I once had a history teacher in high school (Mr. Love) who was famous for assigning a weekly report that his students turned in on notecards. In fact, he was so famous for this assignment that by the time I took his class in the fall of 1990, he began day #1 of his class saying strongly, “Students, there are three things that you will find as constants in life: Death, Taxes, and Mr. Love’s notecards!” Many, many years later, and I can still hear him saying that.
Mr. Love’s comment generated nervous laughter in the classroom that day (“what did we get ourselves into?!?”), but over the next 9 months we found the third axiom he asserted to be spot on. 36 weeks in our school year … 36 sets of notecards turned in. As high school students, though, most of us could not fully relate to his first two constants. As 17 year olds living in an American small town in the 80’s, most of us had seen little death. And taxes? Well, we were beginning to understand why a $1 purchase cost $1.08, but income tax would have to wait.
As time has gone on, however, Mr. Love’s full statement has been confirmed: we are one month away from April 15 … and I have both attended and officiated many memorial services. In fact, while someone MAY get away with not paying their taxes, none of us will escape death – scientists confirm that one out of one people die … and it is no laughing matter.
But where does death come from? What is the cause of it? How might we describe the birth of death?
This Sunday at Wildwood Community Church in our 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00 worship services, we will begin a four part series leading up to Easter entitled, “Victory over Death.” This week, we will begin by considering the “Birth of Death” from Genesis 1-3 and Romans 5:12-21. In these verses, we will not only see where death came from, but also what can conquer death! Hope to see you Sunday, March 17 … and bring friends!