Television, in its fractal way,
brought three disparate issues together this week.
First, the latest in the endless chain of
catastrophes buried some folks in a mudslide, and the grim facts soon turned
the impossible rescue mission into an impossible body recovery operation.
Second, some progress has been made in
locating and identifying the remains of still-unaccounted-for U.S. military war
dead.
Third, the haystack needle search
for a missing airliner has triggered angry demonstrations by families of the
missing.
The first
event, so small in terms of “death toll,” is made intimate as we see a father’s
anguish. Empathy tells us his heart is holding onto the
hope that a miraculous event has sheltered his child in a pocket of air where
he will be found alive. We can all
clearly see workers struggling to move through the suffocating, ubiquitous slime
to search. It’s exhausting, agonizing,
dreadfully slow, and so difficult, estimates for completing the search have
extended into autumn.
The DOD is
proud of having finally consolidated the bureaucracies responsible for
communicating with survivors of soldiers, sailors, and airmen missing in action
from a chain of wars going all the way back to “The Big One.” Some vets who missed getting “decorated” have
finally been awarded their due, and some more remains identified. We saw footage of soldiers sorting through
trays of dirt from archaeological type digs looking for fragments, as part of
an ongoing operation in sites all over the world.
When the
jetliner disappeared, precarious, justifiably paranoid politics may have misled
location efforts in the crucial first days.
The search that has been going full tilt since the first hours has mushroomed
into a vast, expensive, multinational effort with no end in sight, even though
everyone involved admits too much time has passed to expect success. Meanwhile, relatives of the missing are
actually angry with their government for not “solving” this.
What do all
these people want? The popular word
for it is “closure.”
The silent emphasis is on the second syllable.
The silent emphasis is on the second syllable.
Decades
after an event, survivors will weep to finally feel the “relief” of “knowing
for sure.” It’s just so hard for us to
actually accept—believe in—death. But,
there it is again. Every time, in fact.
Why do
people care so much about the fate of carcasses?
One of many
“hard sayings” of Jesus was “Let the dead bury the dead.”
What did He mean? Do we not know?
What did He mean? Do we not know?
But, why do folks who don’t bat an eye at a
growing list of abominations and slaughter seem so dedicated to
“knowing” what became of corpses they knew personally, or were responsible for
nationally?
“Remains” is
such a revealing term.
Here is what’s left, after the person has ceased operating. Every culture has ghost stories about what might happen to the “soul” or “spirit,” based entirely in fear and ignorance. First, they don’t understand the difference between soul and spirit, and have never consulted the single document on Earth that explains such things; but, they know what happens to the flesh, and because that’s all they really get, that’s the focus of their concern.
Here is what’s left, after the person has ceased operating. Every culture has ghost stories about what might happen to the “soul” or “spirit,” based entirely in fear and ignorance. First, they don’t understand the difference between soul and spirit, and have never consulted the single document on Earth that explains such things; but, they know what happens to the flesh, and because that’s all they really get, that’s the focus of their concern.
For long
ages, folks have made a big deal out of what must be done to “properly” and
“respectfully” dispose of human cadavers.
Even now, when “science so-called” has convinced most of them we’re just
animals, and it’s all just “tissue,” most people have strong visceral and
emotional responses to the issue. Paul
makes plain in Romans, they know deep down what’s right and wrong; they just
can’t get it to work right because of that whole dead to the spirit thing.
Being born
again, raised to new life through baptism, is the only Way, according to The
Master, to find eternal Life, and to be transformed, by the renewing of your mind, into someone who knows the Truth, and
has been set free--free from the law of sin and death. Being one of these new creatures calls for
full-time focus on a greater reality than the soap opera being acted out around
us.
Our
“closure” came as we sank beneath the water.
Now we live again, but not as our own.
When someone close to us dies, we rejoice to know there is no doubt of
their membership in The Kingdom. If a
loved one has not been saved, then we know they will rise again, with all
mankind, for judgment.
Whether we
know the exact time, or the circumstances, or get to have a “proper” burial,
death is the certain end of us all. What
happens next is the important part, and the grandest funeral ever celebrated
won’t affect that outcome at all.
Here's this week's video treat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9yIM5G9QM8&list=WLlcL5vphCZ7CsUSi3BSWwPJ1wALX5pYTo&index=29
Here's this week's video treat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9yIM5G9QM8&list=WLlcL5vphCZ7CsUSi3BSWwPJ1wALX5pYTo&index=29