Credo
6 November 2023
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour to me. Yet which I choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
Philippians 1:21, Cf., Philippians 1:21-23
Friends, brothers and sisters in Christ:
We are all gathered here today at this memorial service because we have lost someone who is close to us, someone whom we love. That person may be a parent, a child, a sibling, a relative, or a friend.
We have come here to remember them at this special service because although they are no longer with us, they are still an important part of our lives. We remember them at this memorial service because we love them.
Christians have always understood the significance of remembering the dead. That is why in the tradition of the Church, two days are set aside every year in the month of November for Christians to remember their family and friends who have gone before them.
These special days are called All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day.
Christians observe these special days by attending a Church service or a memorial service such as this one. They also observe them by bringing flowers to the cemetery or columbarium. Some even mark these special days by cleaning the graves of their loved ones.
As a matter of fact, the cemetery and columbarium – or indeed any special object by which we remember our loved ones, such as a simple photograph – signal the importance of the practice of remembering the dead.
And although the Church has set aside a couple of days in a year for Christians to remember the dead, we can do that at anytime of the year – as we are doing so today.
But why should we remember the dead at all? Why is it important to set aside time to remember our departed family members and friends? Why should we conduct a memorial service such as this one in remembrance of our loved ones who have passed away?
There are many reasons why it is important for Christians to remember the dead. But let me share just a few of them with you today.
TO MOURN
Firstly, we remember our departed loved ones because we mourn their passing.
To mourn is to feel and express our sorrow and grief because death has taken the person whom we love from us. Mourning is a very natural response when someone dear to us has died.
There are many examples of mourning in the Bible.
Genesis 23 gives us an account of how Abraham mourned the loss of his wife, Sarah.
When King Saul and his son Jonathan were killed in battle, David and his men tore their clothes, wept bitterly, fasted and mourned their deaths (2 Samuel 1:11-12).
In the Gospel of John, we read of how Mary and Martha mourned the death of their brother Lazarus, who had been sick for some time. Even Jesus was gripped with sorrow when he approached Lazarus’ tomb, and wept (John 11).
Grieving is therefore a very natural response to the pain and suffering caused by the loss of someone we love.
Grieving the death of a loved one is also a very individual process. We all grieve very differently. And the length of time each of us spend in intense mourning also differs significantly.
We must never be in a hurry to get over our grief. We must never rush the grieving process.
Over time, however, the intensity of our grief will subside.
But there is also a sense in which the sadness and loss we experience when someone we love dearly dies will always remain with us.
Both my parents passed away about twenty years ago. Every year, I try to make two or three visits to the columbarium where their remains are laid. And even after all these years, whenever I think of them, I still feel a certain sadness – because they are longer with me.
We remember because we mourn. We mourn because we love. And our love brings to remembrance the wonderful gift of our loved ones, who have meant and who still means so much to us.
But in remembering and mourning our departed loved ones, Christians must never be thrown into despair.
Neither should Christians be so attached to our departed family member or friend that we refuse to accept their loss, and come to terms with the fact that that person is now dead.
So, while the Christian like everyone else suffers the pain of the grief of losing our loved ones, we are never paralysed or destroyed by our grief.
Christians are confident that death does not have the last word. God has the last word!
Thus, Christians are able to confidently surrender our loved ones into the merciful hands of the loving and gracious God – who alone has the last word.
TO HONOUR
We remember the dead not only because we mourn their passing. We remember the dead also because we wish to honour them.
What does it mean to honour someone?
To honour a person is to value him highly. It is to have regard and respect for that person.
The Bible has much to say about honouring others.
It teaches us to honour our parents (Exodus 20:12), the elderly (Leviticus 19:32) and those in authority (Romans 13:1). The apostle Paul instructs Christians to ‘honour one another above ourselves’ (Romans 12:10). And Peter exhorts us to ‘honour all people’ (1 Peter 2:17).
But what about the dead? Should we also honour them? Are there examples in the Bible of the dead being honoured by the living?
In 2 Chronicles, we have an account of how King Hezekiah was honoured by the people after his death. In chapter 32, verse 23 we read:
And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper part of the tombs of the sons of David, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour at his death.
Hezekiah was honoured because he was a righteous king who enacted many reforms that brought his people back to God.
