The Cross of Jesus and the Reality of Death

Dear Friends in Christ:

We began our 40-day Lenten journey this year on Ash Wednesday with the imposition of ashes making the sign of the Cross on our foreheads. These words from Genesis 3:19 were spoken to Adam: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return.” They remind us of our common mortality. We all will die. But, through the victory won by Jesus Christ on the Cross, death has been defeated, and we are given a resurrected life with God forever!

Last year, during our Wednesday evening Lenten worship services, we used a DVD series titled, “Confronting Death - A Christian Approach to the End of Life” with Lutheran Pastor Walter Wangerin, Jr. He spoke from his own experiences of living with life-threatening cancer.

In the March issue of The Lutheran magazine, Pastor Wangerin wrote an article titled, “Letters from the Land of Cancer”. In it he has some important things to share that certainly spoke to me. Here is a sampling:

“I have lately become intimate with death, with my death. It waits in the tumors in my chest… these malignancies are quiet now, but will one day move again and consume me… The doctor said, ‘This kind of cancer does not go away. It will kill you.’ I was truly grateful for his forthrightness… To know what’s coming gives me the independence and dignity to confront it directly and to prepare. So the doctor has given me an edge. I mean: to experience death, the real thing, convinced it is close and coming, has set me at the edge of existence. I have found the wall of Time, which embraces creation and all humanity.”

“The edge: cancer grants my spirit a high place from which to view the fullness of Time, from it’s First down even to its Now. I have lived! I have dwelt in the house of Time. I am one of its inhabitants. Its people have been my community. And I am dearly grateful to have found a home among them… Oh, how rich and how varied is my family! ...I have children who call me ‘Papa’ ...And you, kind readers of my writing, you are my friends. Time embraces the generations… (before and since) My parents, Walter and Virginia. Time doesn’t divide us after all. I grin and thank God with all my heart that I am in such a company.”

“I do not exaggerate. Truly, to have cancer is to experience divine benefits, which are only intensified the closer death comes to me and for me.”

“I have written a small book titled Letters from the Land of Cancer (Zondervan, 2010). It offers you a running account of my experience with the disease, the pain and the benefits.” Come, join me there… Let’s discuss together bodily things and spiritual things, both.”

“IN LIFE, IN DEATH, O LORD, ABIDE WITH ME.” (Hymn #629, Evangelical Lutheran Worship)

— Pastor David Fetter

The CROSS of Jesus—Obstacle or Opportunity?

Dear Friends in Christ:

During this Season of Lent, we are focusing on Jesus’ suffering and death. This past Sunday, our Gospel Reading (Luke 13:31-35) attested to the opposition that Jesus faced in his commitment to do the will of God in his life:
“… King Herod wants to kill you!”
“… Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”

But, Jesus gives us a model to follow in our lives. The world’s obstacles may become God’s opportunities. Is this not what Jesus believed when he said in the face of great obstacles!
“… today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way… and on the third day I finish my work!”

Jesus knew that he would face the obstacle of the Cross on Friday, but he also knew that he would experience the opportunity of a New Life on Sunday!

What are the obstacles that you have faced or are facing now in your life?

You and I encounter many roadblocks in our daily lives. Some of them are just small irritants, but some of them can be quite large. Economists point to improvements in our economy over the past year, but still many people have a diploma in their hands but have had difficulty finding a job in their field of interest. Many small businesses have failed. We’re told that inflation is not yet a problem; still, living day to day seems to be increasingly expensive. War still claims young lives and separates families.

If you and I were to constantly fixate on the obstacles surrounding us we would want to grab “a security blanket” like Linus in the Peanuts cartoons, go sit in a corner with our thumb in our mouth, and not move!

The creator of Peanuts, Charles Schulz, was a follower of Jesus. Some years ago, Robert Short wrote a book titled, The Gospel According to Peanuts. In a very subtle way, Charles Schulz proclaimed his faith that Jesus Christ gives us the way, the truth, and the life to deal with obstacles as opportunities.
Linus and Charlie Brown are walking in the woods. Linus poses this question to Charlie: “If you have some problem in your life, do you believe you should try to solve it right away or think about it for awhile?”
As they sit down by a log, Charlie Brown responds, “Oh, think about it. By all means, I believe you should think about it for awhile.”
When they start walking again, the puzzled Linus asks: “To give yourself time to do the right thing about the problem?”
Charlie Brown explains, “No. To give it time to go away.”

That’s one way to deal with life. Wait for things to change on their own. Wait and hope our problems go away. But what if they don’t go away? You and I could be sitting there with “our blanket” for a long, long time.

Could it be that some of the things we are counting as obstacles could really be opportunities in disguise?

There was a hilarious report from the Philippines in a publication called the News of the Weird:
“Officials in Manila decided they were going to reduce the number of disease carrying insects in the city. They offered a bounty of 1.5 pesos (about 6 cents in U.S. dollars) for every 10 cockroaches turned in. This gave rise to a booming industry in the Philippines: roach farming. Enterprising people started raising roaches in order to turn them in for cash!”

That’s a little extreme, but it does teach a helpful lesson: What we don’t want to do when we are confronted with an obstacle is to give up.

COUNT YOUR OPPORTUNITIES, NOT YOUR OBSTACLES!

— Pastor David Fetter