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Graveyards are like the Unloved as the Loved are like Resting Places
Over the past week, I have had two opportunities to walk the ground of the beautiful Kanapaha Church Cemetery located on SW 63rd Blvd, about a mile from the church. If you’ve been there lately, then you too know the beauty and peace of that place. But that wasn’t always the case. The first time I saw it about 10 years ago, although it had great potential, it was less than scenic and tranquil. In trying to describe the transformation to someone who has never laid eyes on it, either before or after, I heard myself say, “It used to be just a graveyard and now it’s a place of beauty and rest.” No sooner were the words out of my mouth, when I started to laugh at what I said. Of course, it was a graveyard, but it technically still is!
What I was trying to get at, was the fact that, in my mind’s eye, a graveyard was like that spooky, dilapidated place, that I ran past while walking home from jr. high school. It was a cemetery grown over with weeds, filled with broken headstones, rusty fences, squeaky gates and trash of various sorts. It was like the kind of place featured in TV show, more recently made into a movie, Dark Shadows or novels/movies like Steven King’s Pet Cemetery. No matter what, you didn’t want to spend any more time in or walking past that place than necessary.
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But the place of beauty and rest that is now Kanapaha Cemetery, is quite the opposite. It is somewhere you wouldn’t mind spending time reading a book on a cool day before snake season. It is a place that points to the hope of our faith, the hope of the Resurrection. It is a place of tranquility and welcome.
To what do we owe this miraculous transformation? Primarily the constant and loving care of church members like Sarah Haynes (who entered the Church Triumphant in 2008) and current members Francis and Barbara Rea and Teddy and Moe Rancourt and family. Yes, we’ve had a few church-wide cemetery clean up days over the years, but we owe a debt of gratitude to these folks who have consistently mowed, cut up and hauled away, weeded, trimmed, planted, installed fencing, gates, benches and even a water spigot.
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While reflecting on the difference of what the cemetery was and what it has become, it occurred to me that God’s people can be like cemeteries and they also can be like resting places. All of God’s children have great potential to bless God’s kingdom. God Word teaches that “each of us has been given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (I Cor 12:7) When we understand and experience God’s love, when we are cared for, we flourish. Like the current Kanapaha Cemetery, we can offer others God’s peace and a place to rest; we can offer the love, hospitality and welcome of Christ that points to life.
When we are loved we come alive.
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On the other hand, when we feel unloved, we become diminished. Often we become the kinds of people others don’t want to be around. Just like I never walked on the side of the road with the spooky cemetery on my way home from school, often people avoid those, who because they have become disconnected, display any number of repelling behaviors. Perhaps, in the final analysis, there are only two kinds of people: the loved and the unloved.
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We come to church on Sunday primarily to worship, and in that worship we are built up by the love of Christ so that we can pass that love on. Did someone bite your nose this week? Feeling a bit out of sorts? Come to church to experience the love of Christ, then pass on what you’ve received especially to the graveyard shift.
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Your pastor and friend,
Dawn
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