The light of
flashlights pierced the darkness as a group of teenagers walked through the cemetery,
going from headstone to headstone seeking the oldest corpse. Voices pierced the foggy mist as they announced
their finds: “This one died in 1942…this one in 1903…here’s one from 1875…wow, 1860!” Their feet passed over the top of the dead lying
in fancy caskets and the dead in rough, decomposed wooden coffins. Shivers ran through many of the teens’ spines
as they realized that bodies lay just a few feet away. Halloween thoughts raced through many heads: thoughts
of zombies, skeletons, ghosts. How many
stories are told of the things that happen in dark cemeteries?!
From the
middle of the cemetery, voice spoke, echoing words that had been spoken many
times in that place, “Almighty God, by the death and burial of Jesus, your anointed,
you have destroyed death and sanctified the graves of all your saints. Keep our brother, whose body we now lay to
rest, in the company of all your saints and, at the last, raise him up to share
with all your faithful people the endless joy and peace won through the
glorious resurrection of Christ our Lord.”
In the midst of a place of death and decay and fear, the voice spoke of
life and resurrection.
Death drives
people to fear. Horror movies and ghost
stories use death to build terror. People
flock to haunted houses filled with the images of the dead…and ‘undead.’ People struggle to sleep with scary thoughts
flashing through their minds. Death, the
unknown future, brings hopelessness and despair. Halloween images play into it all.
There is one
who knows death very well. Jesus of
Nazareth hung on a cross while life drained from him. He breathed his last. People lay his corpse in a tomb. Terror overwhelmed Jesus’ friends as they
feared that they would be next to die. Death
held great power that day.
But a couple
days later Jesus walked again, not as some ‘undead’ zombie, but as a
resurrected one. Death crumbled before
the power of God.
Last Wednesday
evening some families from Peace Lutheran Church walked through the darkness of
the cemetery just west of Eyota. In the
midst of a place of death…and a season of death…we spoke words of hope. We heard words that come from the service for
the committal of a body to the ground. “Lord
Jesus, by your death you took away the sting of death. Grant to us, your servants, so to follow in
faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully
in you and wake in your likeness.”
At Halloween
death seems so terrifying, but God’s people can look death in the eye and
proclaim, “I am a chosen child of God, claimed and redeemed by Jesus. Death, you could not hold Jesus and you can’t
hold me. I will live with my savior
forever!” Through faith we can walk to
death in peace, knowing that God cares for us in this life and in the
next.
Happy
Halloween! It’s a fun day for candy and
odd costumes…and a day to remember that God has conquered death forever. ‘Rest eternal grant her, O Lord, and let
light perpetual shine on her.’ RIP: Rest in Peace!
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