2 November 2013 - separation anxiety

2 November 2013 - separation anxiety

“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
The gates are wide open.  Let us come before him with confidence.  We will not slip from his hands.

And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,

Even death, the ultimate separation, does not loosen his grip on us in the slightest.

but that I should raise it on the last day.
The Father wills that Jesus not lose any of us.  And the Father wills that he go to the cross to save us.  Even there he holds us in his love.  Even in suffering so great that any other person would turn inward in selfish attempts at escapism and distraction he embraces us.  Because he does not let go of us even our death can be united to his.  We already anticipate this union with our baptism.

We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.

Because he does not lose anyone the Father gives him we can be assured that he carries us through death to newness of life.  This is a newness that we begin to taste and anticipate as gift even before we participate in it fully.  His death frees us from sin.  It will one day free us from all corruption.  We will be like Christ who "raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him."

We're talking about realities that are for the most part unseen.  They break through when Christians show joy and purpose in the midst of hopelessness and suffering.  But this is easily written off by the foolish who only look to the external and the material:

They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But we sometimes think this way too, don't we?  We sometimes let the external and the material dominate our view and forget about the newness of life within.  Even if "before men, indeed they be punished" we know about the hope of immortality.  We know that "they shall be greatly blessed because God tried them and found them worthy of himself."  So let us not be foolish.  Let us remember that since they have died with Christ they shall also live with him.

The valley may be dark indeed.  But only the foolish doubt that there is a sun whenever it is obscured by clouds.  As Samwise says, "in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow."  It may be all we can see right now but even so all we need to know is that the Lord is our shepherd.  There is nothing to fear.  He leads us, protects us with his rod and staff, and calls us onward to our destiny.

Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.