Billy Graham died February 21, 2018, but who can forget his powerful witness? He was clear and courageous in his commitment and teaching. Here is an example: “If I were an enemy of Christianity, I would aim right at the Resurrection because that’s the heart of Christianity.” The Apostle Paul felt the same way. He said, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.” Death and resurrection are at the core of the Christian faith.
I’M 88 years old and I live in a retirement community. Hardly a week passes that we aren’t reminded of death. If you have not done so, you need to think about, plan and talk to your family about your funeral. Jerry and I have been doing that, meeting with a funeral home and talking to our children.
We will be buried in the cemetery behind Eastside Baptist Church in Perry County, Mississippi. My mother and father, sisters and brothers, are buried there. I was converted and baptized there.
We have decided on some of the content of our funeral worship services. I am requesting that Charles Wesley’s, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, be one of the hymns sung. The final stanza expresses my prayer for my life with God now and in eternity.
Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee.
Changed from glory into glory, till in heav’n we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise.
We need to spend time thinking seriously about death, resurrection, and eternal life. Paul gave powerful witness to it. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer lives, Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) To be a Christian is to change. It is to become new. It is not simply a matter of choosing a new lifestyle, though there is a new style. It has to do with being a new person. The new person does not emerge full-blown. Conversion, passing from death to life, may be the miracle of a moment, but being Christ’s new person is the task of a lifetime.
We who are a part of the Wesleyan/Methodist tradition talk about this in terms of going on to salvation. The fullness of salvation comes in the resurrection as our new life continues with the Father. Read again the stanza from my “funeral hymn;” you may want to make that your prayer as I have made it mine.