From my coming book that is about 2/3 complete . . .

In 1519 at the Dawn of the Reformation, Martin Luther published a sermon entitled “A Sermon on Preparing to Die.” Luther released it in response to a parishioner who could not shake his fear of death. In it Luther is adamant that a believer must prepare for death; Luther’s emphasis on the grace of God as the central Christian truth did not detract from his practical advice on how to live in this fallen world. His first point (as already articulated) was that believers must execute a will to regulate the disposal of their temporal goods.

Midway into the sermon, Luther makes an interesting point and addresses the optimum time to think about death. The time to think about tornados and prepare for them by building a tornado shelter is not when a tornado is on the horizon. Luther wisely writes,

We should familiarize ourselves with death during our lifetime, inviting death into our presence when it is still at a distance and not on the move. At the time of dying, however, this is hazardous and useless, for then death looms large of its own accord. In that hour we must put the thought of death out of mind and refuse to see it, as we shall hear. The power and might of death are rooted in the fearfulness of our nature and in our untimely and undue viewing and contemplating of it.

Luther advises the reader that the right time to think about death is when it is distant, not when it is immanent. This is the opposite of the way the vast majority think about death today. Today death is the forbidden topic . . . at least in the west. The only time most people think abut death is when the doctor gives them a terminal diagnosis. But as Luther writes, “We should familiarize ourselves with death during our lifetime, inviting death into our presence when it is still at a distance and not on the move.” Even then though, when people visit a loved one with a terminal diagnosis, everything is open for discussion except death.

Unfortunately, the culture’s relegation of death into the closet has unintended tragic consequences. The tendency to never talk about death imparts the subjective understanding that death must never discussed because it is so fearful and appalling. While true for the unbeliever, it has regrettably infiltrated the church at large. Even when a believer is under palliative care in hospice, visitors (and often lamentably clergy) will still refrain from discussing death and ensuring the dying believer understand how Christ has fundamentally altered the nature of death for them.

When a believer is not reluctant to talk about their death (even though it be distant) to their loved ones . . . it goes a long way to relieving any anxiety and stress on the part of their loved ones. Even though my death is not immanent to my knowledge, for years I have talked with my wife about my death from time to time. She understands my perspective and like me, is at peace. For a believer, thinking and talking about death from a Biblical perspective, defangs death. When you take the time to construct a tornado shelter, the fear of tornados evaporates. You don’t build a shelter when a tornado is on the horizon heading your way.