Two funerals in five days.
Mike (aged 27) died of cancer. Tony (aged 29) drowned in the flash Mangetepopo flood that also took the lives of six of his Elim Christian College students. Both ‘orders of service’ from the funerals are in front of me as I write. Mike was a close relative of a Carey Board member. Tony had been in and out of the Carey classroom over a ten year period. While I knew neither well enough to be drawn deeply into the grief, I have been reflecting a lot on death:
Death was not part of God’s original intention for humanity – nor will it be part of the final and full restoration of all creation. But in the meantime it is an unutterably horrible part of our existence as a consequence of the evil and sinfulness which stains all of creation. It is an enemy.
And then along comes this cancer, this flash flood – it feels like they’ve reached in, snatching and stealing life from two young men. So intrusive. So unexpected.
I so appreciated fellow Fat Monk Jono’s tribute to Tony. It is heartfelt – but so very wise as well.
[‘Fat Monk’ is a band formed by Tony – go to http://stuff.co.nz/4492138a10.html and click on Related Links].
At one point Jono says how he finds some meaning in Tony’s death happening like this because the rest of us can then see what his life was really like. That is testimony to a life of integrity, a life where public and private lives are aligned far more than most.
Mike battled cancer for months, with the final weeks being far longer than expected. The strength in his wife’s testimony of care and service stands out. Tony strapped a young lad with a disability to himself in a final effort to save their lives from the torrent – and this act may well have contributed to his own death.
At Mike’s funeral we sang “I make a vow, my life will always honour Christ, whether I live or die … For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. No matter what price I pay, I choose to give this life away.”
At Tony’s funeral we sang “In the quiet, in the stillness, I know that you are God … In the chaos, in the confusion, I know you’re sovereign still … When you call I won’t refuse. When You call I won’t delay.”
Christians will always ask “Why?” Anything else is inhuman. But we also have an ear for “How?” How can we suffer and die well? And when life is more downhill, we need to be steeling our minds with true truths about suffering and death so that when they intrude and life becomes uphill and horrible we might just find that the emotion of our hearts has some boundaries, provided by our minds, within which to live.
I am deeply grateful to the families of Mike and Tony – and to that remarkable Elim Christian School community – for adorning the gospel so well in these difficult days. Reading the press. Watching the TV. The cause of Christ in this land is being immeasurably helped by their testimony of ‘out-thinking, out-living, and out-dying’.
Corrie Ten Boom used to say that “No hole is so deep that God is not deeper still”. As part of my electronic signature I have a quote given me by another elderly woman (Kiwi Beryl Howie – the first female professor of gynacology in the world, I learned recently) – “whatever the problem, the solution is found in walking with God”.
God has a track record of doing things with death. It has been said that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”. At Tony’s funeral I found my thinking about Jim Elliot and the martyrdom of those missionaries at the hands of the Auca Indians a full 50 years ago. I poured over those books as a lad. We are still talking about them – assisted by the recent film The End of the Spear. Goodness me – years later the murderers joined in mission with the son of the murdered to create an unparalleled testimony of forgiveness and reconciliation in our generation. From atop Everest God saw this was going to happen. Then just as I was thinking about it, the Principal (R. Murray Burton) of the Elim school gets up and shares how he himself was named ofter one of those murdered missionaries – and proceeds to bring a word of encouragement from the story. It is a story that defined a generation. Under the hand of an Everestian God, maybe we are witnessing something similar in our own times…
Now I need to think about some words for a wedding on Saturday!
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
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Ten years ago, Ode to Georgetown was my response to being surprised by grief when the only church I had ever pastored closed its doors. Last week brought the news that the theological college which I attended, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), was to close most of its Chicagoland campus. I have been feeling a…
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In my sixth form English class an exercise we had to do was write our own obituary. When I reflect on the events of the last week and a half I am deeply drawn to Tony’s example – living life to the full, actively mentoring and growing teenagers and young adults to have confidence in who they are and in what they believe, dying in a selfless way.. the words well done good and faithful servant will resound.
I don’t know Mike but this much I know his journey over the last few months will have been difficult yet will have drawn him closer to his family, friends and his God.
For those left behind it is inevitable that the Why question will be asked. God knows the plans he has for us, and as Isa. 40 puts it there is no searching of his understanding, here’s an extract from one of my poems.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD The creator
of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired, His understanding is inscrutable
I am always there, always available, awaiting your call, will you call me now or later?
You try to do things in your own strength, you stumble and fall, get tired and irritable
Yet I your LORD still love you, my love for you is greater than the world’s far greater
Come to me my children; surrender to me your hassles that make you uncomfortable.
On another note living life from the inside out with God (see Larry Crabb’s books Inside Out, and the Papa Prayer) so we can have a transparency in what we do will provide the world with more of what we have witnessed in the faith shown by people associated with this Tragedy. Stephen Covey in his book The 8th Habit, p69 has this remarkable quote from one whose life was transparent and a witness to God’s call to Service:
The fruit of silence is PRAYER. The fruit of prayer is FAITH. The fruit of faith is LOVE. The fruit of love is SERVICE. The fruit of service is PEACE.
Mother Teresa
I think I am going to do a sermon on this as it has set me thinking it makes sense.