7 August 2006

Douglas John Hall continues to speak of death in the middle of all the life given to us in Christ.

..."the sting of death" - must be applied not only to individuals but to whole societies. Our society perhaps more than any other in history, is engaged in a massive denial of death. (And remember that for biblical faith death does not just refer to the termination of life, biological death, but stands symbolically for a whole Pandora's box of fears and negations that become particularly virulent when they are repressed or denied.) This was the point of one of the most insightful books written in our era, Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death. The more fixated the human spirit is upon its morality, its vulnerability, its nothingness or apparent insignificance, the less capable it is of participating freely and joyfully in the life that it has been given. And this condition is most grievous, most overwhelming, when it is covered up with a show of shallow positives.

There are so many ways to reflect on this piece from Hall. I immediately thought of something as real as global warming. Even though most (if not all) real scientists are concerned with the reality of what is happening to our earth, the cultural psyche tries to do everything it can to deny it. How do we deny it? We ignore it and go along with life just as we would want it to be. In fact we are facing not only a crisis in fuel in our country (that we ignore by way of our insistence on staying the course with fuel heavy technologies), we are attempting to prop ourselves us within the world community with a aura of bravado that that attempts to swagger into town and demand attention and honor. It would be better for us if we would be more willing to admit the presence of death around us and not fight it but enter into a face to face acknowledgment of its presence and then stop running from it by way of using power instead of a dialogical means to face the crisis. I find it disheartening when "patriotic" bumper stickers and "patriotic" speakers and groups live in a world of positive platitudes that help to keep many folks from dealing with the power of death in a way that might really benefit everyone and bring about change among us. Isn't odd that in our country, believing in God is often associated with an arrogance of privilege that is willing to do most anything to deny or even destroy anything perceived as a threat. So afraid of the power of death, we run and put our heads in the sand or we beat our chests thinking we can build something that will keep death away from us.

Connection: Sometimes, our denial of death is acted out in some of the most mundane choices of the day. We would do ourselves well if in the decision of the day we considered with others how it is we came to these decisions so that we will begin to learn a bit more about what is driving us.

In a world frantically running from the power of death, we long to be safely within your embrace, O God. Sometimes we let go of trusting in you alone only to trust in any power that will promise life but is never able to make it materialize for us. Help us discern what are the things and powers to which we turn when we are living in fear and anxiety. Help us to then return to you. Amen.