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Strolling Through the Cemetery |
2009-10-23 |
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I enjoy walking to church from home everyday (weather permitting). Part of that walk is through the Milbank cemetery, which is just across South Flynn Drive from the church. When I was a kid a cemetery was kind of a spooky place. But I have never been afraid walking through the Milbank cemetery, even on those frequent occasions when I walk through it at night, in the dark. Many of the names on the headstones have become familiar to me as I walk past them day after day. I think about when they lived, especially since many of the graves along the path in the southeast part of the cemetery are from the late 1800s and early 1900s. I realize that many of these people were original settlers here, when the railroad was being built and Milbank was just a few buildings along the new tracks in the middle of the prairie, and this cemetery was a bare patch of ground outside of town. One woman\'s headstone says \"Thankful, Wife of Levi Lockwood\". Was that her name, or was she just thankful to be her husband\'s wife? Another stone says that the girl who died in the 1880s was about seventeen years old. \"She was about the same age as Laura Ingalls Wilder\", I think to myself. \"How terrible it must have been to her parents to lose their daughter\", who was about the same age as one of my own daughters. There are people who lived long lives and who never experienced electricity, indoor plumbing, tractors and combines, paved roads and fast cars. There are also people who I know, who were members of our congregation, who were an important part of my life and the life of the community and of the congregation. They are people who I was with when they died, and whose funeral I led. They are people whose loved ones still grieve their loss every day.
The last day of October is \"All Hallows Eve\", or Halloween. The first day of November is \"All Saints Day\". We pay lots of attention to October 31st these days, but almost none to the important day which follows. Halloween is not just about kids getting candy and treats and wearing costumes, and it certainly is not really about zombies and vampires and ghosts and the power of the \"undead\". All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day are about the reality that the power of death over life has been destroyed. We remember all the Saints, living and dead, and those who were martyrs for the faith. God has \"hallowed\" us, or made us holy, through the power of Jesus death on the cross and resurrection from the dead for us. Our baptism into Christ death and resurrection gives us the Holy Spirit and the promise of forgiveness and eternal life. When I walk through the cemetery, even at night, I don\'t fear meeting any ghosts of those who are buried there. I walk past their graves and am reminded that those saints whose bodies we laid to rest are not not six feet under, but are with God. When I see those headstones I look forward to meeting the people who I never got to know in this life. I look forward to seeing again those people who I had the privilege of ministering to and burying. I am even reminded that, unless the Lord returns very soon, I too will be laid to rest in this cemetery or one like it somewhere else. But just like them, I wont be here. I will be with the rest of the saints, not haunting anyone, but praising God with the host of heaven.
Happy Halloween! The trick is on the devil, and the treat is eternal life with all the Saints in Christ. |
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Summer: starting Memorial Day Weekend
9:00 am Worship Service KMSD Broadcast
10:00 am Coffee and Fellowship
WOW (Worship on Wednesday) 6:30 pm
Winter: starting after Labor Day
8:30 am Worship Service KMSD Broadcast
9:35 am Educational Hour
9:35 am Coffee and Fellowship
10:45 am Worship Service
WOW (Worship on Wednesday) 6:30 pm |
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401 South Flynn Drive
Milbank SD 57252
605.432.5566 |
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