I’ve been to churches where miracles are celebrated with great bravado. A man stands before the congregation and testifies of God’s healing. The test results confirm the miracle: a suspicious mass clearly seen on the MRI is now gone. The congregation breaks out in jubilation. They prayed for this man for weeks. The doctors can’t explain it. The faithful understand it. The man boasts of God’s miraculous healing hand. All declare with one voice, “God is good.” The musicians play faster; the people sing louder; the pastor preaches harder; the church is triumphant. Later, at the end of the worship service, an announcement is made about funeral arrangements for the woman who died of cancer. A hush falls over the congregation. There is no boast, no celebration, no declaration of God’s miraculous work. A prayer is offered for those who grieve. The piano plays a somber postlude. The congregation files out of the auditorium in silence. Passing by, one of the parishioners says, “I wish we didn’t have to end on such a downer.”
Just once I’d like to hear someone boast of the miracle of God’s grace for the one who died. Her courage as she celebrated life in the middle of dying. Her strength as she continued to serve food at the shelter for the homeless. Her grace as she puzzled over why God didn’t answer our prayers for her healing. Her grief over the “bad” days outnumbering the good days. Her pain, her sorrow, her illness, her questions, her fears, her faith, her death. I wish we could learn to celebrate all of it–every bit of life–because the grace of God runs through it all. Don’t we speak of Christ’s death on the cross as the place of grace? Then why don’t we boast about the believer’s death as a graceful place? Paul did, for he knew better than anyone that we crucify the world when we claim the power of Jesus’ cross. Indeed, the power and wisdom of God’s grace is evident when a believer, dying from cancer, whispers on her deathbed in grateful defiance: “I wouldn’t have made it this far without God.”
Rodney Reeves, Spirituality According to Paul: Imitating the Apostle of Christ, 51-52.
Ted M. Gossard
