“Give Your Life a New Ending”

Religion in Daily Life C By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min. Rector, All Saints’ Church 9601 Frankford Ave. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19114 (215) 637-5225 Written 9 January 2002 http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org <http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org/>

Kirk Douglas’ new book, My Stroke of Luck, came out January 8. Kirk tells about the “brain attack” that hit him in January 1996. Nearly 600,000 Americans suffer strokes every year. One day Kirk saw himself in the bathroom mirror, felt shame and disgust, and decided to end his life with the gun he used in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. As he put the gun in his mouth, he hit his teeth, got a toothache and started to laugh. It was then Kirk decided to give his life a new ending, a different ending from the grisly one he had considered. After rehabilitation, Kirk spoke at the Academy Awards on March 25, 1996.

Al woke up one morning, picked up the newspaper, and turned to the death notices. His brother has just died. Al was shocked to read his own obituary. Not only had the paper made a mistake about who died, but the death notice labeled him the “Dynamite King.” Yes, he had made a fortune from manufacturing explosives, but the obituary portrayed him as a merchant of death. From that day in 1888 until Al died in 1896, he worked to give his life a new ending. He gave his fortune for annual prizes to those who most benefited humankind in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. Al was Alfred Noble and the most valuable of his prizes is called the “Nobel Peace Prize.”

When Jesus of Nazareth was in his thirties, he made a decision that gave his life a new ending. He left his hometown of Nazareth and went to the Jerusalem area where his cousin John had adapted the water of the mikvah, the baptismal pool, to signify a changed life. Water signifies death and life, drowning and birth. When Jesus went down into the water of the Jordan, he “died” to his former life and was born of the Spirit. Jesus left his private life of caring for his mother, brothers and sisters. He entered public life. He left the peaceful world of home and entered the world of controversy. Jesus turned from his own concerns to the Father’s business for the human family.

At Baptism, Jesus experienced the assurance that he was God’s child, that he was loved by the Eternal Spirit, and that his work was to be the agent of God’s compassion to others. In this, the kingdom of God – the work of God – was breaking into the human scene. Give your life a new ending by seeing yourself and all others as loved children of the Eternal Spirit.