When was
the last time
you visited
a cemetery?
They're not as busy
as they used to be.
These days
more and more people
are choosing to be cremated
and have their ashes
scattered to the four winds
rather than be buried
in a cemetery.
As a result,
fewer people
enter cemeteries
to pay their respects.
If that continues,
the cemetery will become
a place where
the dead are forgotten.
Doesn't that strike you as sad?
[PAUSE]
Maybe you don't think so?
Maybe,
ending up forgotten
is just part and parcel
of our daily lives.
After all,
we don't spend our days
wishing
our great-great-great-great-great grandparents
were still here.
That's because
they died a century or two
before we were born.
We can't be expected
to remember those
who died
before we were born.
So it seems
our ultimate destiny
in life is to be forgotten.
[PAUSE]
The trouble is
that the widow of Nain
faces the same fate.
With her son dead
she, too, is as dead.
She has no income
no one to care for her
in her old age.
No daughter in law
no grandchildren.
In taking her son
out of the city
to the cemetery,
she may as we stay there
among the dead,
after all,
everyone else whom
she has loved
and who have loved her
are there.
Yes, she comes out
to bury her son
with many people of the city,
many people mourning
with her,
standing with her,
and showing compassion
for her.
But,
they will have to go back
to their own lives
and loves,
and leave this widow.
whose heart is buried
in the cemetery,
silent and forgotten.
[PAUSE]
As we watch this poor woman
and the people of the city
walk solemnly
to the place of the Dead,
we see another crowd coming,
bustling with wonder
and curiosity
about a man
who nor only preaches
wonderful things
but can heal people
even from a distance.
Their conversation
is nor about death
but a new lease of life
that has been given to them
by this new rabbi.
Life meets death.
Our Lord shows
that he does not just heal
but he raises the dead
and makes it look easy.
In a moment
the funeral ceases to exist.
The journey to the cemetery
is abandoned.
And the cemetery itself
forgotten once more.
The place for the Dead
does not receive
another set of visitors.
[PAUSE]
Our Lord shows us
that cemeteries
are places to be forgotten.
Let's not get confused.
In Christ,
the cemetery is forgotten
because
they are empty
when the dead are raised to life.
Cemeteries
are just temporary arrangements
because we look for
the Resurrection of the Dead.
And all will be raised.
No-one will be forgotten.
For God knows us all.
He remembers
even those whose graves
are unmarked
snd forgotten.
And He will raise them
because He loves them
just as He will raise us
because He loves us.
God is not a God of the dead
because the dead
cannot respond to Him.
A dead body loves God
about as much
as a stone does.
God is God of ths living
so that the living
respond to Hiim
Love requires a response.
And so God makes sure
that all who have lived
will still be able
to respond to the love He shows them.
And if that means raising the Dead,
well, that's not a problem.
[PAUSE]
Our destiny
is not the cemetery
or crematorium.
God makes sure of that
and as a sign of that destiny,
He gives the Christian funeral,
where the crowds of disciples
meet the crowds of mourners
in compassion for the loss
but also as bearers
of the witness that Death is not the end.
O Death, where is thy sting?
O Grave, where is thy victory?
In Christ,
the vistory of the Grave
is to be forgotten.
There won't be anyone left
In there to remember.
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