Opening to the Spirit
Today’s word: Immortality
1
) We all know we are not immortal but we rarely act as if we knew. I have already purchased my 2018 agenda and have made appointments as far ahead as August. Of course a certain amount of looking ahead is really the only way we are able to schedule meetings and work together on a project of any importance. However it is so easy to slip into a way of looking at life as if it was something static. It is so easy to take for granted, maybe even expect as our due, the good fortune that is ours today. When we do that we become vulnerable to the disease of rigid thinking and inability to adapt
Although I may dislike some of the signs of my advancing years, what I am most grateful for is that the changes I experience remind me that I am indeed mortal. My time on earth is limited. If I want to make the most of it, I need to be thankful for the things that are still working, rather than lamenting what is not. I give thanks for the breath that animates me and reminds me that I am part of a living, pulsing world that changes and transforms every minute of every day. My particularity may be temporary and fleeting. Yet while I am here I can do my part to help perpetuate the vision Christ first put before us: of a world that thrives when we all pull in the same direction, when we bring wholeness to one another and offer blessings to everyone we meet.
In the words of Rachel Naomi Remer, when we bless each person we meet, we create conditions for the goodness that is as yet unseen in that person to blossom and grow in the world. That we all might take up the habit of blessing one another is the kind of immortality of spirit that might indeed lead us into the much vaunted kingdom of heaven. Let it be so.
2
) In the world of nature there is a cycle; birth, new growth, maturity, decline, and inevitably death. This cycle could be applied to animals, plants, forests, lakes, even rock formations. The word immortality suggests something beyond our normal human experience, yet we long to find it. There was a quest by a Spanish explorer for the fountain of youth. Stories have been written about magic elixirs, or ancient deities, or quests to discover some sacred relic, or fantasy heroes like Superman who is immortal.
Some have thought that the Christian tradition promises immortality for the special few who are deemed worthy enough. What we discover in the sacred writings is something different, a concept called resurrection. Something or someone dies, is buried, and then resurrected in a new form. The early disciples at Easter were witnesses to the death of Jesus, but then experienced him alive in a new way. They felt his presence and made sure his ideas lived on. His spirit was contagious and a worldwide movement of love and hope was begun. Over two thousand years later Jesus lives on in people's lives and hearts. Evidence of resurrection is seen in nature as well. Caterpillars enter cocoons and become butterflies. Water bugs emerge as dragonflies. Cold dead bulbs become beautiful flowers. We also have seen resurrection in our personal lives as we overcome physical and emotional pain to find new beginnings.
Here are the words of a hymn written by Nathalie Sleeth. She was dying of cancer and used these words to share her faith: “In the bulb there is a flower, in our time, infinity; in our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity; In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.”
3
) Parabola, a journal of sacred symbolism to which I subscribe posts on its website the invitation to: "…read not the times, but the eternities." Dreams of immortality have always been one of the timeless preoccupations of our kind. I am haunted by an image from cultural anthropology of a Neanderthal burial site, with stone tools and graceful bone implements accompanying the fossilized remains of the deceased. Beliefs of life without end appear to date back to the beginning of consciousness, long before the elaborate tombs of the Egyptian kings. In myth and legend, philosophy, literature, science and religion we have always explored the mysteries of life and death. Our universal attempts to imagine beyond what we know into the unknown may be part of what makes us human and keeps us evolving.
Where were you before you were born, and where will you go when life is ended? We come from mystery and we return to mystery. In between birth and death, we may experience in the midst of time, moments of timelessness. Learning to be wholly present, we may experience a glimpse of infinity, as the poet Blake said, in an hour.
Is there an afterlife? Many find comfort in the assurance that somehow, on some plane of existence, life continues beyond death. As one drop in a rushing stream, I believe life will continue beyond me indefinitely. Comfort enough in imagining that what follows my brief span of conscious time is some kind of "peace that passes understanding." In the last scene of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen announces before her own death, "I have immortal longings in me." So, too, I long for life's continuance whether or not after death I share in its awareness.
4
)“For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” - 1Corinthians 15:53
People of faith are asked to take the long view. Whether you believe in heaven, reincarnation, taking up your place with the ancestors, or some other “life after death,” people of faith believe that this life is not all that there is.
I spend very little time thinking about this. When I do, I find that it helps me calm down. We rush through this life filled with urgency. We see time as a straight line and we see ourselves moving along that line, with our death at the end. In the 1980’s we had sayings like: “Time is money.”, or “There will be time to sleep when you die.”. We were taught that life was about achievement and accomplishments, and that we only had a limited amount of time to do this.
When Christians remind ourselves that we are clothed with immortality, we remind ourselves of the true span of time. It is not a line at all. God is before, after, and outside of time. When we join ourselves with God we are a part of this.
Our focus then can become presence rather than accomplishment. Am I showing God’s love in this moment, with this person or this task that is in front of me? We are no longer on a train track headed to a final destination. We are joined with God in the timeless task of Love.
One word, four voices - now it's your turn to reflect: Do you believe in immortality, and if so - what does that mean?
Rev. Mead Baldwin pastors the Waterville & North Hatley pastoral charge; Rev. Lynn Dillabough is now Rector of St. Paul's in Brockville ON. She continues to write for this column as a dedicated colleague with the Eastern Townships clergy writing team; Rev. Lee Ann Hogle ministers to the Ayer’s Cliff, Magog & Georgeville United Churches; Rev. Carole Martignacco is Consulting Minister to UU Estrie-unitarian Universalists in North Hatley.