Medical Service Life And Death

One of the most significant achievements of the last century was the continual improvement of public health in the Western world. The result is most clearly seen in life expectancy figures. Boys born this year, the year 2000, now have an average life expectancy of 74, while for girls it is just under 80 - almost 30 years more than their forebears born in 1900, and twice as long as those born in 1850. The average life span is lengthening around two years every decade. For many people that is all that matters - the preserving of life. If they are in the medical profession that is for them the great goal. And, of course, they are right. But not completely. For too many, in their concern to postpone death, fail to consider the true meaning of life and death. So this morning I want to have that as our subject - LIFE AND DEATH.

I want us to think together about the real meaning of life and death. Nor do I intend to give you my views. Rather I want to give you what the Bible teaches. I want us, therefore, to look together at the passage we had as our New Testament reading and I particularly want us to look at verse 21 in this first chapter of the epistle to the Philippians. Verse 21 of Philippians 1 says this:

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Now these words are not written by some religious fanatic. I was reading this past week of a man called Mr Muggle who lived in the 17th century. Claiming to "stand in the place of God" he founded the sect of the Muggletonians. The sect, needless to say, is now extinct.

No! These are the words of a distinguished scholar whose teaching along with that of the other apostles of Christ has lasted down the centuries. And the Church of Christ has grown. Lives have been changed and social good has resulted. Indeed, the Christian gospel has been a fundamental factor in the evolution of modern medicine. But Paul is now a prisoner in Rome. He is coming to the end of his life. He has completed three amazing missionary journeys that you can read about in the Acts of the Apostles as the Christian message spread from Jerusalem to Rome (and then further afield). And under arrest Paul is facing possible death. However he believes there may still be some work that God has for him. That is the situation as he writes to these Christian friends at Philippi in northern Greece. When you are facing possible death you are careful about what you say. As one GP said who himself was in the late stages of cancer: "dying makes life suddenly real." Paul is in a similar situation as he writes about THE MEANING OF LIFE and THE MEANING OF DEATH.


First, THE MEANING OF LIFE

What is life? Some people say there is no meaning to life at all. The zoologist Richard Dawkins, a post-modern atheist, has this as his view of the universe. I quote:

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pointless indifference.

That is nihilism - and Dawkins is currently being paid by our taxes to teach this vision of a pointless universe at Oxford University. But such nihilism soon leads to despair. Nietzsche the 19th century German philosopher was a despairing nihilist. He declared that God is dead. He then went mad, probably from a sexually transmitted disease, but not before he had sowed the seeds that gave rise to Nazism and so terrible evils in the last century. Bertrand Russell, the 20th century British philosopher, was a more stoical nihilist. He once famously said: "when I die, I rot". This combination of nihilism and despair soon leads to hedonism - "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." Russell was an advocate of what used to be called "free love". And now drugs are added to sex.

But don't let's think that this nihilism is something people in modern times have suddenly discovered - that human life lacks meaning. When Paul was writing his epistles, Roman writers were saying the same things as Richard Dawkins, Nietzsche and Russell. The Roman poet Lucretius wrote a book entitled The Nature of Things. His main thesis was that "the world is ultimately only a collection of 'atoms', so let's be scientific and get away from religion." Catullus, another Roman poet and noted for his sexual decadence, reckoned that we ought to enjoy everything while we live as all will be snatched away from us when we die. He wrote:

"when the sun sets, it sets to rise again. But for us, when our brief day is over, there is one endless night that we must sleep.

But aware of all these schools of thought, Paul contradicts them by saying: "living, as far as I am concerned, simply means Christ." Nor is this sentimental devotion. He was not referring to a mythical figure that you get in many of the world's religions. Nor was he referring to his inner feelings of spirituality. No! He was referring to a man of history, to Jesus of Nazareth, who lived, died and - supremely - rose again. Paul knew that Jesus Christ, by his Spirit, was now present with him and with others who trusted in Christ. But you say, this is all very well. It sounds nice. But what does it actually mean to say, "to me, to live is Christ"?

The answer is in the rest of this epistle. For the epistle is about Christ from start to finish. Paul sees Christ as providing the answer to life's fundamental problems and needs. Take just three of the needs that everyone has.

First, there is the need for "acceptance". Human rejection is so damaging emotionally. Acceptance is healing and therapeutic. You don't have to be an expert in psychiatry to understand that. Why was poor Paula Yates so mixed up? She was rejected by Bob Geldof, and certainly rejected by her real father, Hughie Green. No wonder just before she died she reported that, "By the time I was 35 I was burnt out."

But Paul teaches that the heart of the Christian gospel is "acceptance". Above all there is acceptance with God your creator and your judge - a God you have offended either by defying him or ignoring him. Sin, you see, is essentially living as though God did not exist or, if he does exist, as though you are more important. To live like that is the natural human condition, says Paul. We are all like that. But the Christian good news is that we can now be forgiven and accepted by God. Not only that, we can also be in a relationship of "acceptance" with one another.

You say, "How does that happen?" In this epistle Paul gives us an account of his own conversion. This helps us to understand. Like the majority of men and women, Paul believed in God. The opinion polls tell us that most people are not like those academic atheistic philosophers and poets. No! They believe in God. But - and this is the big but - most people think God will accept them as they try to be good, friendly, moral and, from time to time, religious. So they come to church - like this morning.

