The local church is a living, breathing organism. It's life-source is from God. God sent His Holy Spirit to empower His church with His life. Speaking for my own local fellowship, we have taken on the life of God both individually and collectively.
Taking on this life together makes us sensitive to each other's joys and sorrows. As 1 Corinthians 12:26 says, "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."
This indeed is a part of the experience of a church in unity through God. We take on each other's hardships and victories. We become sensitive to each other's needs and it's a sensitivity that goes beyond the mere emotional attachment. It is the highest sensitivity that anyone can experience - the sensitivity felt through the presence of God. To become truly spiritual is to take on His sensitivity.
Such is the case when one from our church family dies. We all feel beyond pity for the family. We know that they grieve the deepest, we are caught up in the grief as well. We grieve with them, but we also have our own sense of loss. A part of our unity has been broken away, and so we all suffer our own loss.
It is also a united loss. We grieve as a church as well. We are a body of one and when one dies from among us there is a sense of absence that overcomes the whole. We cannot replace the one who has died; we can only learn to live with our loss and get on with our lives.
One way to help us cope in those tragic times of losses is to extend the greatest portion of our love to the ones who grieve the most - the immediate family members. Prayer is the greatest service to give, but simple acts of kindness go a long way as well.
A verse that has been going over and over in my mind this week is Psalm 42:7 which says,
"Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me."
"Deep calls to deep." There is a deepness to sorrow and grief that searches for answers to the deeper questions of life. The most nagging question that arises is Why. Why was a loved one taken in the prime of life? Why am I left all alone in the world? Why did he do the things he did that led to his death? Why? Why? Why? The heart cries out for answers that may never come.
God calls Christians to understand these questions at a deeper level so that when we face such tragedies we can simply trust in the Sovereignty of God. Man lives in a broken state and death will inevitably come in a variety of forms to all of us. Death is death. No death is greater than any other, or more terrible. It is simply death. When it happens, that's it! It is the same state for all; life is gone from the body.
However, our strength is in the Lord and not in ourselves. We then should turn to God in such circumstances as death because death is really a circumstance of life. In reality, Christian faith teaches us that it is okay to die, and how to die with hope and dignity.
Let us be strong for the loved ones in our midst who suffer the most. Let us grieve with them. But let us cling to the hope that we have through Jesus Christ:
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Blessings,
-Leo
