(Nev asked that a gospel message be presented at his funeral. Here is that message.)
If you know anything about Colditz Castle, the German Prisoner of War facility in WW2, you may be familiar with the terminology: ‘The Home Run’. Whenever a prisoner escaped and made it back to England, it was called a home run. Weeks and months would go by without word of an escaped prisoner and then the news would filter back that he had made it home to England – he had scored a home run. A great cheer would go up at the news and the enamel cups would rattle on the bars as the prisoners in Colditz celebrated the ultimate freedom of one of their own. Today we are here to celebrate a ‘home run’ by one of our own: Neville Smith. I’m sorry there are no enamel plates or mugs for you to rattle – but you do have a voice which you have used to sing it out and heart which can resonate with joy that Nev represents another defeat for our Enemy and a clear victory for Jesus Christ! Nev’s passing represents a successful home run!
Nev has brought us all together today - (he went to quite a bit of trouble to do so!). He brought us all here to gather at the border between life and death to peer across that border – to face it - and reflect on our own lives, as well as his.
Here is a Bible reading
2 Corinthians 5.1-5
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it onwe may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
Here, two dwellings are described – a temporary and a permanent – a tent and a building.
These dwellings – these homes – represent two modes of living: living now as we are in our familiar bodies - and living after this life in a manner that we can’t yet fully grasp. Nev has already completed the biggest part of this transition – he has left his tent.
The temporary dwelling – the tent – is fit for its purpose – it is an earthly dwelling. But it doesn’t last. It can’t live beyond here. It will be destroyed. The tent will be taken out either by storm or attrition – one way or the other, our tent will give out. We have a family tent which we used every summer for about 20 years. Last year we unfolded it and decided it is just too worn to use anymore. It will no longer keep out the rain and it parts of it are mildewed and scungy. It has worn out. So we rolled it up for the last time. Our earthly home – our tents – our bodies – are temporary dwellings.
A tent has no foundations. You simply pin it to the ground and gather it up when it is time to move on. Abraham knew all about that. He lived lightly on the land in which God sent him to travel by faith. He was ready to pull up his pegs and travel on as God directed him. He knew from the outset that he would not be building a town called Abraham. He had his heart set on a city with foundations, a permanent city, whose architect and builder is God. He lived life to the full in the here and now, knowing that he was working towards God’s kingdom. Nev knew that, too. He lived vigorously, but with his heart set on the permanent city with foundations.
We have the in front of us the tent of Neville Smith - it has been well-used, worn-out and packed away. It was a body we loved to see. Bright eyes that sparkled with humour and interest. Hands that clasped our hands in friendship and gave us a pull up or an encouraging slap on the back when we needed it. A good body. An honourable body. A body that delighted his wife and fathered beautiful children. A body inhabited by God’s Holy Spirit and used in God’s service. But is a tent. It is a temporary dwelling. It wore out. Latterly it caused Nev to groan. His aged body reflected back to Nev all that he understood to be wrong about this world. Sin entered the world through the first man and death came through sin and so death spread to everyone.
But Nev lived confidently in the face of this truth, because he also knew Christ who entered the world bringing life. That life took root in Nev’s own spirit when he received Christ in his youth. He knew who it was that he was trusting and he was convinced that Christ was able to keep that life which he had committed to him against the day of his death. Nev understood that although he held this treasure in a jar of clay it was no reason to be discouraged and give up. He did not lose heart. Though his outward nature was wasting away, he felt his inner nature being renewed day by day. He regarded his afflictions as momentary and even slight! Because he saw them as preparing for him an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Better than wine, better than property, better than fame, better than retirement, better than life. He was looking not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. He did not try to collapse heaven into the here and now. He accepted that the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are currently unseen are eternal. These things Nev believed and lived by.
I know that Nev wanted you to reflect on these things because he told me so. He wanted you to understand that he didn’t invest his hope only in what he might experience and achieve while he lived in his tent. Certainly, he relished his life here. He experienced the promise of Jesus Christ to have life to the full. But Nev understood his life to be something weightier and longer-lasting than what he could stash in his tent over a few brief years.
Nev invested his faith and his hope and his temporary life in Christ who also lived for a while in a tent like ours so that we could have a permanent dwelling. He believed this gospel:
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures and he appeared to people. Nev believed the Scriptures that said: If only for this life we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits (the signal crop) of those who have fallen asleep.
Right now, Nev is with Christ - free of distress – at home in a way he has never felt before. He has joined all those who are cheering on the unfolding of Christ’s plan as it tracks unerringly towards the last day.
Two dwellings – a tent and a building – one temporary – one permanent.
The building is a spiritual dwelling. It is a building from God. It will be provided to every Christian on the last day – we will receive them together on the day that Christ and his kingdom burst in on this world.
The only hints we have as to the form or capabilities of our spiritual bodies are that they will be similar to the body which Jesus possessed following his resurrection from the dead:
- His new body was like him in appearance – it was the same Jesus.
- He was able to interact in a material sense – even consume food.
- But he was also able to slip (as it were) between the atoms of a merely physical world and live in the spiritual world concurrently.
- What was mortal was swallowed up by life.
In the future, when heaven invades the material world, when the curtain has been dropped - we will possess a permanent spiritual body - interoperable between things material and things spiritual.
We shall recognise our loved ones as we all longed to be – no more misunderstandings – no more confusion – no longer sin-damaged. We will be brothers and sisters – equals in Christ. But most stunning of all - We shall see Christ face to face and engage with him as the new world unfolds before us. Death will be swallowed up in victory.
Our mortal will have put on immortality. Our perishable will have put on imperishability. Our tent will have become a permanent dwelling with the capacity to enjoy God forever.
I am here to affirm that Neville Smith believed these things.
I am here to work with him one last time – to tell you this (and I will leave you with words he was more likely to use than I – but which are nevertheless true and which he wanted to leave ringing in our ears)…
Only one life – it will soon be past
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
_____________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment