it? What about the poor of the world who have no one to leave them anything? I would go so far as to say that all of us, whatever our family responsibilities, should remember the poor in our wills because how we care for the poor is a measure of our love for God. Then, how will you facilitate the ongoing ministry of the church in sharing the good news of the gospel? Since we have been members of the church in this life, we can give a thank offering to God for all that we have received through it. After all, our confidence in the face of death is the consequence of the faithful proclamation of the gospel to us in our life and a legacy to the church where you worship enables it to continue to proclaim the gospel hope to others. The ministry of this Cathedral to people who come seeking help in their desperation is partly sustained by the legacies of Christians who have once themselves found hope within this holy place.

Are your papers all in one place? Have you made provision for your care should you become incapacitated before your death? Does someone have power of attorney for you? Do your family or next of kin know your desires in terms of medical intervention should decisions have to be made for you? Do you want to be buried, cremated or to give your body to medical research? Are you an organ donor?

Have you planned your funeral? If you do nothing else this Lent as a discipline, find time to plan, or revisit your plans, for your funeral. I have just done that as part of my preparation to preach this morning and it can be the opportunity for a joyful review of our life as we decide what, from all its rich variety, we want to recall at our funeral, which hymns and bible readings encapsulate the faith by which we have lived and died. It can be a delight to ponder our last words to our family and friends about the faith by which we have lived and died - indeed we may be able to say things through the service that we couldn't say during our lifetime.

In closing, I want to take us back to the gospel reading where a final opportunity is given to the tree that is under threat of being cut down and also to the words we heard from Isaiah. Listen to him again, ‘Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Listen carefully to me and eat what is good, and delight yourself in rich food.'

God holds out to us mercy and grace and abundance in this life and in the life to come. We can know God's peace and joy in this life and need not fear death because it is the gateway of eternal life with a gracious God. Let us prepare ourselves to die and live with great rejoicing.