The Pilgrim Path---John 11: 21---27

Martha said to Jesus, “LORD, if you had been here, my bother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, LORD; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

“I AM THE RESURRECTION AN THE LIFE…”

My maternal grandmother would have us go to Oconee Hill Cemetery when I was a boy. Back then there was no perpetual care at the cemetery. Families had to clean up their own plots. I cannot say that going to the graveyard was great fun. But you must understand, the residents

do you no harm---they just did not keep their plots neat (this was left to their living kin). Some of the state’s finest (and worst) have found their final resting place at Oconee Hill. My grandmother’s family plot probably has around eight to ten individuals buried within it. It is nestled beneath big oaks and a few pines. The plot slopes away from some hills into the shade---which means a lot of leaves and branches late in Fall. This is like work to a young boy. But no amount of complaining is going to stop the task at hand. After I had helped for a while, I would be allowed some time to roam. I have mentioned this previously: my grandmother would point out this big mausoleum on the hill and tell me to take a trip up to it. It was a grand thing---all granite and marble. She would tell me to go speak to Mr. Smith and ask him what he was doing. She told me that he would say, “Not a thing.” Well, I was intrigued as a five- or six-year-old---to pay this strange man a visit. You know, this gentleman who lived in such a neat house---all of fancy stonework in the middle of a graveyard. Thing is---you get there, look through thick glass---and ask, “Mr. Smith, what are you doing?” Sure enough---it would take me a while to catch on----he said, “not a thing.” My grandmother was a sharp soul---with a decent sense of humor…That woman sent me on quite a few trips in her life---how she must have enjoyed “teaching me a thing or two,” and it was worth all the travel!

The word cemetery is neat. It has ties to Middle English and Old French. It really can be traced to the Greek koimeterion---that is, “a sleeping chamber.” The followers of Jesus are really said to, “be asleep,” in Jesus when they die. That is a wonderful picture. Our souls may go immediately into his presence---but our body “awaits” the glory of the resurrection (I Corinthians 15: 35—58). The Living Christ has settled matters for us. We really do not have to be afraid of death anymore. The Savior is the “death of death” for His Own. This King of Terrors has become a passage into His Presence. This is one of the glories of the Gospel. We need to remember this. Death will keep “taking” individuals from our sphere of life---but the Savior “will” reunite us-- with ALL who belong to HIM. This is a Gospel reality. This union will surpass anything we have ever known in this world. The term “fantastic” really does not do it justice---Thanks be to God!

From Isaac Watts: We are now on the border of the eternal world, and we know but little of that invisible country. Approaching death opens the gates to us and begins to give our holy curiosity some secret satisfaction, and yet how we shrink backward when that glorious unknown city is opening upon us! We are often ready to beg and pray that the gates might be closed again: ‘O! For a little more time, a little longer continuance in this lower visible world!’ This is the language of the fearful. But it is better to have our Christian courage brought up to a divine height, and to say, ‘Open ye everlasting gates, and be lifted up ye everlasting doors, that we may enter into the palace where the King of Glory is’ (Psalm 24: 9). There we shall see God and rejoice in his overflowing love. We shall see him face to face, and not through the glass darkly. What supreme glory shall our life display. This is life eternal indeed, and joy unspeakable. How gloriously shall the perfections and honors, both for body and mind unfold themselves…

GOD’S SON

Lois A. Cheney

Once upon a time

There was a God

Who so loved the world

That he gave his son

His only son.

And they took that son

And they hung him on a cross

And that son died

And they buried the son---

Sealed him up tight.

But God said

“Oh no you don’t”

And he rolled back the rock

He unsealed his son

And his son came out

Came out walking and breathing

And he was ALIVE.

And he’s alive today

And he walks around

And he stalks around

Breathing life and life

Every morning, just before dawn

For thousands of years

Little grim people---

Preachers and bankers and

Storekeepers and students---

Sneak up to the grave and

Roll back the stone

To seal it up tight.

And every morning

God roars

“Oh no you don’t”

And he flings back

The stone.

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason