FROM THE PASTOR
Death is Too Much With us
Death is too much with us. War in Ukraine and Ethiopia and elsewhere on the globe. Mass shootings almost every day. Death invading our personal circle of friends, acquaintances, loved ones. Our own reminders that we are mortal, with death waiting for all of us. I am sharing a remembrance from long ago which may help us put death in the perspective of our faith.
The small apartment of the taxi driver, Hyun, his wife and two children in Flushing, Queens was overflowing with people. Hyun had just received news that his brother in Korea had died of cancer. It is the custom in Korean Christian community to gather and give support in such times. This communal pastoral care is known as “shimbang.”
The previous easter, Hyun, his wife and two children received Christian baptism. Now in the apartment their Buddhist instincts were expressed. Centered on a table was a picture of Duk, Hyun’s brother, surrounded by flowers. Candles and incense flickered and smoked. From each side of the table flowed two scrolls: one with Korean characters giving biographical information, the other a beautifully drawn picture of the Good Shepherd holding one of his sheep, with text of the 23rd psalm flowing around it.
We prayed and sang hymns. Then they looked to me, their pastor, for words of comfort. I spoke, accompanied by quiet translation. I concluded my few words of resurrection hope with the words of the commendation from the rite of the burial of the dead.
“Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Duk. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light.”
The comfort of the Gospel took root between these people and a loved one across the ocean and into eternity, a loved one who became a revered “ancestor,” or in biblical language, a “saint.”
Long ago when people of means died they provided for copious amounts of food to be placed on their graves. It was expected that the poor who ate the food would offer prayers on behalf of the departed. And in the eating and drinking and praying life would continue…on this side of eternity and the next. That’s eucharist. That’s baptism.
Pastor Stephen Paul Bouman
