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Sermon for June 8, 1997Pastor Gunnar L. Anderson"Tombstone"Text: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1"Tombstone" is the name of a town in Arizona. "Tombstone" is the title of a Kevin Costner movie about Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which aired on TV again this week. "Tombstone" is a brand of pizza! But "Tombstone" is also just what it says - a stone which marks a tomb, or a grave. And this week I happened to be driving through the town of Oldwick, NJ, right past Zion Lutheran Church, the oldest Lutheran church in our state, founded in 1714, I believe! And I stopped. For I must admit that I have the rather strange hobby of liking to read tombstones, especially old ones. I like to read the inscriptions and often the poetry! I enjoy trying to piece together family histories. Well, Zion Lutheran has a very old cemetery situated next to their church building, and though the words on some of the stones have been obliterated by age, some can still be clearly read. As I walked among the tombstones, reading, I couldn't help but think of the words of Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday midst the shouts of "Hosanna!" He said, "If the people were silent, these very stones would cry out!" And the stones cried out to me! I was particularly touched by one stone engraved for a husband and wife. It read:
Here lies the body of Experience And immediately next to that, these words:
Here lies the body of Thomas Harras Thomas died only three days after his wife, Experience. Now this could suggest accident, or illness; but I prefer romance! He couldn't live without her. I've seen that happen in our own congregation. Emma and Frank Brunnengraber died only about a month apart after a lifetime of being together! As we hear this morning of Jesus being accused by the scribes of working with the devil, and that Jesus' family tried to restrain him, saying, "He has gone out of his mind," we can focus on our own close relationships, and the problems we have, and the negative feelings we may harbor, reawakening to how important these relationships are to us, and that we are well served to cultivate and care for them. Thomas and Experience Harras so long dark and dead can still provide a beacon shining light between you and someone you love! On another stone I read:
In memory of Rachel Williams, wifePaul writes this morning, "Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day." Rose Ciklamini, one of our shut-ins, now 97 years old, wracked with painful, debilitating arthritis, has told me for years, in her heavy Czech accent, "No fun to get old!" At the church picnic last Saturday, kidding around with someone who indicated her age to me, I quipped in surprise, "I didn't think anyone was older than me!" Last week, in my sermon, I commented that living with limitation, not being able to do what once you could, is the hardest part of growing older. Still, I dare offer perspective to those of us who are aging. It seems to me there is value and worth to all stages of life, and that along with growing older comes wisdom; and an older person is quite literally living history, for anyone younger can only read about what an older person has actually lived through; thereby making such a person a wonderful resource. Paul offers us another perspective on growing older, that as we do, God's grace extends to us more and more, that we grow in faith that God loves us and forgives us, and blesses us and keeps us in and through all things, that the Christ of the cross knows our pain and is always there! And then Paul adds, as if talking to Rachel Williams, "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure." I have this little nugget of thought that gets me through sometimes. Facing a difficult moment in life, I say to myself, "It will soon be over; it will soon be over." Paul told Rachel Williams and now, through her you and me that the glimpse of eternal glory makes any sting in life seem a mere momentary trifle. "It will soon be over." And to Rachel who suffered, and to Mr. Ciklamini and to us, the wonderful promise of our eternal life with God is that "all things will be made new," and that "there shall no more be anything accursed." Nevertheless, live is not something we hope soon to be over. We do not just live waiting for eternity. Rather, because of eternity, we live! Jesus looked out at the crowd, and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." Jesus' emphasis is active, on us "doing" his will! And no matter what our age, or physical conditions, we can always worship and always pray. We can always love and always care! But just then another stone cried out:
In memory of Jacob Kline who was born Oh, yes, Jacob, it is not so much we who prepare ourselves, but Jesus, who said, "I go to prepare a place for you in the Father's house with many rooms." And so I think of Jesus's conversation with Martha after her brother died, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me shall never die but have eternal life. Do you believe this?" And today Paul writes, "I believe...we believe...because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence...So we do not lose heart. And then Paul continues, in one of my favorite passages, the text, in fact, that I preached upon when my father died, a text that compares life to a camping trip; and my father and I were campers, so he knew as I know, that after a long camping trip, no matter how wonderful it has been, it is good to come home! And Paul writes, "For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." So finally then - this "Tombstone" in Zion, Oldwick cemetery:
In memory Baltes Pickel son of AMEN Copyright © 1997 Gunnar L. Anderson. All Rights Reserved.
Last modified 6/11/97 |
