Thursday, October 6, 2016

Today’s Hymn            
While life’s dark maze I tread
and griefs around me spread,
be thou my guide;
bid darkness turn to day;
wipe sorrow’s tears away;
nor let me ever stray from thee aside.

When ends life’s transient dream,
when death’s cold, sullen stream
shall o’er me roll;
blest Savior, then,
in love, fear and distrust remove;
O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!

Ray Palmer’s “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” (tune: Olivet)
from Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal

Reflection
One of the ministries in which I participated when I was in North Carolina was the ministry of walking alongside people as they died. It is what our own Judy Watt does each day in her pastoral ministry here, along with our other pastors, Deacons, and Stephen Ministers too. For me, it was a great honor to be invited into that space of grief and new birth. In particular, I was always very humbled to pastor retired clergy into their own deaths. That North Carolina congregation has historically had around fifty or so retired clergy as a part of its life. So I often found I was helping another pastor breathe into his own death, doing for them what they had done for countless others in their own days of active ministry. My soul was formed as a part of that work, and I have no doubt my pastoral ministry has been greatly impacted by their witness of faithfulness in the face of death.

Indeed, that is what I saw. So many of them died as they had lived. By that, I mean the great majority of them died with gentleness and peace, often with the words of hymns or scripture surrounding them in their final hours. Honestly, I cannot remember one single retired clergyperson who died with a sense of anxiety. It was as if their years of being professionally immersed in scripture and prayer finally took full hold and set their minds at ease. Doubt and fear seemed to vanish. I finally decided God must have given them some extra doses of courage and faith in those final days and hours, for the Spirit was always so clearly present.

I tell you that because I am reminded of those experiences when I ponder these verses of “My Faith Looks Up to Thee.” In this final verse, death is spoken of not just as a future reality but also almost like a friend, for it is only when death’s stream rolls over us does the promise of our baptism become completely fulfilled. And all of us, not just the preachers, are invited to trust that in that time, our own doubt and fear will vanish, or as the hymn says, “Blest Savior, then, in love, fear and distrust remove.” And we will all be borne safely into God’s presence, our home. That is a promise we have all been given. And so I wonder, could it be that if all of us were to more fully engage in prayer and in scripture, we, too, would find God’s comfort and peace taking hold of us, not just as we move into our own deaths, but on each day of our active living, too? May it be so.  

Prayer
Holy One, you are our guide. You are the one who wipes away the tears of the world. And so we pray for all those who grieve on this day and ask your comfort and peace to surround them. We pray for ourselves, that you might continually open us up for transformation through prayer and your Living Word. Take full hold of us, O God, and keep reforming us into more faithful living. Amen.

Written by Shannon J. Kershner, Pastor

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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