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July 24, 2010
On the beach of life and death
I was speaking yesterday at a funeral of a man in his eighties. If you don't feel like reading a funeral address today, then avert your eyes now. If you do, then read on:
SETTING: The setting is a London church, and I'm standing by the coffin, holding a very battered bible.
'The bible in my hand is not in good shape. Indeed, it's falling to pieces. This is what happens when we get old. We begin to fall to pieces; begin to lose a few pages, and sometimes, they're quite important ones.
But this disintergrating bible is still dear to me. It was given to Joy and I by Tom in 1982. And in the front, he commends some particular verses to us, and we'll get to those.
But I was struck by a text recently. It was a text from Harry, Tom's grandson, and he said this: 'If we go under, our beloved sea will wash us to the shore.' And this is true. Life does drown us on occasion, and we go under, sometimes quite a long way down. But then somehow we're washed back to shore, like Jonah, dlivered back to the beach. And there we can lie still awhile, recover a little, dry out, feel the warmth of the sun, brush ourselves down and find strength to carry on, to try again, to fail again, to fail better.
But one day it's different. One day we go under, and the sea doesn't return us to the shore, or not to this shore at least; but to another shore beyond our present sight. And that's the shore where Tom now wakes up; the shore where Tom was washed up when he finally went under in University College hospital three weeks ago, surrounded by his family.
And I'm glad for him.
We talk of people losing their faculties. But perhaps the faculty or ability we lose most quickly as adults is the ability to see through to the innocence of people. We're too busy being upset by them or offended or disturbed to see the esential innocence in people; to see in them the child who started out with such dreams of what might be, such longings, such high hopes, such openness to the world, such oneness with the world.
And that's who I see when I think of Tom. I see the small child starting out, with stillness and wonder in his eyes - before the struggles and knocks of life took their toll.
We're all inclined to lose our innocence along the way; to jettison our dreams and close down our openness. We mislay these things, we learn to ignore them, we learn to mislay ourselves really, and make do with a more calculating approach to life's adventure. We make do with surviving, with fighting our corner, consumed by our own particular fears, damage and ambitions.
But the shore which Tom now strolls along knows none of these. It's a place for Tom to return to the child he once was. 'The kingdom of God is such as these!' said Jesus, pointing to the children - the child of such innocence, such dreams of what might be, such longings, such high hopes, such openness to the world, such oneness with the world.
'If we go under, our beloved sea will wash us to the shore.' That's true. And one day it will wash us not to this present beach, but to a shore beyond our sight, and that's a good shore to tread; a shore where we can return to our lost selves and perhaps, our lost God.
So the bible in my hand is falling to pieces. It's what happenes when we get old. We begin to lose a few pages, and sometimes some quite important ones. Tom is not of this world now, but we are, more or less. And while the sea returns us to this shore, we'll remember the verses that he commended to Joy and I all those years ago, and commends to you now. Words from the prophet Isaiah:
'Israel, why then do you complain that the Lord doesn't know your troubles or care if you suffer injustice. Don't you know? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God; he created all the world. He never grows tires or weary. No one understands his thoughts.
He strengthens those who are weak and tired. Even those who are young grow weak; yes, the young can fall exhausted. But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary: they will walk and not grow weak.'
Like a child running along the beach on the first day of the holidays....
Posted by Mr Bojangles at July 24, 2010 02:58 PM