A few weeks ago I went to something called "Shapenote." For those who don't know what Shapenote is, the simplest explanation I can offer is that it's a singing get-together. People of all ages, skill levels, and backgrounds who love to sing get together and sing a bunch of horrible old hymns about sadness, suffering and death. At least that's how everyone else who was there saw it. One woman even said that she didn't want to be washed in the blood of the lamb, she wanted the lamb to live a long and happy life.
This is my public confession: I wish I had spoken up then.
I don't mean that in an angry way. I'm not mad at all, I totally understand it. A lot of these old hymns do seem dreary and dark when you read them. A lot of them are about suffering. A lot are about how we've been washed in blood, which is a very grotesque image when you think about it.
But these old hymns aren't about being sad and mopey all day. They're about hope in suffering. They fully acknowledge that life tends to suck once in a while, but they're hopeful about the fact that that suffering isn't forever. God is. The ramifications of the bloody, terrible and outright gory death of Jesus Christ, which paid the penalty for sin, and His glorious resurrection which proved not only His deity but the fact that His sin-paying work was done, are forever. And the people who wrote these hymns, the people who used to (and still do in some cases) sing them in churches, all knew this. They all had this hope, this knowledge that their suffering wouldn't last forever and that they'd go to see and be with Jesus forever.
Death doesn't need to be a sad thing. Death, for Christians, is a hopeful thing with good reason.
No comments:
Post a Comment