Living in Graveyards

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Graveyards are an anomaly to our way of thinking. There are times we enjoy moving through the rows of tombstones and basking in the serenity and the memories, but there are also times of terror. Who hasn't read a "ghost story" that included a graveyard?

I was taught to respect the dead in the cemetery. One of the ways was to never walk on the grave of someone buried. That leads me to a funny story I read some time ago, but gave me a whole new reason NEVER to walk on a grave. This graveyard story was written by Pastor Horace Sims in his book, Whistling at Snakes (found here with many more of his humorous stories) who wrote this about a graveyard experience he had with his family:

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon when my daughter, my son and I visited the old Presbyterian church just north of town. The old building was still open from the morning service. The custodian gave us a tour and a book of the church’s history.

One stone was inscribed: Mary Blaine, Consort of William G. Blaine. William was buried in the adjoining grave. I stepped on the grave to get a good look as I copied the word down. The grave suddenly collapsed. I sank down to my waist. I had just dropped in on Mary Blaine, unannounced. She wasn’t much to look at after 200 years.

My daughter ran for the car. My son fell to the ground in laughter. I had to pull myself from the grave without any help. My Sunday suit had mud on it from the waist down.

As we drove back to town, my son was rolling in laughter. I asked him if he really thought it was that funny.

“It will be when it is run in the newspaper,” he said.

I asked him if it would be funny news to report that I had fallen in a grave.

“Oh, no,” he said. “But when those reporters get through with it, it will read, ‘Rev. Horace Sims Buried With Consort.’”

Yikes! It might be nice to get into the headlines every now and again, but oh what the news can do with the headlines.

Truth be told, graveyards are a paradox for the living. What I mean is, we have a place that we inter people who have meant something to us in the ground waiting for their bodies to one day be resurrected. For the believer, life's great tragedy, death, has become a place of great hope. Graveyards remind us that we are awaiting our resurrection. So, we live with this paradox every time we think of or pass by a cemetery.

Without getting into all the theological ramifications of that last paragraph, I think that, for me, graveyards can be a pleasant place to visit, but I would never want to live there. There was a man in the Bible, the Gadarene demoniac, who was so possessed by demons, he only felt at home with the dead.

That makes me ask myself, as a Christian, where do I feel comfortable? If you and I live comfortably among the spiritual dead and enjoy the same sort of things the dead do, its time to examine our lives. You see, just as the disciples were rebuked for seeking "the living among the dead" (Luke 24:45) as they looked for the resurrected Jesus, my concern is that we too will be rebuked as we look for life in the old way we lived before we knew Christ. That IS the graveyard of life. As the apostle Paul admonishes us in Ephesians 2, that was the way we were before we knew Christ. That kind of life brings with it nothing but decay and rot and fear and separation... just like the graveyard. Here's what our life was:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. (Ephesians 2:1-3, HCSB)

The Greek word used for dead is "nekros" where where we get our prefix "necro" in English. It literally means dead as "in the grave." It is the word used in Luke 24:45, and here in Ephesians 2:1 and 3. Here then is what we should take from this word "dead":

1. People who are dead to Christ live that way.

2. Those kinds of activities are now dead to us.

3. We are no longer bound to live that dead kind of life.

The time has now come that we have new life in Christ... that we get out of the graveyard and... we start living heavenly Christ-filled lives. That is what we are told in that same passage:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens (Ephesians 2:4-6).

What about you? Where are you living? In the graveyard or in the heavenlies? As one of our church members tweeted during the Sunday messsage:

As a Christian look up to the Heavens for encouragement. Stop looking down in the grave. You're not that dead person anymore!

Let's live like we are alive in Christ. Let's live like we are in heaven already. Let's live with that old life in the distant past. Let's live as God intended in joy and love and peace and freedom. The graveyard is where we used to live, now we know what real living is all about. It's the only life really worth living.


