Let us pray.
God, Creator, Giver of Life: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live…” Speak life into us here, Lord. Empower us with your divine and sustaining life so we may honor your Creation that has come before us. Amen. Church, Take a second and look around. I’d wager that it’s not the life around us which first grabs our attention but instead, it's the death. What jumps out at us first about where we’re gathered? Tonight we’re gathered for a really cool reason...To celebrate All Hallow’s Eve. First, a quick history lesson: All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween, started as a pagan tradition. Christians then made All Hallow’s Day/All Saints Day/Dia de los Muertos to celebrate people who died who were faithful to Christ. So what lessons does Halloween have for us as Christians? This may sound counterintuitive, but it has lessons about life and the relationship between death and life Death. What do we think about it? There's physical death, and then there's spiritual death. This is what is talked about in Ezekiel. Life. What does it mean to live without being full of the Spirit? This is a spiritual death, which we hear about in Ezekiel. The prophet Ezekiel brings bones to life; but at first they are just bodies with no breath in them...just corpses with no spirit, no life, no God in them…no light. They have no Spirit from whom they could derive life-giving and sustaining joy. But, but then, they gain life! Just like the dancing skeleton image, they dance! They are full of life! How then do we become like the dry bones, living life full of the Spirit? And what even is joy? Living with joy, living full of the Spirit, means letting our lights shine for others (Matthew 5). Our lights can ignite others, can breathe life into others, thereby honoring God by honoring God’s children, our brothers and sisters in Christ...then we live full of the Spirit and find life in a spiritual death. [Hold up your lights] It’s not enough to just live; we must live full of the Spirit. We’re able to do this, to be truly alive, because God gave us all everlasting life through sending Jesus to die for us. In Jesus’ death, we gained life In Jesus’ death on the cross, we find new life because without God, we’re just dry bones stuck in the Valley In death. God makes all things new, gives us Spiritual and physical life. So death is actually a gift that keeps on giving because, in death, we encounter Life. Here, in this cemetery, we see a beautiful mix of Creation, past and present. Us being here, standing in the cemetery, is a celebration that God makes life out of death, just as God did for those who came before us, does God for us every time we are filled with the Spirit, and will do for us when we meet our end. Amen. |