Necessary Endings
By Rev. David Wilson Rogers | May 18, 2013
Life
is a series of beginnings and endings.
Ecclesiastes
3 eloquently describes this truth in beautifully poetic
terms: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under
heaven.”
A
healthy Christian faith takes these seasons quite seriously. They are a matter
of prayerful attention and soulful reflection. This is particularly real in
times when necessary endings face believers.
Throughout
scripture, there are several necessary endings. Deuteronomy recalls the final
sermon of
Moses as he prepares to pass
the mantle of leadership to
Joshua and
the desert wandering comes to an end. The 30th Chapter is a beautiful
summary of the choices the people face at the moment of a necessary ending.
Given the options between good and bad, life or death,
Moses
calls on the faithful to choose life!
Later, after settling into the Promised Land,
Joshua follows suit at the end of his time to rule.
Joshua 23 illustrates a similar blessing to the
one
Moses uttered a generation before.
The necessary ending of one era in the life of Israel,
Joshua
defines life in the new age as one where he and his household would serve only
God. He then challenges the believers to do the same.
The epic story of
Ruth
illustrates the tragic side of necessary endings as the woman who would become
King
David’s great
grandmother faced the tragedy of her first husband’s death. Caught between two
worlds,
Ruth embraced the tragic
ending in her life through unquenchable faith.
For all his greatness and love for God,
King
David experienced
many tragic endings. Perhaps the most traumatic was in the 15th Chapter
of 2 Samuel when his sinful past exploded into his kingdom culminating in the
loss of his throne. Recognizing the inevitability of this necessary ending,
David quietly left Jerusalem in disgrace in order to
spare its people the further indignity of a bitter and bloody battle for the
throne. In the end,
David would regain
the throne, but not by his own hand, and not in a way he would have liked.
Jesus spoke of
necessary endings in
John 12:24
of the vital importance of simply letting important things die. By using the
illustration of a seed falling into the earth and dying before it cold spring forth
and produce new life,
Jesus was alluding
to his own death and resurrection. Yet, the implications of this parable speak
to our own lives as well.
There are things—important things, sentimental things, even
things that bear all the marks of being good, orderly, decent, and necessary—that
have outlived their purpose and truly need to die. In the 15th Chapter
of John,
Jesus carries the
agricultural image to another level when he speaks of pruning viable branches
because the desired result is not more branches, but more fruit. There are
times when the necessary endings of life remind us that there are things of
which we must simply let go.
This is hard work for individuals, for families, and for
churches. Yet, it is also holy work. What is your necessary ending? Are we
holding to an idea, a theology, a tradition, or a memory that is no longer
working in the modern world? Are we holding to angers, resentments, and
bitterness that holds us back from living in love? Are we clinging to
relationships and affiliations that draw the life right out of us and destroy
the fruits of our faith? Are we more interested in preserving the past than we
are in living for the future? What
necessary endings are holding us back from a deeper, more meaningful
relationship with God?
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