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Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God\u2019s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. \xa0I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:19-21)

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A reflection on the past now turns to a reflection on the future, and the hinge around which it moves in this present moment of Paul\u2019s writing, is the death and resurrection of Christ.\xa0

An older Christian tradition that we may have lost some sight of these days says that the role of the church is to prepare us for a good death.\xa0 This happens through the regular practice of dying and rising with Christ.\xa0 As Luke puts it in the mouth of Jesus in Luke 9:23, \u201cwhoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.\u201d\xa0 Daily denying oneself.\xa0 Daily facing one\u2019s death in the death of Christ.\xa0 Daily experiencing the new life of Jesus.

Paul had followed Jesus in this daily practice with his own cross and in his own way now for many years\u2014with a thorn in the flesh, much suffering and hardship endured, much grief to bear, many relationships to tend, and much sin to repent.\xa0 But in this work of dying: of relinquishing control, of admitting weakness, of grieving well, of turning from sin, of offering forgiveness and blessing to enemies\u2014Paul has learned what it means to face death well.\xa0 To face it, indeed, with hope and trust that the Spirit works to bring the new life and fruitfulness of Christ on the other side of that death.

As Paul writes elsewhere in 2 Corinthians 4:10-11, \u201cWe always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus\u2019 sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.\u201d\xa0 So it was.

Now near the end of Paul\u2019s life as he faces the very real prospect of his actual death, he speaks from this life lived by daily carrying around the death and resurrection of Jesus in his body.\xa0 He says: \u201cI eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.\u201d

This is an expression of the cyclical Christian habit of dying and rising with Christ.\xa0 Across his life, Paul has discovered that dying always leads to new life in Jesus.\xa0 And life in Jesus always leads to the cross.\xa0 And the cross always leads again to the empty tomb of new life.\xa0 Round and round it goes.\xa0 In death, Christ is exalted and his life is received.\xa0 In life, Christ is exalted as it is his life that is lived.\xa0

So, when it comes to Paul\u2019s actual death\u2014he sees it now as part of this same movement at the literal crux of our faith.\xa0 Living is Christ, dying is gain.\xa0 One\u2019s mortal death met in this way is what the church has called a good death.\xa0 A Christian death.\xa0 A death saturated in the hopeful, practiced expectation of life. \xa0\xa0

Do you live in this way?\xa0 Do you already now practice for a good, Christian death? \xa0As an Easter people of the Resurrection, we can.\xa0 In Jesus, death no longer needs to be feared.\xa0 It can be faced, even while we live.

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