“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”
John Donne

“You can’t catch me- nah nah-nah nah nah” is how my children would put it. And though John Donne is more eloquent than that- the message is the same. One thing only dies and it is not you and I but death itself.

One of the amazing gifts of the church is the twice-daily office – the fuller monastic round being condensed by Thomas Cranmer into two daily services, which we know as Matins and Evensong, or Morning and Evening Prayer. On Wednesdays in Lent and throughout we add the ancient office of Compline to the mix, one of the greatest treasures of the liturgy.

Woody Allen once said “I’m not afraid of death. I just don’t want to be there when it happens”. For us the opposite is true. Through this daily round, those of us who attempt to live the Christian life are offered a touchstone. In Psalmody, Scripture, Prayer and Supplication we gradually learn to live as if it were true, what the Easter Hymn proclaims: “Jesus lives! thy terrors now Can, O Death, no more appall us”.

We do this explicitly at the other offices. Thomas Ken’s evening hymn praying, “Teach me to live that I may dread The grave as little as my bed”. However, in Compline this deliberately facing the prospect of death is most stark: “Save us, O Lord, while waking, and guard us while sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep may rest in peace”.

For the Christian, none of this is morbid. Rather, it equips us to live in this world with our eyes open to reality. Three times daily, we whisper these truths together hoping and praying to believe them. With our fellow pilgrims, especially those living through the crisis of war first hand, we scaffold ourselves in a rhythm of prayer so we can re-grow our spiritual tissue and live as if eternal life is our end, even in the midst of this compromised world. As with Lent itself, this ‘new and living way’ is not a burden but a joy and blessed relief to the Christian, who might naturally feel condemned to live in the shadow of death – bearing scars of failure, disappointment, rejection, and grief, without a hope to redeem it. We can now cling for dear life to the hope that these scars will not, in the end, define us, nor the threat of death have the last word.

Regular worshipers may wish to extend their own attendance to evensong and the early morning worship. We would value your company, especially in Holy Week, when it comes.

Deep calls to deep. Now, as much as ever, God calls to us to let him into our lives to cleanse, heal, renew and reconcile. Why not join us in daily prayer and get out of your depth in God, until at Easter we can proclaim together:

“Weakness shall the strong confound; by the hands in grave-clothes wound,
Adam’s chains shall be unbound- so, behold, All the gates of heaven shall unfold!”

Piae Cantiones 1582, tr J.M Neale 1818-66