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"WHAT TO SAY TO SOMEONE
FACING DEATH"
One afternoon recently, I picked
up Bob Edwards on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered"
as he interviewed a reporter somewhere in Iraq with the American
military. The reporter said, "It's night here and I'm in
the chaplain's tent. It's the only place where I can turn on my
flashlight. We're not allowed to have a light of any kind outside
because the snipers will see it and fire on us."
At the end of the interview, Edwards
asked, "Is the chaplain there with you? Put him on."
The two men exchanged greetings, then Bob Edwards gave the man
of faith an open mike to share the gospel with the world. He said,
"Chaplain, you're talking to men and women about to go into
battle. Some of them may be killed. What do you tell them?"
There was a slight pause, then the chaplain said, "I tell
them to trust their weapons. And trust their buddies." Long
pause. Edwards waited patiently for him to get to the faith part,
but that was it. He was through. I almost drove off the road.
In an attempt to salvage this
disastrous exchange, Edwards asked, "Chaplain, what is your
religious faith?" The man said, "I'm a Christian. A
non-denominational Christian." And the interview was over.
The Baptist Press news releases
told recently of military chaplains baptizing hundreds of men
and women in our armed forces who are headed into battle. Surely
we are safe in believing some of these ministers are getting it
right and introducing our sons and daughters to the Savior. Not
all our military chaplains have neutered their message to the
point where they no longer have anything to say to someone facing
death. But, alas, some have forgotten their message, if they ever
had one.
"Why do you think so many
people on military bases find churches in town?" an Air Force
veteran told me. Most of our chaplains have to be so politically
correct they're afraid to say anything of value."
This semester, I am participating
in a course on interpersonal relations for students at New Orleans
Baptist Theological Seminary. Recently, we recognized two members
of our class who are in chaplaincy training and whose units were
about to be called up. The two men told their stories.
Each had been an enlisted serviceman
who put in a full term in the military before deciding God was
calling him to enroll in seminary for theological training and
appointment as a chaplain. They had hearts for God and a hunger
to help these young men and women find a solid faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
The class prayed for them, for
God's leadership and blessings and protections. I sat there praying
that they would not become victims to the system, that they would
not neuter their message to the point where they had nothing of
value to offer the troops. Longtime chaplains say the pressure
to conform can be enormous.
Pray for our military chaplains.
Pray that the Father will guide them in walking that line between
respecting all faiths and obeying their superiors while presenting
the gospel of Jesus Christ without compromise.
During the Viet Nam war, a reporter
interviewed a medic returning from the battlefront. "How
do you keep your sanity?" he asked. "You're out there
in the field treating men dying from every kind of wound. It must
be horrendous. How do you stay sane?" The medic said, "It's
simple. Never look a dying man in the eyes."
That is precisely the job assignment
of ministers in the military and pastors stateside who shepherd
the people of the Lord and preach the message of Jesus. Long ago,
one put it this way: "We are to preach as dying men to dying
men."
On any given Sunday, as I stand
to preach in the pulpit in our church, I have no way of knowing
who among us will be next to face death. Everyone appears so healthy
and well-dressed, they are so involved in life, that any talk
of death seems lurid and out-of-place. But there are certain folk
in our community who know the statistics. The newspaper reserves
two pages in every edition just for obituaries. A dozen mortuaries
and funeral homes stand by to receive phone calls from hospitals
or distraught family members. Death is alive and on the job.
Our people will walk out the doors,
get in their cars, and drive onto the interstate highway. They
will work on the river or in the Gulf, tend to the nuclear power
plant, maintain equipment in the chemical factories up the Mississippi,
and service the planes at the New Orleans airport across the street
from our church. And the phone calls, will come just as one did
early Sunday morning. "My sister died in the night,"
said Catherine. The funeral is Thursday.
A man said to the pastor, "When
are you preachers going to quit talking about death?" The
man of God answered, "Just as soon as people quit dying."
That day, incidentally, is coming.
On the first day of every week and each Easter, we celebrate the
death of death. By His death on Calvary and His resurrection the
third day, the Lord Jesus Christ took on the greatest enemy of
mankind, descended into Hades with it, and left it there. When
He arose in victory, the Lord carried in his hands the keys of
death, hell, and the grave. "Whoever believes on the Son
of God has everlasting life" has been our message ever since.
There is no other group on earth with a message that comes anywhere
close.
All around us, people are dying
and dying to hear. Those who know how to live forever have an
obligation to tell. Those who do not should find another line
of work.
Revelation 21:4 tells us that
in Heaven there is "no more death." Until then, our
job is to tell people how to get there.
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