This blog is, at least in part, a swipe at the Baby Boom generation (~1946-1964). Yep, the ungrateful brats that F***ed-up the country for the rest of us. BTW I am barely considered a Boomer so I can say that and not get accused of dissing the gray-haired generation. Said comments also are applicable to those older than the Boomers. I don’t know what to call that generation. Contrary to Tom Brokaw, they aren’t the “Greatest Generation” because they were too young to participate in WW II.
Whether my comments are applicable to the younger crowd, maybe The Chief can let me know when next we speak.
Our society has been described as disposable. We have disposable diapers, razors, disposable food containers, and the like but we also treat humans as disposable. Abortion is “products of conception” which are fit to flush down the toilet. “Special needs” children get locked-up and are rarely seen in public. We have “old folk’s homes” where we send elderly people to await death. We have political parties in our country that support slavery, exploitation, child labor, and a host of other ills just as long as they occur in other countries and not are not seen in ours. Nobody in the West could afford an iPhone or Tesla car if the rare earth metals were obtained ethically. Much manufacturing in China would cease if not for slave labor. Then there is the eugenics behind organ harvesting on an industrial scale.
Below I take on false views held by many self-described Christians.
“The body is garbage,” claimed a nameless person mentioned by Rev David Chilton in one of his sermons recorded in the 1980’s. (Chilton didn’t believe that but dealt with folks that did.)
Yep, the spirit is what is important, the body is just the prison of the soul. Ever heard comments like that before? While such may have been spoken by the Apostle Plato, such language was never uttered by the Apostle Paul, or any other writer of Holy Scripture. Such division of body and soul is not biblical but Greek. Yet, many people believe it is true.
In this category, I include my own parents as well as my grandparents. When someone died in my immediate family circle they were cremated and forgotten. Typically, there is no memorial service, wake, or any other remembrance. No gravestone because there is no grave.
In addition, the possessions of said relatives are not offered to family members as keepsakes. Nope. When my grandfather died, my dad gave a few firearms to a cousin and then called Goodwill or some similar charity group to clean out the house. He kept nothing and offered nothing to the rest of us. Like I said before, it’s just dumping the trash.
Oh, so what happens when you ask to be present when the ashes of dear so-and-so are disposed of? Nothing. (I did think you needed a government permit to scatter human remains but I know my folks never followed that directive.) When the time came to scatter said ashes, do you know what happened? Zippo. The phone is silent. The email is mute. The snail mail was never sent. Years after the fact you might overhear a comment stating that over there is where some beloved person’s ashes went. It matters not if you ask to be present. Crickets.
Folks if you thought cancel culture was just on the Left, try dying in my family. There is zero hope of being honored or remembered. Your existence is swiftly erased with extreme prejudice.
When my aunts died, did I get notified? Generally, no; not if they were part of my grandmother’s generation. Occasionally, if they were of my parents’ generation then my folks might mention it. Either way, incinerate and forget them was the practice.
Lest you think this idea that the body is garbage is unique to my family, may I point you to the Neptune Society. They offer cremation services for the masses.
Or Oregon offers composting of dead people. Yep, they literally make you into worm food.
My problem is that biblically speaking, burning bodies is sacrilege. The body is to be honored. More on that shortly.
Lest you think my family are the only ones that advocate disposal of loved ones; here is how this often is manifests amongst folks that claim to be Christian. Grandma dies. We hold a service for her—which is good. But then someone says, “What’s in the coffin isn’t grandma, she’s in heaven not here.” Then they make a reference to Paul’s saying that “absent from the body is present with the Lord”.
If by saying this, they deny that the person in the coffin is actually grandma then they are wrong. Both the body and the spirit are grandma. The body is not a corrupted husk that contained the real grandma. Nope, that’s Greek thought not biblical thought.
Folks, this is the classic definition of loss of big picture. Jesus was not raised as a spirit. The Church has a name for people that believe that way, “heretic.”
Jesus was raised bodily. Yep, his resurrected body was different, it was a perfected body, but a body, nonetheless. In another sermon, David Chilton makes reference to a young man saying that he can’t wait to get to heaven because then he can’t sin anymore because he will no longer will have a body. This is not biblical.
God gave Adam a body and said it was “very good”.
It is unnatural that the body and spirit are separated at death. This is the result of sin. Please understand, I am ok with claiming that immediately following death, the deceased person gets their new, resurrected body. And following a judgment, believers are in the presence of God in that eternal form. Some folks think you need to wait until the end of something, usually not the end-end for this to occur. Some biblical passages seem to imply that the judgment is immediately after death not after one’s body spends thousands of years in the ground. Whether the body and spirit are reunited shortly after death or later on, it will happen. You will spend eternity in a body not as a disembodied spirit.
The normative in Scripture is that the body is treated with respect and reverence. A body is buried with honor and an expectation of an afterlife. The classic example is in the latter part of Genesis. Joseph, the guy with the coat of many colors, makes a final request just before his death. When you leave Egypt and return to the Promised Land, take my body with you and bury me there. Joseph had been dead for the better part of 400 years before his remains were returned to the land of his birth. People knew that this body was Joseph and he was given the honor due to a prince of both Egypt and Israel.
In like manner, every time a Christian is buried, he is testifying that he has a hope in a future resurrection. This is why churches have had graveyards in close proximity to their places of worship. Like many things, the present practitioners have forgotten the historic view; the faith of their fathers. Heck, for that matter, why don’t modern churches use church architecture for their construction? Why are they all theater-in-the-round or gymnasiums with folding chairs?
Those European Cathedrals that took centuries to build had a purpose in the way they were constructed. I bet you don’t even know why Holy Water and Gargoyles were included in the church’s design. The Gospel is silently built into how and why each building was designed, hence the name “church architecture.”
Oh, the answer to my rhetorical questions above, Holy Water is in the back of the church as a symbol that it is by baptism that we gain entry to the church. Gargoyles symbolize demons fleeing the presence of the Church. Remember Jesus saying that “… the gates of hell shall not prevail?” Again, church architecture has meaning, but folks don’t know the Gospel well enough to know what they are looking at.
Like many in our society, what I say or whatever reasons that I might give for Christian burial will not move the needle with folks. They are much more comfortable arguing feelings than facts. Facts can only be employed if both sides agree to let something external to them be their authority and rule for conduct. For Christians this should be the Word of God but often it is not. When every man does what’s right in their own eyes then civil dialogue is not possible. This is just as true discussing death as it is politics.
My folks want to be cremated, have no memorial service, and no acknowledgement of their lives. Oh, this also means no closure for grieving family members, but they don’t care. Such an attitude gives a new spin to the comments of Jesus when he said, “Let the dead bury the dead.”
Folks, there is such a thing as “Christian burial;” it’s too bad most Christians don’t believe in it anymore.