Some Things Need To Die

It's not fun, but perspective can help us through.

Going through the death process is hard. It’s so uncomfortable that we have gone to great lengths to avoid it. That’s understandable, but by avoiding it, we also avoid a fundamental reality of life. Avoiding this reality creates unnecessary angst and leaves us unprepared for something we will all face.

While this can all be true of the death of a loved one, it is also true in terms of the various ways that things die. Institutions, systems, places, memories, experiences - all sorts of things die.

When a human dies, there are often signs ahead of time. If you’ve ever had the powerful experience of being with someone in their last weeks, days, hours, and minutes of life, you likely know this. Sometimes there’s even a resurgence of life, activity, and energy just before the moment of death.

It is true of systems and institutions as well.

And frankly, our generation struggles facing it. Death will of course never be fun and exciting, but if we will allow ourselves the perspective and the endurance to see it through without overreacting, it can be both a welcomed and helpful thing in the long run.

Some things need to die.

Anything that wants resurrection needs to die.

There is no resurrection without death.

John 12:23-26

Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Human One to be glorified. I assure you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their lives will lose them, and those who hate their lives in this world will keep them forever. Whoever serves me must follow me. Wherever I am, there my servant will also be. My Father will honor whoever serves me.”

Psalm 126:5-6

Those who sow with tears will reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, will come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

Prayer

God,

Life and death are woven together in ways I do not always understand. We resist loss, we avoid endings, we hold onto things long past their time. But you remind us—through nature, through scripture, through Christ—that death is not the end.

Help me to trust in your timing. Or at least, help me to trust in you as humans take their time killing things. As things fade, give us wisdom to let go without fear. When systems built on power and self-interest crumble, help me not to despair, but to see the possibility of something new. And when I struggle to believe that life can come from death, remind me of the empty tomb.

And in the midst of it all, I ask for protection in particular for those most vulnerable. (As if you need a reminder from me, the privileged one.)

Give us the courage to face what needs to die. Give me the hope to trust in resurrection.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.