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ARE ASHES THE END?
Recently a small group of friends gathered in a nearby field to bury the ashes of the spouse of one of the friends. As we poured the deceased's ashes in a pre-dug hole, I was swept by a series of questions, questions most of have. What's in store now for our deceased friend, if anything? Is ashes the end of the line for her? For all of us? Can we expect anything beyond ashes? Is there any form of life beyond death? Does God's love sustain us only while we are alive? Is life after death merely wishful thinking?
The apostle Paul believed that we live in some form in God's presence and love after our death. His conviction was that nothing in all creation, not even "death," "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD." (Rom. 8: 39) His belief was based on series of visions of the Risen Christ. Can we trust Paul's conviction or was Paul's belief only wishful thinking or delusions? Paul trusted his visions because he was convinced that they were gifts of God's grace.
Paul trusted that he had been transformed by the Spirit of the Risen Christ. Paul was sure that the LORD is the Spirit which had given him a new life (II Cor. 3: 6), including eternal life. The "Spirit gives life," he wrote. (II Cor. 3: 6). Having been changed by God's Spirit, Paul was able to endure great suffering. Preaching Christ crucified and risen from the dead, Paul suffered afflictions, calamities, imprisonments, lashings, beatings with rods, stoning, shipwrecks, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, eventually execution at the hands of the Romans (II Cor. 6- 4-5; ll: 23-25).
Paul staked his life on his conviction that "the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you . . . and will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you." (Rom. 8: 11). He believed that in death our perishable body will put on imperishability (I Cor. 15: 53) since God had defeated death and given us the "victory through our LORD Jesus Christ." (I Cor. 15: 57) What a bold belief!
Like Paul can we trust that Christ is our life and in death, ashes are not our end?
PRAYER: Almighty God, empower us to live by your loving Spirit and trust that life eternal is our end. Amen.
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