Pastor Trey Rhodes, Oceanside Church, Mount Pleasant, SC

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The Dark Knight and the Longing for Resurrection

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In the latest installment of the newest batman series, the Dark Knight, one of the characters is resurrected. At least that's the latest Hollywood "scoop". Liam Neeson played the ignominious, Ra's al Ghul, in the first installment of the series, Batman Begins. Supposedly, this character was supposedly killed during burning of Wayne Manor. But, those of us who know, know that in some sort of way, he is "un-kill-able." While they are still not sure whether or not this means a cameo flashback or possible something more, the character's billing is being promoted as, "Risen from the Dead: Liam Neeson Makes Comeback in the Dark Knight Rises." His long-anticipated return has been further verified in the newest movie, Dark Knight Rises. According to NZ City:

The 59-year-old actor will reprise his part of Ra's al Ghul for the forthcoming movie, despite his character being killed off in 2005's 'Batman Begins', with the news revealed in Warner Bros' production notes for his latest film 'Wrath of the Titans'.

We Want Resurrection 

Liam Neeson reprising his role as Ra's al Ghul

We seem to always hope that someone can make a comeback from the dead. Our hope can be seen in the macabre with such characters as Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. It can also have a technological bent as people are placing their bodies is a frozen stasis in a hope that one day in the future, they will be able to be brought back from the dead. Spiritually, we often hear of "near death" experiences that tell us of those who were physiologically passed from this life, and were able to return. (Although I never believe I went that far, I did have something like that happen to me. See www.TreyRhodes.info for more on my experience). We all have a hope built into us that envisions more life after dying. It what the Bible terms, eternity in our hearts. These are the words of King Solomon:

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts (italics mine) Ecclesiastes 3:11 (HCSB)

If Only Someone Could Return from the Dead
I recently heard someone quip, "No one knows what waits for us after death, no one has ever come back to tell us." To that, my answer is there is someone. He is Jesus Christ. The only time the past tense is ever used of Him was when it was He who was dead and is now alive (Revelation 1:18, 2:8, 11:8). Unlike Liam Neeson's character Ra's al Ghul, there can be no doubt that our Savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For if He never rose from the dead, neither do we. (See 1 Corinthians 15). According to Dr. Craig H. Blomberg of Cambridge University in England:

If the Crucifixion was as early as A.D. 30, Paul's conversion was about 32. His first meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem would have been about A.D. 35. At some point along there, Paul was given this creed, which had already been formulated and was being used in the early church. Now here you have the key facts about Jesus' death for our sins, plus a detailed list of those to whom He appeared in resurrected form -- all dating back to within two to five years of the events themselves! (The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel, p. 44)

They Really Believed
There can be no doubt that the apostles believed what they saw. Paul believed what was reported to him. And the facts could be checked out by anyone of the day with over 500 people that saw Jesus of Nazareth alive after had been executed by crucifixion.

You can choose not to believe the accounts of these honest, upstanding men of the first century, but you you would be hard-pressed to say that they didn't believe what they reported to us. After all, these same men and women, nearly to the person, all died saying they believed when they could have easily recanted as they were tortured and martyred for their beliefs.

Will You?
This Easter, it all really comes down to this, will you believe? C.S. Lewis reminds us with what has come to be known as "the Trilemma":

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.

You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. (C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity, London: Collins, 1952, p54-56)

The Apostle Thomas examines Jesus's side

You Shall Know the Truth
If you don't quite get it...you wouldn't be alone. You see, Thomas didn't quite get it, so Jesus came to Him and told him to touch His hands and side. Thomas examined Jesus and then fell at Jesus' feet and proclaimed Him as, "My Lord and my God." (John 20:28). The choice is before you. Jesus, willingly asks you to examine His life, death, and resurrection. He is not afraid. He wants you to find out the truth. So, Jesus comes to you today and asks you to believe. As these words reach through the millenia, Jesus is reaching out to you...

Will you believe?


Pastor Trey Rhodes

If you would like a copy of The Case for Christ, please send us your name and address at:
contact@myoceansidechurch.com and we'll get you a book.

See you this weekend at Oceanside Church. Two services for you to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and somewhere you can experience Him:

• Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. 
• Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. 

For more information, directions, and what to expect, go to:
www.MyOceansideChurch.com

For information about upcoming events go to:
www.OCAnnounce.info