WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU KNOW YOU’RE GOING TO DIE? Feb 22, 2009
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU KNOW YOU’RE GOING TO DIE?
2 Kings 2:1-12
Mark 9:2-9
The radio station I listen to at home when I’m not working – 92.1 Lite FM – frequently plays a song by Tim McGraw entitled “Live Like You Were Dying.” The lyrics go like this:
He said I was in my early forties,
with a lot of life before me,
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime.
I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays,
talking ‘bout the options
and talking ‘bout sweet time.
I asked him when it sank in,
that this might really be the real end.
How’s it hit you when you get that kinda news?
Man, what’d you do?
What do you do when you know you’re going to die? Of course, we all know that we’re going to die, and that “all” includes “me” – some day. What we usually don’t know are the specifics. What if we did?
In the song, the first part of the dying man’s answer is exactly what you might expect: he went out and did the kinds of wild and crazy things that he might always have been dreaming of, but never did. He said:
I went skydiving.
I went Rocky Mountain climbing.
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
Now I have to confess: this doesn’t impress me at all. But he doesn’t stop there, and what he says next is what truly redeems the song. He speaks of what is most important and worthwhile in our lives: cultivating what is best within us and nurturing our relationships with others. This is what he said:
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I’d been denyin’.
He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn’t
and I became a friend a friend would like to have.
And all of a sudden goin’ fishin’
wasn’t such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad.
Well, I finally read the good book,
and I took a good long hard look
at what I’d do if I could do it all again.
The song ends with the wish that “some day I hope you get the chance to live like you were dyin’.” Of course we all understand what he means: that we will be aware of how precious life is, that we will consciously seek to spend each day wisely and well.
In this morning’s Old Testament reading we learn that the fiery and controversial prophet Elijah also had to answer the question “What do you do when you know you’re going to die?” The text is the well-known Sunday-School story of Elijah going up into heaven in a flaming chariot, drawn by horses ascending via a whirlwind, leaving his protégé Elisha behind. It’s a fascinating story, not least because there is no mention of Elijah’s death; only that he was taken up into heaven. Now there are many sermon possibilities here, but I want to focus on one often overlooked, but interesting detail: Elijah’s awareness that the Lord was going to take him on this day. Two companies of prophets also knew this and mentioned it to Elisha, who said that he, too, already knew it, and that they should just keep quiet and mind their own business. We can wonder about how these prophets all knew this, but they were prophets, and prophets just know these kinds of things. Instead, let’s look closely at how Elijah behaved, knowing that this was his last day on earth.
The text says that Elijah “walked” and he “talked.” And it also tells us that the Lord was still “sending” him on his last day, and he was still following God’s directives. He was sent to Bethel, and from there to Jericho, and from there to the Jordan. After crossing the Jordan – a symbol of death or passage from one life to another – Elijah was taken in a whirlwind to heaven.
A third answer to the question “What do you do when you know you’re going to die?” is found in the popular 2007 film The Bucket List, with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Two strangers, both with cancer, find themselves roommates in a hospital, where each has been told that he has about six months to live. These two men, quite different from one another, form an unlikely friendship as they try to do a few important things before they die.
Edward Cole has spent his whole life accumulating great wealth. He has been married four times and has one grown-up daughter from whom he is estranged. He has no religious faith, evidenced by his statement that “We live, we die, and the wheels of the bus go round and round.”
Carter Chambers is an intelligent man who possesses great knowledge. When he was young, he was able to attend the first year of college, but then his wife got pregnant and he took a job as an automobile mechanic. He is deeply loyal and loving to his wife and family. And he has a strong Christian faith.
Carter remembers that in one of his classes the professor gave them an assignment to fill out a Bucket List of the things they wanted to do in life before they kicked the bucket. He starts writing his list of things to do. Seeing it, Edward writes some other things. They both decide to leave the hospital and embark on fulfilling all the activities on their bucket list.
Their journey is not exactly like the journey of Elijah and Elisha from Bethel to Jericho to Jordan, but they are on a journey, and learning a lot in the process. Yes, they do a lot of wild and crazy things, including skydiving, traveling the world, racing cars, and getting a tattoo. But the most poignant of list items revolve around their relationships with each other and those most important to them. Both emerge from their experience as better people, having discovered that there is more to living than their former narrow view, and a deep bond of love has been forged between them. Their story invites us to question our own values and philosophy of life, and to ask whether, in the brevity of life, we have yet found real joy and meaning.
What did Elijah do the day he died – when he knew he was going to die? Pretty much the same things he had been doing throughout his life. Which was fine, because he had been doing the right things. If we’ve been doing the wrong things, as Carter Chambers and Edward Cole discovered, it’s not good, and changes must be made. Elijah, however, kept walking, kept talking, and we can infer that he kept working. And the last thing he did, was to bless someone.
Not a bad way to go.