We need to talk about death

We have become inoculated against the pain of large-scale death in faraway places.

But we find individual death on a street or road we know, or affecting a family we know, much less comfortable.

Not too many years ago early death was very much part of daily UK life. It came from disease, childbirth, frequent industrial accidents.

We have improved both health and safety pretty well over the years.

Death now comes later in life than it used to and so teen death seems an affront to our advanced way of living. But it happens.

Christians may fear the pain of dying, the loneliness of old age, the suffering of bereavement, but they have no reason to fear death itself.

They serve a Master who died an excruciating death in his early 30s, and whose followers then, and in some parts of the world now, experience violent death for their faith in him.

The Bible talks about the future for Jesus’ followers in terms of ‘hope’ (meaning a certainty not an aspiration) and ‘life’.

Which is why Christian funerals are often times of celebration, even if tinged with sadness for the bereaved.

What we all need to do is to talk about death much more and stare it in the face.

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