But not in death. . .

I was reminded by President Matthew Harrison presenting on Hermann Sasse that the vapid and vague shell of good feelings and good thoughts may well suffice during good times but in time of great trouble and trial and in the face of death it offers no help.  It is an obvious truth but not so obvious that it cannot be omitted and found missing from the vision of Christians and Christian churches today.  We find ourselves living at a time when the Gospel has become offensive and the preaching of the Gospel an offense in a world looking for a reason to be offended.  Yet it is a culture of death that surrounds us.  From the insistence of so many voices on the right to view the child in the womb as so much garbage if you wish to the abhorrence of expecting to have live any life that you might deem not worth living, death is all around us.  We as a culture have surveyed the landscape and decided that there is no truth but that which fills the moment and there is no truth that lives beyond that moment. Now you might expect that without boundaries to restrain desire and norms to define what is acceptable desire, happiness would result.  Yet the reality is that we are not happy.  Our culture has found itself so fragile that some cannot accept the possibility that some might disagree with them or the politically correct view of things.  Individuals live within the threat of fear and violence to their safety and the threat that we are killing our creation and have only the most limited future ahead of us. Social media has left us without a social life except a virtual one. We have retreated into the comfort of our homes behind the screens that light up our days and nights and do not even go out for food or entertainment.

Strangely, many refuse to see believe that this is a problem or one worth a reconsideration of the religious claims of life stronger than death and a clear conscience that has addressed sin and guilt and shame with something more than profound than a shrug of the shoulders.  World wars tended to give pause to the idea of modernity and progressivism.  Even great depressions and economic downturns begged people to look for a real source of security and hope.  But if the churches have nothing to offer but a pale regurgitation of what culture has already said, the people have little choice but to make friends with death and to live in the moment without regret.