I Just Finished Reading This Amazing Book, When Breath Becomes Air, by Dr. Paul Kalanithi

February 21, 2016 at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Second Sunday in Lent. Luke 13:31-35. “As a hen gathers her brood…” QUESTION: As you know if you have been attending worship since Ash Wednesday our Lenten theme has been the alarm clock in its various ways and forms as that which gets our attention. It wakes us up, it reminds us that it is time. It is time to listen. Aina’s little clay pinch pot represents our mortality, a symbol of the urn that may hold our ashes one day. I just finished reading this amazing book, “When Breath Becomes Air,” by Dr. Paul Kalanithi. At the age of 36, just as he was finishing ten years of training as a neuro- surgeon he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. He writes about the experience of living his last years knowing that he was dying long before his time. Before becoming a doctor his passion had always been to be a writer and he first earned a BA and MA in English literature. Then a BA in human biology. After that a Masters of Philosophy in history and philosophy of science and medicine. And finally graduated cum laude from the Yale School of Medicine. With all of this accomplishment he remained humble, kind and personable. The overleaf of the book has a quote from Baron Brooke Fulke Greiville, titled “Caelica 83” that reads: You that seek what life is in death, Now find it air that once was breath. New names unknown, old names gone: Till time end bodies, but souls none. Reader! Then make time, while you be, But steps to your eternity. When you think about your own dying what kinds of things come to mind? Anyone care to tell us?

Please take out the bulletin so that we can read the Thought of the Day together because I believe it will help set the tone of why we think and talk about death in the season of Lent: In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus foreshadows his own life, and death in what he says about King Herod who is out to kill him: “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.” Obviously a direct reference to the resurrection after three days. We also know from the witness of the entire New Testament that the people of Jesus’ day did not understand what he was saying about the importance of the incarnation. It was not just about him so that he might be worshiped as God, it was about how through him we are all connected to God, each and every one of us! As I write in my March Herald article: Our lives are very fragile and temporary and the Gospel promise is that this is only the beginning, this fleeting life with all of its beauty, wonder and many graces. A foreshadowing of the things to come! It’s not that we should minimize the wonders of this life because a heaven of some kind awaits us but the exact opposite. This life, our very breath a gift from our creator God is marvelous beyond understanding and an introduction to the wonders that await us. Every life is precious no matter how short or long. Every person matters and reflects the very face of God. The incarnation of God as a human being in the person of Jesus changed forever the way believers in God viewed their relationship with the divine. Each and every person carries within them the spirit of God which is life. I believe that the various religions we have are really “languages” if you will with which we try to understand and express that which is ultimately beyond our ability to understand and name. As God told Moses at the burning bush, “Tell them I Am sent you!” That is the only name of God that we know and have. I Am. And that is enough. God was and still is. And on Easter morning we

2 3 celebrate the “already and not yet.” Christ is risen and alive today and will be tomorrow either in this life or the life to come. I consider two different perspectives this morning about how the church community and how people respond to pending death and death itself. Last week Pastor Mark Belknap, a member of Advent, sent me an article from the New York Times titled; “Death, the prosperity Gospel and Me.” It is written by Kate Bowler an assistant professor of the history of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity School. She begins her Op Ed piece like this: “On a Thursday morning a few months ago, I got a call from my doctor’s assistant telling me that I have Stage 4 cancer. The stomach cramps I was suffering were not caused by a faulty gallbladder, but by a massive tumor. I am 35. I did the things you might expect of someone whose world has suddenly become very small. I sank to my knees and cried.” She goes on to say that ironically she had just finished a book titled, “Blessed.” It is the first book to fully explore the movement that now claims millions of followers in America. Bowler traces the roots of thinkers like Norman Vincent Peale and revivalists like Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin and Creflo Dollar, pastor of Atlanta's 30,000-member World Changers Church International; Joel Osteen, known as "the smiling preacher," with a weekly audience of seven million; T. D. Jakes, named by Time magazine one of America's most influential new religious leaders; Joyce Meyer, evangelist and women's empowerment guru; and many others. At almost any moment, day or night, the American public can tune in to these preachers-on TV, radio, podcasts, and in their megachurches-to hear the message that God desires to bless them with wealth and health. “I am a historian of the American prosperity gospel. Put simply, the prosperity gospel is the belief that God grants health and wealth to those with the right kind of faith.”

I’m known for saying that the right religion for you is the one that brings meaning, comfort, hope and grace to your life. As I read her story I am reminded that perhaps my observation should not be so overreaching and complete. I certainly would not pretend to speak for God on this issue, but after more than 30 years of studying the religion of Christianity and the church that bears its name I can safely say that the message of the Gospel that Jesus presents is the exact opposite of the prosperity gospel. I remember a professor at Seminary once saying that if we take what Jesus demands of us seriously it is an outright miracle that anyone would follow him much less join a church! You know, take up your cross and follow me! Pretty much the only guarantee that Jesus offers is that you may very well suffer for your obedience to God and your unwavering faith in him. The prosperity charade quickly evaporates when reality hits home. As Bowler tells of a neighbor who is a believer in that prosperity gospel who knocked on their door after hearing about her diagnosis. She stopped by to tell Kate’s husband that everything happens for a reason. “I’d love to hear it,” her husband said. “Pardon?” she said, startled. “I’d love to hear the reason my wife is dying,” he said. Kate Bowler reaches a conclusion that I certainly have found to be true in my observation and study of human life, faith and illness. She writes: “The most I can say about why I have cancer, medically speaking, is that bodies are delicate and prone to error. As a Christian, I can say that the Kingdom of God is not yet fully here, and so we get sick and die.” I find that her concluding words are both poignant and spiritually brilliant as she writes: Life is so beautiful. Life is so hard.”