In the same way, we honour our departed loved ones for the good that they have done, and for the way they have graced our lives with theirs.
So, we honour our departed parents for their love and their sacrifice, for the way that they have brought us up. We honour our departed spouses for their self-forgetting and persevering love for us.
In remembering our departed family and friends, we honour them. And we honour them by celebrating their lives, and by giving thanks to God for them.
But what about the family members who have been a burden to us, and who have brought us pain and sorrow? What about those who have hurt and betrayed us? Do we still honour them now that they have passed away?
In the Bible, honour is not only given to the people whom we like or to those whom we think are deserving. As Peter emphasises, we are to ‘honour all people’, regardless of whether we deem them worthy of honour.
For example, the Bible does not command us to honour our parents only if they have lovingly and responsibly fulfilled their parental duties. It commands us to honour our parents even if they have failed in their role.
The command to honour others is in a sense comparable to the command to love. Just as Christians are commanded to love their neighbours – indeed, even their enemies – unconditionally, so they are enjoined to honour all people in the same way.
For to honour someone is to recognise and to accord dignity to the fact that despite all their imperfections and failures they are bearers of the image of God – they are precious in God’s sight and valued by God. To honour them is to acknowledge that God loves them, and that Christ has died for them.
TO LOOK TO GOD
Finally, we remember the dead so that we may look to God.
While the memorial service is conducted in remembrance of the dead, its main focus – it must always be emphasised – is God.
This is not only a service during which we reminisce about our departed loved ones and reflect on what they’ve meant to us. It is essentially a service for those who are alive to give praise and thanks to God, the Source of Life.
The memorial service is therefore not only an occasion for us to mourn and honour our departed family and friends. It is also an occasion for us to renew our faith and hope in God, who, in his Son, Jesus Christ, has made everlasting life available to all who would put their faith in him.
To be sure, the memorial service reminds us of the reality of death. It reminds us that death is something which we must all reckon with.
It forces us to come to terms with our own mortality. It compels us to think of our own deaths.
And the thought of death always brings with it a strange disquiet. We revolt against death. We can never live at peace with it.
The Bible describes death as an enemy. It is indeed our greatest enemy, the last enemy to be defeated.
The death of a human being was never intended by God. For God has created us in the divine image so that we can enjoy fellowship with him forever.
Death is the rude disruption to the divine plan that was brought about by human disobedience and rebellion. As the apostle Paul puts it, death is the ‘wages of sin’ (Romans 6:23).
But the Good News is that in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our last enemy has been defeated. The death of the Son of God has brought about the death of death.
Death is therefore a conquered enemy. Thus, the apostle Paul could write triumphantly in 1 Corinthians 15:
O death, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is in the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (vv 55-56).
So, as we remember the dead, let us also remember God, who in Jesus Christ, has vanquished death. As we mourn and grief over our departed loved ones, let us remind ourselves that death does not have the last word. God alone has the last word!
Seen in this way, the memorial service is not just about remembering our departed loved ones. It also concerns us – those who are alive, and who must carry on living. Those who must face the joys and sorrows that come with living in this fallen and fractured world, those who are constantly living in the shadow of death.
Thus, in remembering the dead at this memorial service, we are confronted – each and every one of us – with this question: How should we live?
To answer this question, we must turn to the words of the apostle Paul, which were read at the beginning of this reflection. In Philippians 1:21, Paul writes: ‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’
This simple but powerful statement is a perfect summary of the attitude that every Christian should have towards life and death.
For the Christian ‘to die is gain’. The Christian does not fear death. Death is no longer a threat. It no longer terrorises him. For the Christian, death has lost its sting.
This is because for the Christian, death brings him into the very presence of Christ. As Paul puts it: to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).
But Paul also teaches us how to live our lives in the face of death.
Paul says: ‘To live is Christ.’ What does Paul mean by this?
‘To live is Christ’ means ‘to live for Christ’. And to live for Christ is to prefer Christ above all else. It means to love Christ above all else. It means to serve and honour him above all else.
It is to live in such a way that is totally surrendered and devoted to Christ.
To live for Christ is to live a doxological life – a life of thanksgiving and praise to God.
This sermon was preached at the All Saints Memorial Chapel on 10 February 2023.
Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor at Trinity Theological College (Singapore) and Theological and Research Advisor of the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity.