From: "D.C. Kavouras (by way of Rev. Eric J. Stefanski, )" To: Subject: CLIMB: At Rev. Stefanski's Prompting Date: Friday, November 02, 2001 12:54 PM Pastor Stefanski says I should have published this article here, before the Lutheran Witness March 2001. What follows is the original, before the LW edited it. While they did a nice job, I think this original has more verve. The town is Cleveland, it was a cool and sunny afternoon in late October and I knew something bad had happened when my pager began to beep with a fury. I know because I carry a badge - Chaplain for Cleveland's Police and Fire Departments. The page from fire dispatch said "222 alarm, civilian fatality" and the location of the scene. "Car 644 responding" I said into the radio's mike. The victim was a man in his 70's, confined to a wheel chair. His wife of over 50 years had left for a short while to pick up a few things at the corner store. The man decided to cook something for himself and in the process, the stove caught his clothing on fire. From there fire spread and the whole first floor was engulfed by the time the first companies arrived on scene. No words can adequately convey what this woman must have experienced when she came home to what could only be described as a Steven King novel come to life. Fire trucks, flashing lights, people screaming and a man whose coat said, chaplain, giving her the hellish details of what had happened in her brief absence. As the drama unfolded I led the woman to the passenger seat of a nearby police car, got into the drivers side and turned on the heater against the day's special chill. Though I was an experienced chaplain with many grisly scenes under my belt, what could I do at a time like this? There was only one answer, do what has always worked; rely on God's Word. As I put my hand on her shoulder I began quoting the 23rd psalm and to my wild amazement this sobbing, shocked saint began to pray it with me in a voice steadier than my own. Blessed be the pastor who faithfully transmitted the Balm of Gilead to this woman. For the medicine of God was where it needed to be, lodged in her heart after a lifetime of repetition, ready and working before the entire drama had even unfolded. That day I witnessed the healing mechanism of Christ begin to repair what no agency on earth could ever fix. Now it's true that such bazaar circumstances are not common occurrences, but death surely is! So how do we get ready for its inevitable call? When we enter the working world in early adulthood we begin to save for retirement, though it's fifty years away. If we can be so shrewd about money, why can't we understand the necessity of preparing for death long before it comes? How is this done? It is accomplished most successfully by attending the Services of God's house every Sunday of our lives. Blessed dying and blessed living are achieved when we sing the same hymns, recite the same liturgy and quote the same creeds every Sabbath of our lives. And no one is more favored in this regard than Lutherans. For in every formulation, in all of our hymns, in sermon and sacrament, the Gospel of Christ shines forth like a beacon on a dark and tempestuous sea. As pastor and chaplain I've ministered to all types of people, those who've never set foot in a church to those who've worshipped Christ from the day they were baptized. And I've noted that people on the latter end of the continuum face death with the greater equanimity. What a charm it is to minister to a Christian in a coma by singing: I know that my Redeemer lives, what comfort this sweet sentence gives. Or to sing to myself "Jesus lives! The victory's won, death no longer can appall me", as I operate in the most ghastly police and fire scenes. How does one prepare for death? With the words of eternal life on our lips from birth. "Jesus loves me, He who died . . ." "if I should die before I wake . . .". Go back to the basics: the Bible, the catechism, the liturgy and hymns. You'll never be able to exhaust them. They are enough, more than enough, to see you through life and through death's dark portal, into the Master's heavenly mansions. Rev. Dean Kavouras is a fire, police and FBI chaplain in Cleveland, Ohio and assistant pastor at Christ Lutheran Church. Rev. Dean Kavouras Cleveland, Ohio action@multiverse.com Rev. 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