But I Worry About You Shawn

Shawn:

As much as I hear the things you say about the United Church, I also just worry about your soul.  It seems that the spirit of death is ministering to you.  It seems like you are being fed Christ's death, but not his Resurrection.  Shawn, I worry about your soul.  Because I worry about your soul, I also worry about the soul of the Church, because the Church is an organism with many parts.  If one part of the body isn't doing so good, the rest of the body also suffers.

It is inevitable that we will all die.  And, as Tony Campolo says, "Someday you will die, and after the funeral everybody will go back to the church and eat potato salad."  That is inevitable.  But my question is, "What will you die into?"

I think Paul made an acute observation, vital for Christian faith and witness in today's world.  He says:

"Folks, we don't want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or grieve like the rest of the hopeless world.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him."  (My paraphrase of 1 Thess. 4:13)

And in Romans Paul says this about death and Christian witness.

"What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  (Romans 6:1-4)

What will you die into?  Will you die into "the world" which Paul argues is a generation that has no hope, or will you die into Christ?  I think that is really important for us in the Church.  And I think, as people seeking to live in the Way of Shalom who are part of the same body we ought to seek to die with you.  So my question for you is this?

Can we die together into Christ?  Can we die together bound to Christ that in Christ we might be raised to Communion with each other?