Better to go to the house of mourning
Than to go to the house of feasting
Ecclesiastes 7:1-2
mmjiun A good name is better than precious ointment,And the day of death
than the day of one's birth;Better to go to the house of mourningThan to go to
the house of feasting,For that is the end of all men;And the living will take
it to heart.
msdun A good reputation is better than expensive perfume; and the day you
die is better than the day you are born.It is better to go to a home where
there is mourning than to one where there is a party, because the living should
always remind themselves that death is waiting for us all.
We were very happy last month as we had a wedding celemony at our church. But
we had a very sad thing. Just before the wedding, a lady, one of our friends
in our town, had died of cancer. She was in her 40's, having three daughters.
Because one of them was going to go to Perth for home-staying when she was a
highschool student, we invited her and her mother to our houth to show our
albums in Australia and give some advices. When someone came from Perth after
her coming back, we had dinner together. We were on such good terms. Soon
after that, her mother was taken ill. When she went to clinic, it was too late.
We and another friend of hers, who are a Christian, were eager to console her
and lead her to Christian faith, but we couldn't. She died on the day of the
wedding. In the same hospital was an about 60 year old man named Mr.O, a member
of our church, who was suffering of heart disease. We found him in high spirits
in spite of being in hospital. Even when he was about to have a heart operation
by catheter, he was very cheerful and not afraid of the operation. When a nurse
asked him if he feared, his answer was no. Why? Why was he not afraid?
Mr. O had been bereaved of his wife by cancer last October. Before he fell
ill, he asked us to recommend some good books on Near Death Experience. I
recommended 5 or 6 books including "On Life After Death","On Children and Death"
by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and "Embraced By The Light" by Betty J. Eadie. He read
them and were deeply impressed by them, saying that he was happy to know what
the place where his wife had gone was like. So he was not afraid of Death, still
less an operation.
We wish if we had been able to have the lady who died read such books, but we
couldn't. We are very regretful for our insufficient effort. We should have make
more effort, but we couldn't. Why? Why couldn't? Can you show this kind of
book to a person dying? Can you talk the world after death to a person suffer-
ing from a fatal disease? Isn't it a deed of rubbing the person the wrong way?
As for Mr.O, he was O.K.; he, after all, was reading such a book as is tittled
"On Life After Death" in a hospital room. So we can talk about the world after
death or we can preach on "resurrection of the dead" (1 Corinthians 15) Why?
Why can we do thay? It is because, I think, Mr.O. was reading such books while
he was in good health.
Now here is a theme I would like to speak to you today. The paragraphs of
Ecclesiastes 7:1-2 sound very strange.
" A good name," or " A good reputation" is said to be " A name given to the
dead." And "precious ointment" or "expensive perfume" is oil for newborn
babies. In other words, "the day you die is better than the day you are born."
Therefor, "It is better to go to a home where there is mourning than to one
where there is a party, because the living should always remind themselves
that death is waiting for us all."
A famous Zen priest, Ikkyuu i1394|1481jshowed a skull to people who were
whooping on the streets saying,"Be careful. Death is coming soon." Another
well-known Buddhist, Rennyo i1415|1499jwrote in his essay "White Bone" that
there is a young man with pink cheeks in the morning who will become a white
bone in the evening and that we should think of the world after death and have
faith in Buddha. As you know, we can read a similar precept in the Bible.
Then one from the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
inheritance with me."But He said to him, "Man, who made Me a judge or an
arbitrator over you?"And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of
covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things
he possesses."Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a
certain rich man yielded plentifully."And he thought within himself, saying,
'What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?'
"So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater,
and there I will store all my crops and my goods.'And I will say to my soul,
"Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink,
and be merry." '"But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be
required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?'
"So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
(Luke12:13-21)
So we would like to talk about "Death" sufficiently while you are in good
heaith. It is too late when you are about to die. Then it is very heard even
for a pastor to preach resurrection to a person who is dying. Consequently
we have to regret.
In that case, however, we can have a hope by faith. Because the life does
not end. Even people who died without faith will come to know the truth after
their death. As written in 1 Corinthians13:12 " For now we see in a mirror,
dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just
as I also am known." The dead knows the truth of the eternal life much better
than the living. And also Jesus Christ Himself will go to save people who
died without faith, we know.
For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they
might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the
spirit.(1 Peter4:6)
In those days we were allowed to be baptized for the sake of the dead;
Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not
rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? (1 Corinthians15:29)
However we have to talk about the world after death not to be a foolish rich
man. We would you like to think about death while your pastor can speak of
it easily.
Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting.
Wedding feast is a matter in this world and funeral is a matter of that world.
It is a starting gate to the new world. The dead leave this world for that
world happily.
"When you are born you cry and people rejoice,while when you are dying you
rejoice and people cry." (Shinichi Nakazawa "The World OfeTHE TIBETAN BOOK
OF THE DEADf")
The Homepage of the Eternal Life
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Copyright(C) 1997 Hiroshi Takasaki All rights reserved.
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