Glee! Week 2!

And That’s What You Missed on Glee
“The show must go . . . all over the place . . . or something.”

Dealing with death is hard, but God and others are always present.   We just have to be willing to let them be with us during hard times.   Death is an uncomfortable topic.   It isn’t something that we like to talk about.   But sometimes we have to talk about those tough things to realize we aren’t alone.

Tonight we are going to watch two different clips from Glee.   One is from the second season and the second is from this season.

Before we begin who has had a family member or friend die?

Our first clip is when Sue is struggling with the death of her sister.  Sue is mean, cruel and hates the Glee club.   She doesn’t want anyone to help her especially the Glee club.   She needed help and so the Glee club decided to help her even if she was cruel about it.  This scene we are going to watch is the funeral.  The Glee club has helped Sue sort through her sisters stuff and helped plan the funeral. 

http://youtu.be/oBJbNBWuGL4

How did death help bring people together, even those who don’t get along, in your experience?

Death is hard, it hurts, and it makes us question everything. What questions does death make you ask?

Here are some of the questions that were asked:

1.       Cremation?   Body is burned in a big oven.  Then the ashes are collected and placed in a container of families choosing.  Ashes can be buried or taken home.   Cremation can happen before or after the funeral.  It is up to the family and the persons wishes.

2.       Does death hurt?  What does it feel like?  Everyone’s death is different.  Some are painful and others are not.  Some fall asleep and never wake up.  Others suffer with pain until the very end. 

3.       Why do we die?  Because when Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden that was part of the consequence of their action.

4.       Can you go to Hell for something someone else did and not talking about it? We will be judged for our own actions not the actions of others.   If you know that someone is hurting someone then yes there will be consequences.  But I believe that God judges us for who we are in the big picture not just one circumstance.  He sees and knows more than we do.  All we can do is what we know is right and what we believe God would want us to do in each situation.  Prayer and asking others for advice is the best way to judge if your intention are in line with God’s will.

5.       Why would God want people to die early? I don’t think God wants us to die early.  I think it is because of the consequence of sin that we die.  Not because God says “today I pick you… you and you to die.”   It hurts that someone young can die but we are not guaranteed today or tomorrow.  All we are promised is this moment and that God is with us.

6.       Why not wait until their old, so they can live?  If only we could all live to be 900 years old.  But that just isn’t how life works.   We have the choice on how we live our lives and sometimes our choices cause bad things to happen.  And sometimes that bad thing is death.   All we can do is make every moment count.  

7.       Who is the oldest person to die?  His name was Methuselah and he was 969 years old when he died.  He was the grandfather of Noah.

8.       Why must death make you feel so sad but then so good to know there is a better place?  Death causes a range of emotions.  It is weird to think someone is gone.  Death is sad because we are losing someone we loved.  Someone we shared life with.  But as Christians we also can celebrate because we know that one day we will see them again.  

9.       What happens to are physical body when they lay us in the ground? It decomposes and becomes part of the earth again.   We were made from the ground and to the ground we will return.  When God created Adam He used the ground to form him.   And we one day will return to the ground. 

Questions are good.   We need to be willing to asks questions.  Even if there isn’t a simple answer or an answer at all.  We need to voice them.   Find someone you can talk to.  Ask them just to hear out your questions and that it is okay for them not to know the answer but just let you say them out loud.  

Check Out Glee: The Quarterback on Hulu.  http://www.hulu.com/watch/543572

Our second clip is from the last season, it is where someone who is your age or a little bit older has died.  Finn had just graduated from high school.  Was planning to marry Rachel.   Was the Glee clubs best male singer for much of the first three seasons.   The first clip I am going to show you is the family packing up Finns stuff. 

So death is a topic that we avoid.   We don’t want to think about the fact that one day we will die.   There is 100% chance of that.   Only God knows the number of our days we do not.  We can be here on earth for a short or a long time but we don’t know.  Church, here, is a good place for us to talk about death.  To talk about the what happens after we die.  To ask our questions about it.  And to celebrate the people we have lost.   

Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Does this verse  help or not help when dealing with loss? Why or why not? Does this feel like another cliché people say just to make themselves feel better?   

I hated when people would say “oh she is in a better place.”   When my sister died.  Call me selfish but I just wanted her here with me.   But I know that they are right.  She was miserable here on eartch, so sick and in so much pain.  She is in a better place.  Doesn’t make it easy though.

Next section of clips is where Santana gets angry at Sue and screams at her.  There are a few words in here that are not appropriate.

When we lose someone grief makes us do weird things.   It causes us to say things that are just out of character.   How are some of the ways we can react to someone dying?

Scream
Cry
Throw things
Take a long drive
Talk to someone

Our next clip is when Puck gets upset and coach helps him talk through it.  Then Santana sings her song about Finn.

Coach Beiste: He's dead. And all we've got left is his voice in our head. I'm sorry, but it's time. You've gotta be your own quarterback.
Puck: Do you think we could retire his number. Kurt has his letterman jacket. Maybe we could frame it or something. Put it up in here. Other kids should know who he was years from now.

               

It’s okay to cry!   When we lose someone it hurts and it is okay to cry.   When we lose someone we also have regrets.   What were some of the regrets we have seen so far?

Read Matthew 28:18-20

God is always with us.   He never leaves us.  He is always helping us even when we don’t see it or feel it.

How have you experienced God being with you?

We watched the rest of the episode.  Here are some of the other things we discussed:

When we lose someone there are things of theirs that we keep close.   What objects or things have you held close to you from the loved one you have lost?

For me it is a bear of my sisters.   When she died we had people bring teddy bears instead of flowers to her funeral.  We surrounded her with over 500 bears during her funeral.  She would have been so happy.   For the Glee club it was his letter jacket.

Plans change, when someone dies things are different.   Not always better in our minds at that moment but as time goes we settle into our new reality.

What to say when someone loses a person they love depends on the person.   I love the Jewish tradition.  When someone dies they go to their homes and just sit with them.  No words.  No touch unless asked for.  They just sit there.  Cry with them.  And pray with them.  

What do we do when their voice, smell and image in our head starts to fade?   How do we move forward?  

We don’t know when we are going to die.   We are only promised today, the present.  So many people live in the past and what has happened.   Or live in the future and say oh in ten years I’ll do that.   Instead of living in the here and now.  Now that is not saying we shouldn’t have goals and look to the future.  Because we should.  But we can’t push the pause button on life till we get to a certain age or have a certain amount of money in the back.   We must live life to the fullest.  We all have a beginning and an end.   And on our tombstone there will be a dash in the middle.   What are you going to do with the dash in the middle of your dates?   How are you going to make your dash impact the lives of others?    How are you going to make your life meaningful?

What do you want people to say about you when you die?

On a rock I want you to put the name of someone who has died that helped make your dash significant.  Who made an impact on your life?   It can be a pet or friend or family member.

God loves you.  God loves the person you have lost.  God is with us in the middle of the pain and confusion and hurt.  Death is not fun and we all react to it differently.  Let others and God help you through.