Jump Start # 1425

Revelation 14:13 “And I heard a voice from Heaven, saying, ‘Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ “Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.’”

Recently, I took a trip to London. One of the highlights of that trip was visiting Westminster Abbey.   Westminster is the Queen’s church. It is the place of generations of coronations and the final resting place of many English monarchy. It started as a Catholic church but flipped over to Anglican or the Church of England, after Henry VIII. What a huge and historic building with more than 3,000 people, many of them very famous, buried within the building. One of the first prominent graves that one see, is that of Charles Darwin, the English naturalist. His grave is in the floor that visitors walk across. Darwin was the son of a minister but his scientific leanings moved him away from affirming creation. His classic book on Origins became the foundation block for generations of evolutionists. Today, most scientists have moved beyond Darwin, but he is still viewed as one of the founding fathers of natural selection and evolutionary thought. It seems strange that Darwin is buried in a church building. It is a bit ironic that everyday hundreds of people walk across his grave.

But Darwin’s grave in a church building is no more strange than it is for a couple to want to get married in a church building who do not believe in God nor have any desire to do what God says after they are married. There doesn’t seem to be much difference to me. Maybe some think that the setting will give the occasion a special blessing, but it doesn’t. Getting married in a barn, outdoors, a rented hall, or a church building doesn’t make the marriage more sacred nor give it a blessing from Heaven.

Our passage today, one that we have written often about, emphasizes, dying in the Lord. They died in the Lord because they first lived in the Lord. They walked in the Lord. They had obeyed the Lord. Their lives were defined and centered around the Lord. The passage is stressing the relationship that those early saints had with the Lord. They stayed with the Lord till the very end. Their lives were taken because they loved the Lord. They would not deny the Lord, even when faced with death. Their deaths did not take place in hospital rooms, but in the arenas of Rome where they were publicly executed. Their lives were stamped out, but not their hope, their voices, nor their faith. They continued on with Lord. They lived after death. They were now resting from their labors.

These thoughts remind us that it is not what is said at our funeral nor where we are finally buried that matters, but how we have chosen to walk with the Lord during our life. I expect many of the early Christians, poor and common as they were, had very simple funerals and today are buried in unmarked graves. Their names, their lives and what they did are all forgotten by us, but not God. He knows. He remembers. Our legacy therefore, is not in a stone monument that sits still in a cemetery. Rather, our legacy is in the lives of those that follow us. We each leave footprints that are visible to those dear to us. Our choices, our attitudes, what was important to us, become living monuments to our family and friends. This is what we will be remembered by.

Years ago I read a biography about Charles Darwin. He had a sweet daughter named Annie. At the age of ten, she became ill and died. Darwin adored his daughter. His biographer made the statement that her death was the end of any faith Darwin had in God. Unable to cope with why she had to die, unable to grasp why there is suffering in the world, unable to deal with grief, instead of becoming closer to God, Darwin, like thousands before him and after him, blamed God and walked away from God. For some, faith is only good as long as things are good with them. When life turns, when the dark clouds roll in, when they must journey through those dark valleys, for some, they think that should never happen. If God is, then sunshine ought to always prevail. If God is, then everything ought to turn out fine. Yet our passage reminds us that God’s people die. Some of them die violently. Some of them were executed for their faith. Sometimes the child dies. Sometimes things do not get better. Sometimes the journey is long and tearful. Where is God? Right where He has always been, upon His throne. He was there when the planes flew into the twin towers on 9-11. He was there when the bombs fell at Pearl Harbor. He was there when the rocks hit Stephen. He was there when the sword came down and took off the head of John the Baptist. He was there when the nails were driven into the hands of His own Son. The presence of pain, agony and disappointments is not an indication that God ceases to exist nor that He no longer cares nor loves us.

One of the great challenges of our faith is to remain loyal and true to God when the way is uphill and difficult. It’s easy to be a Sunday Christian when things are going well. We are given godly examples of those who walked by faith, such as in our passage today, even when that walk was hard.

Do you believe? Will you continue with the Lord,  even when it is hard? Those choices, not the location of your grave, is what makes all the difference.

Blessed are those who die in the Lord…there awaits for them a sweet rest and an amazing new home. God’s home, Heaven.

Won’t it be wonderful there?

Roger