"The Most Frightening Thing on Earth"
Sermon for Sunday, May 24Th.
Forester Church is dying. He has a terminal illness. He is a preacher and an author. He is the son of Frank Church, a famous congressman. Forester Church is dying.
He has written a book about what he is experiencing now. He is convinced the thing he most fears in the world is not death. What is more frightening than death is love. Love means we attach ourselves to others knowing we may lose them. To love is the most frightening thing in the world.
His book is full of wisdom. (The title of his book is "Love and Death").
He writes:
"Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die.
We are the religious animal; knowing that we must die, we cannot help but question what life means.
We are more alike in our ignorance than we differ in our knowledge.
God is not God's name. God is our name for that which is greater than all and yet present in each.
Whether or not there is life after death, surely there is love after death.
The one thing that can never be taken from us, even by death, is the love we give away before we die.
The purpose of life is to live in such a way that our lives will prove worth dying for."
I think these are profound ideas. What do you think? What strikes you about death/life/love?
If you have insights write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the congregation click on the box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
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1 comment:
It seems to me that faith and trust are more frightening than love because they must precede love. The definition of faith is complete confidence in a person or plan. A child loves their parents because they have faith that the parents will take care of them. If the parents don't care for the child then, sadly, the love in their relationship will fade. People fall in love after building a relationship of trust and faith and fall out of love when that trust is broken. So loving is not to be feared. In fact, I don't think we have much choice but to love someone that we have a faithful relationship with. It's building that faith that is the most frightening thing for us because we must set our independence aside and allow someone or something into our lives that we do not yet love.
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