Dying

 

[Isaiah said to Hezekiah] ‘...thus says the Lord: “Set your house in order, for you shall die”’

(Isaiah 38: 1)

This verse was part of the passage of the Bible I read in my own morning prayers today. It is rather sobering, isn’t it? Not terribly jolly.

It hardly seems fitting in this festive period when all the focus is on joy and fun, and when we are looking forward to the birth of a baby, the coming of a new life.

Of course (you will not be surprised to hear me say!) it is my view that we think this because we have lost touch with the true meaning of this Advent Season; we rush prematurely into Christmas celebration; we focus on the superficial and the sentimental, even in church.

However, in Advent, we are encouraged to look towards the ‘end times’, and that includes facing up to our own mortality and living with that awareness – not in some kind of morbid or gloomy way, but as those who have faith and hope; those who know that while this life is passing, there is the promise of resurrection and final completion. But also living as those who know that we will encounter God ‘face to face’ (however we understand that).

In the end, Hezekiah did recover! But of course he, like all of us, died in the end.

Dying is part of living. We are all dying, and while that may encourage us to live soberly and thoughtfully, it should not stop us living joyfully. But the awareness and acceptance of our mortality may well enable us to hold onto the things of this world more lightly and may assist us in focussing our lives on those things that are truly important.

I suspect that those who live with a positive and joyful awareness and acceptance of their mortality, live also with a lightness and a hope in their hearts. And those who live with the hope that is set before us, live well. And in living well we can hope and pray that we may also – when that time comes – die well.