A Ramble about Saints

Originally published as a Facebook Note April 24th, 2009

I've been to a number of funerals in my life. I've said goodbye to more family and friends than I wanted to; I've said goodbye to grandparents, classmates, teachers, people I only met in passing, and a man not that much younger than myself whom the Lord had led me to guide him back to Him when he was in a great deal of pain. For him, I had to mourn his passing on my own as I wasn't able to attend his memorial. As I try to count the number of funerals I have been to, I realize I can't remember how many of them I've attended, but I remember the images of them quite well.

Some of them I knew very well, others only in passing. Some of them were quite lavish and extravagant such as a Police Officer's funeral in which I had the privilege to take part. Others were very quiet, with very few people in attendence, such as my great grandmother. Some were solemn, but without faith; remembering the person's life and understanding that their life was now gone, permanently. Others were more of a quiet celebration. I remember my grandmother Claudia's funeral, my paternal grandmother. The sense there was not that she was gone, but simply transformed and gone home.

Here soon, I will attend another. A dear friend for whom I was not there when she needed me at the end. That's a regret I will likely not get over soon. We will go, remember her with words, praise the Lord with song, and then spread the ashes of her physical form out into the ocean as she wanted. And then, we will go home, acknowledging that we will see her again... someday.

The Scriptures say that all who are baptized into Christ Jesus are joined to Him. That we are all knit together as One Body, one organism (as one of my professors once said in class), joined together by the Holy Spirit in a permanent, unbreakable bond. It also says that those who are absent from the body are present with the Lord, and that death no longer has any meaning for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. It says, "O grave where is your victory, O death where is your sting?" According to Paul, death is absolutely meaningless for those who are in Christ Jesus. It is a momentary annoyance at worst, and a release and transformation at best.

Why then do we act as though we actually believe that they're gone? If death means nothing to the body of Christ, if we really believe this, why do we assume that they're actually dead and treat the grave as this insurmountable chasm across which we lose the communion of our brothers and sisters until "someday"? Is this what He died for? To merely give us the faint hope of seeing them again "someday", or to keep us together bound in His spirit as a part of His Eternal Life, sharing His Eternal Life as one organism. If we honestly don't believe we're connceted to them anymore, or that the grave still has some power over us, why do we profess faith in Jesus Christ at all? What good does it do? If we are truly separated by death from our brothers and sisters, then the cross has failed. God Forbid It!

The resurrection begins with our death to ourselves and is completed upon the death of our physical bodies. Those who have passed in Christ are not dead but have begun there final transformation outside of time, and outside of space as we know it. They are not separated from us but are integrally a part of us through Him. They are still Family. They are still our brothers and sisters. And as the scriptures indicate in the letter to the Hebrews and in the Revelation, they know perfectly well what's going on with us, and are a great cloud of witnesses watching us run our races. What's more, do we honestly believe that knowing these things, as Family who care about us, that they're going to stand idly by and watch us as spectators, or, as Family, are they going to be caring about us, interceding for us and praying for us? What would we do in their place? What do we do now? Do I stop caring about and praying for my brothers and sisters in Christ simply because I've had my skin removed? Truth is, it would make more sense to me that having my skin removed would free me to love and intercede for them even more directly in His presence. Rather than prohibit me, it would free and embolden me to the ever present Reality that is Him, and Us in Him. "You in Me, and I in You, that they may be One in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me." This was the prayer of Jesus Christ, do we honestly think the Father said no?

The thought of this threatens many, and threatens the faith and theology of many. It used to threaten mine. Communion with the dead? Isn't that being a medium? Not if those people are truly not dead but have passed from this dying body into Life in His presence. Those who have died outside of Christ, are outside of Christ, and are not a part of the body. They are dead, and awaiting judgment. I honestly can't speak for the Lord in this matter, because I'm not Him, and only He really knows what their fate will be. I only know that they are not bound to each other as we are through his Spirit, and they are not joined in His death and resurrection as we are through His Spirit.

If we believe in the resurrection, if we believe in Jesus Christ, then we must accept all that goes with it. We must act on all that goes with it. And in doing so, we can rejoice that our brothers and sisters who have gone before us are waiting for us to join them with open arms, and also extend those open arms now in the Spirit when we need them. That's what brothers and sisters are for. That's what Family is for.