Now all these are good intentions. But the problem is that none of us lives up to the standards we set ourselves; we all fall short. And we certainly fall short of God's standards. And God judges us. God is loving, yes; but he is also just. In Christ, however, his love and justice meet. In dying for you on the Cross, Christ paid the penalty for your sin. So you don't have to trust in your own goodness any more. You trust in Christ's goodness. As Luther said, there is an "exchange". This is a mystery but by faith, as you trust in Christ, he takes your sin and you take his righteousness. Speaking of himself and his own religious background, Paul puts it like this in Philippians 3.7-9:

7 ... whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 ... I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

And this acceptance gives life meaning and gives you a new identity as a true child of God and as you begin that new life of faith. Secondly, there is the need for purpose in life. And Christ gives purpose as well as meaning and acceptance. What are going to be your ideals and goals? What will be the focus of your life? One Christian doctor wrote of things that can dominate even the lives of Christian medical people:

"overriding ambition, a large private practice, the yacht, too lavish entertaining and - dare I mention it - simple alcohol.

Paul said, however, that your purpose in life and the way you think about the future needs to be patterned on Christ (Phil 2.5-8):

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!

But ideals and goals are no good if you have no power to reach them. In Christ, says Paul, there is power. It is the power of his resurrection. So he says (Phil 3.10):

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.

And Paul knew of that power in his own experience. He tells us in Philippians 4 verses 11-13:

11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

But Paul's ideals and goals were not just for this life. He knew all about life's problems even before his imprisonment as those verses tell us. He knew about poverty and hunger. He knew, as a Christian that he should try to relieve poverty - he spent a great deal of time in seeking "aid" for the poor in Jerusalem. But he also knew that the only final solution will be when Christ returns. He says "earthly things" are not the whole story, for (Phil 3:20-21):

... our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

This is the great Christian hope. This overarches all of Paul's purposes for this life. So Christ is the answer to the need for meaning and acceptance; for purpose; but also for the need for fellowship. That is the third great human need. And in the Christian church there is that fellowship. Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians to say "thank you" for their practical fellowship in giving Paul a gift of money and in their continuing financial generosity which he calls in chapter 1 verse 5:

your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

How important fellowship is. My wife was at a medical seminar last week where it was being said that as a preventer of mental health problems women need other women as friends. In Christian churches like this one you have a range of women's groups providing such friendship. They are undoubtedly therapeutic as well as being opportunities for bible study. Jesus Christ is a focus for fellowship. So Paul can say, with good reason, "For to me, to live is Christ". Let's now move on to what he says next and our second heading ...


THE MEANING OF DEATH

Paul goes on to say, "and to die is gain." Too often in the modern world we limit our thinking about death to ethical problems, for example, the problems of the sad case of Jodie and Mary, the Siamese twins. However, what is needed before you can discuss such problems is a basic framework for thinking about death. That is what Paul and the bible gives you. And you need that framework for yourself and (if you are medical) for your patients. Death is no respecter of persons. Death, as John Stott says, "is the most democratic of institutions". Or as someone else puts it: "death is the ultimate statistic - one out of one dies." If few find the true meaning of life, even fewer seem to find the true meaning of death.

The bible is clear. Death apart from Christ is grim. In that Old Testament reading from Job you have a common understanding. Death is described as "the king of terrors" (Job 18.14). In the New Testament it is described as "the last enemy" (1 Cor 15.26). And the book of Hebrews speaks of "those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Heb 2.15). But the Christian gospel says that death has been mastered and defeated by Christ. On the Cross Christ has destroyed "him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil" (Heb 2.14). And that victory was proved by the Resurrection of Christ. This message was something so new. It immediately set a divide between the Christians and non-believers. In Roman cemeteries at the time of Paul you would find these 7 letters inscribed on tombstones - NFFNSNC - "non fui, fui, non sum, non curo" (I was not; I was; I am not; I do not care). By contrast the Christian inscriptions read, "He [or she] sleeps but lives" or "He went to God." And that contrast has been there throughout the centuries.

Henry Venn was the great evangelical vicar of Huddersfield in the late 18th century. When he was told he was dying, the thought made him so jubilant that his doctor said the joy at dying kept him alive a further fortnight! Why is there this difference between Christians and non-believers? The non-believer at best dies stoically like Russell, or at worst in terrible despair like Nietzsche. They do not say with Paul, "to die is gain". The key problem is not the certainty of death - the fact that death is the end. The key is that death might not be the end. What people fear is not death, but judgment. The resurrection of Jesus Christ not only proved that death is defeated, and in him there can be new life. It also proved that there is a judgement - there is heaven but also hell. Paul told the sophisticated Athenians that God ...

.... has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead (Acts 17.31).

But Christ is the answer to that ultimate judgment.

"I tell you the truth," [said Jesus,] "whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24) .

Those who believe in Christ can die assured of heaven. When Augustine lay dying he asked that these words from Psalm 32 be written on the wall of his cell: "Blessed is he whose sin is covered". And with his thoughts on that verse he died. That is why Paul can say, "to die is gain". And that is why he writes in verse 23 of chapter one:

I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far

I must conclude.

Paul's philosophy of life and death brings you to the heart of Christianity. Christianity is not fundamentally about rules or rituals. It is about the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Saviour who brings acceptance and a new relationship with God; who gives purpose and direction in a confused world; and who is the source of genuine fellowship. And through his resurrection he is also the conqueror of death. And through him we can be forgiven and escape God's judgment. Yes, at the great day of judgement there will be a division. Those who in this life have said, "my will be done" will be separated from those who in this life have said (to God), "your will be done". Which of those two sides are you on? Are you denying Christ and saying there is no meaning to life and no meaning to death. Or are you like Paul who, trusting in Christ, could say, "to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain?"