Always surrounding our experiences of death is the deep and eternal compassion God has for us, a compassion so wonderfully given expression in Jesus Christ his Son. In Christ, God has intervened in the world to show us what God is like.
Jesus talks with a woman at a well. In that encounter he tells us that the love of God is not the narrow privilege of the elect. It is not rationed exclusively to the pious. Whatever our station, pedigree or profession, God loves us all. Whatever our sins, weaknesses or addictions, he wants us all.
Guess what? We are here as the Church to interfere with death, to call its bluff. Insofar as we do this, people will be shocked as much as people were that day in Nain when the young man got off the bier.
The woman confesses her faith in the messiah who is to come, and Jesus says that he is that messiah. He thus reveals his identity not to his disciples, not to his own people, not to their religious leaders, but to this person who is marginal three times over: A Samaritan, a woman, and an exile among her own kind.
An eight year old boy was afraid his parents will divorce and prayed, "God help my mother and my father not to get angry and not to fight," and a little Jewish girl who thought of the deaths in the Holocaust and wondered whether "maybe we're living in hell right now."
To look with the third eye is possible for us. This mode of vision is known by many names: Conversion, enlightenment, transformation, contemplation, holiness. This is the pearl of great price that you sell everything you own in order to buy.
A couple weeks ago, some friends called and asked if they could talk to me about my two open heart surgeries. I agreed and we met. As we discussed their circumstances, it became apparent they really wanted to know about the wisdom of a “SECOND OPINION.”
When I was fifteen, I asked my dad why he didn't go to Good Friday Service. He said, "I can't, it's just too depressing." I wish I had him with me still so that I could help him understand the real meaning behind the cross.
Too often we hedge our bets. We ask God to provide, yet never quite let go of the reins. One way or the other, we want to be in control, just in case God doesn't come through. We take a leap of faith, but keep one foot on the ground.
Karl Barth once commented that all sin is basically ingratitude. Jesus is saying much the same thing to his disciples gathered before him on the plain. Our gratitude to God is shown in how we treat other people.