Message from the Chaplain
Rev Mark Rundle
Calrossy Anglican School Tamworth
Knowing The Future…
What would life be like if we knew what was going to happen in the future, before it actually happened? One thing’s for sure: activities like football tipping competitions would very quickly cease to exist – because everybody would get every result correct! I’m sure that betting on sports results would also disappear; and I reckon that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all…
Most people have heard of the famous escape artist Harry Houdini. Well, Houdini and his wife made an agreement between themselves that when one of them died, that person would then try to communicate with the other, to prove that there was life after death. They even had a pre-arranged code that would let the other person know that it was definitely them, and them alone.
Houdini died in 1926. For the next 17 years his wife made repeated attempts to communicate with him – all of which were unsuccessful. Shortly before she herself died in 1943, Houdini’s wife declared that the whole exercise – their attempt to let each other know what the future held after death - had been a failure.
The reality is that what the Houdinis had been trying to do wasn’t just a failure; it was actually unnecessary. Centuries before the Houdinis, Someone had already proven that there was life after death. He’d made statements to his friends that included these words, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.’ (John 11:25-26). And He backed up these words with action: Jesus did come back from the dead to prove that there is life after death; and to show us that if we place our faith in Him, then we ourselves can share in that life, as He is the one who has conquered death. The Easter story, which we celebrated last weekend, provides the answers to probably the most important question a person can ask about the future: Is there life after death; and how can we have that life for ourselves?
Rev. Mark Rundle
Calrossy Chaplain