Text from today's Service:

It is Memorial Day weekend! It is time for cookouts and patriotic displays. The national holiday is observed in remembrance of the men and women who have died while serving in the country’s armed services. Memorial Day started on May 30, 1868, when four women from Columbus, Mississippi, scattered spring flowers on the graves of both the Northern and Southern soldiers who died during the Civil War. From there it caught on across the nation, and in 1968 the holiday was moved to the last Monday of May. From the Revolutionary War for our independence to the global war on terrorism, it is estimated that some one million one hundred thousand Americans have given their lives to defend our country. Memorial Day reminds us of the valor and sacrifice of our fallen heroes. It also reminds us of the harsh reality of death.

One of my earliest childhood memories is of attending old Mrs. Acre’s wake. She had suffered a debilitating stroke and lived in a vegetative state for years. She had to be fed, changed. and turned by her son and daughter-in-law. Remarkably, at unexpected moments, she would begin singing a hymn! I must have been five years old when she died. It was wintertime. We put on our best clothes and went across the street to the Acres' home. In those days people still held a wake in the family living room. The body was laid out in an open casket. Each of us filed by to pay our last respects, and then we visited with the family expressing our condolences. Some ten years later, our family in turn observed the same customs when my mother’s parents died, holding a wake in our home for three days followed by the funeral and burial.

It is somewhat rare now for people to die at home, and the practice of holding a wake in your home has all but disappeared. People usually die in the hospital or in hospice or at a nursing home. Abbreviated wakes are held at funeral homes or in church fellowship halls. The result is that death is not quite as obvious and inescapable for us. That is not to say that death is any less harsh or personal, but it is just a little more removed from us.

During this terrible pandemic, that has claimed the lives of almost one hundred thousand Americans, the ubiquitous nature of death has been impossible to ignore. Each day we watch the mounting daily death count. We cannot help but remember the pictures of body bags and caskets stacked one on top of the other.

It is not incidental that the image of the Grim Reaper first appeared in art and literature during the Bubonic Plague of the fourteenth century. The Grim Reaper is depicted and described as a cloaked, skeletal figure holding a scythe who appears at the time of death to “harvest” the soul. The image depicts death as the pitiless enemy of human life.

In our reading from First Corinthians 15 in verse twenty-six, Paul says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” I was interested to learn that the text in the original language literally reads, “The last enemy is being destroyed, namely death.” After Jesus Christ has destroyed every ruler, authority, and power, after he has handed over the kingdom to God the Father, after Jesus has put all his other enemies under his feet, then he takes on death. Death is the final enemy to be subdued (vs. 24-25).

It is true that death can be a blessed release from suffering. We have all known people who were terminally ill or irrevocably injured whose last breath was a relief, but God’s intention for human beings is life. The Apostle John said of Jesus, “In Him was life.” Jesus himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus said to Mary, after her brother Lazarus died, “I am the resurrection, and the life: whoever believes in me, even though they die, they will live and everyone who believes in me will never die.”

In a sense, death is already being destroyed through the resurrection of Christ. Death has lost his ironclad grip on us, but the final victory is yet to be won. I liked what Gordon Fee said about this verse, “Death is the final enemy. At its destruction true meaningfulness is given to life itself. As long as people die, God’s own sovereign purposes are not yet fully realized. Hence the necessity of the resurrection – so as to destroy death by ‘robbing’ it of its store of those who do not belong to it because they belong to Christ!”

And that is the good news we must always call to mind: on Memorial Day, in the middle of a pandemic, in a funeral service or at a grave side. The last enemy is being destroyed, and he will finally be destroyed. God’s sovereign purpose for us is life that has no end. God’s sovereign purpose of us is to end death once and for all.

God’s response to death in the present evil age is the promise of resurrection. Jesus' resurrection, Jesus’ victory over death, is the precursor and surety for the resurrection of all the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (v. 22). Because He lives, we shall live also.

But let us be clear about the promise of the resurrection. The resurrection is not the reconstitution of our physical bodies. Sometimes we think of it in those terms. In verse 50, Paul says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” The body that is embalmed or cremated is not the body that will rise again on the last day. Look at verses 42-44. “So, it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.” What is raised at the end of the age is a spiritual or supernatural body. It is like Jesus’ resurrection body. There is continuity in appearance and personhood, but it is a whole new creation; it is totally transformed.

Our physical bodies are well suited to life on planet earth, but they are not suited for eternity. The perishable body must put on imperishability. The mortal body must put on immortality. We must be changed. As Paul says in verses 51-52, “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” Our transformation will happen in a flash, in an instant, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. We will be changed, and not just in body but also in soul. We will become as Jesus is. We will be filled with life and love. God’s agape, God’s love, will be poured into us without measure. We will be utterly new creatures in body, soul, strength, and spirit.

Paul’s deep faith and hope in Christ’s resurrection and in God’s promise of resurrection for human beings made him exceedingly bold. He passionately believed that death has already been defeated, and so he proclaims. “Death has been swallowed up in victory" (v. 54b). But he goes even further. He taunts the Grim Reaper! “Where, O death, is your victory?” he asks. “Where, O death, is your sting?” he mocks.

Have you ever been stung by a bee or a wasp? Sometimes it leaves the venomous stinger behind after it has attacked you. You must pull the stinger out for the pain to end. If you are allergic to bees, the sting can be deadly. But death has lost its deadly sting. Paul taunts death because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Death has lost its venom. It has no ultimate power over us. Essentially, Paul says, “Take that, Death!” It takes real courage to mock the Grim Reaper, but Paul was filled with courage.

I liked what one commentator said about these verses, “Death’s victory has been overcome by Christ’s victory; and death’s deadly sting has been detoxified – indeed, the stinger itself has been plucked – through Christ’s resurrection. Death, therefore, is powerless over the dead. God’s people will be raised and changed into the likeness of Christ himself!” As our congregation’s friend and partner in ministry is wont to say, “Praise the Lord! Alleluia! Thank you, Jesus! Amen!” Indeed! Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory over death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this certitude about the defeat of death infuses our earthly lives with meaning and purpose. “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (v. 58). All our work, all our striving, especially when we are working for God’s sovereign purpose of life, is not in vain. The love (agape) that you show, the service that you render, the faith and hope that you spread are not in vain. They are all part of God’s great plan to swallow up death in life.

On this Memorial Day weekend, as we remember our fallen dead, in the midst of this horrible pandemic, and when death comes for your loved ones or for you, remember what God has done for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Death’s deadly stinger has been plucked out! Death has been swallowed up in Christ’s victory.

I think of these things when I remember my great, great grandfather, Colonel Charles Alexander Derby, for whom I was named. He was an Episcopalian priest in Church Hill, Alabama, but he had studied at the Virginia Military Institute. When the Civil War broke out, he felt it was his duty to leave the ministry and join the fight. He was killed at the battle of Sharpsburg, better known as Antietam.

I think of these things when I remember old Mrs. Acre, and my grandparents, and my parents, and my brother.

I think of these things when I remember all the victims of this pandemic.

I think of these things when I remember all the saints of Briarwood Presbyterian Church who have died in the faith: the Munfords, the Bowlings, the Henrys, J. T. Simmons, who chaired the committee that recommended me to you as Pastor, and so, so many other dear souls who are gone. The list, unfortunately, is too long to recite.

Think on these things as you recall your own dead. And let us all remember that the trumpet of God will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, we shall all be changed into the likeness of the Son of God, and we shall share with him in his eternal victory over death.

“Where, O death, is your victory?”
“Where, O death, is your sting?”
“Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

Alleluia! Amen and Amen!