The Resurrection

This morning I’m standing in the New Auburn Cemetery. The weather is clear but cold. People are driving single file through the narrow roadway and parking bumper  to bumper like a long row of train cars. Slowly each car empties and slowly each person walks to the tent with the mound of dirt covered by a green outdoor carpet. Nobody wants to be here. This is the last service any of us feels like attending, including me. We don’t enjoy saying goodbye to a loved one or friend. The feelings of loss, finality, and the clear sense of our own mortality hangs in the air like the leaves on the trees.

The family sits in the chairs and since I’m the pastor leading this service, I have to encourage the folks standing around to come closer so we can all hear and huddle together in our grief. A prayer is made, a song is sung, a few words from the family are shared. People are staring off into the distance, some are crying, but most just have that blank look on their face.

This is such an awkward setting. What are the protocols in times of death? What does one say to the family? What does one do at a place like a cemetery?

It’s my turn to share some scriptures and an encouraging word. I open my Bible and hope that what I’m about to say are God’s thoughts and are comforting to the family and the gathered crowd.

I remind everyone that God understands death, separation, and the emotion of loss. I share how Jesus’ death included a time of separation between the Father and the Son and how that loss was devastating to both. God understands the human emotions we are experiencing this morning. I remind everyone that these types of events are good reminders that physical life is finite and nobody lives forever. One day, if the Lord does not return first, someone will be leading a service like this for us. It is a good time to take inventory of our lives and reflect upon the quality of our choices and the depths of our relationships. It’s a good time to take stalk of the days we have remaining and how to best use them to love God and love those God has placed in our lives.

But most importantly I remind everyone that this service does not reflect the end of life, but simply a change in life. 

Although we are committing the physical body to the dust, we are commending the soul to the Lord. When we breathe our last breath here we take our first breath in the presence of Almighty God. We have the hope of resurrection.

In the New Testament Jesus raised three people back to life. He raised the son of a single mother. What a day it was in the city of Nain (Luke 7). Jesus raised the twelve year old daughter of a man named Jairus (Mathew 9). Maybe His most famous resurrection story, other than raising Himself on Easter morning, was the raising of His good friend Lazarus (John 11). Three wonderful examples of God’s power over death.

The retelling of these stories seems to encourage the band of people standing in front of me. As I look into their eyes there seems to be some hope restored. Many of the people are no longer looking down or off into the distance, but are looking directly at me. As I read verse after verse, some seem to be drinking in the words of scripture.