I guess it hasn't always been so obvious.
In the mid-18th century, because of war, famine, and plagues, village cemeteries became full. They decided to recycle the graves so they dug up coffins and reburied the remains in more remote sites.As they reopened the coffins, though, they made a horrifying discovery. About 2-5% of them revealed scratch marks, kick marks, or even teeth marks on the inside of the coffin. Many of the bodies were turned over. There were signs that one out of every 25 people were buried alive. Word of this discovery spread like wildfire. Being buried alive became the greatest fear in the last half of the 18th century.
The original idea behind the wake was for the family to stay with the body in case the deceased awakened. Last night Ian and I went to see the film the Shipping News. It is set in Newfoundland in Canada and is a very gentle story about broken people becoming whole. In one scene the entire community go to the wake of one of the leading lights in the village. He had died at sea and was thought drowned. However, as the wake continued and more and more people came into the house, the room got warmer and warmer. It turned out that the dead man was not dead but in a coma; as the room got warmer he revived which rather put an end to the wake!
To allay the fears of Victorian people, someone invented a device whereby a cord was tied to the wrist or ankle of the dead. The cord was then attached to a bell on the outside of the coffin or the top of the grave. There is a scene based on this scenario in the movie The Great Train Robbery.
Franz Harman in a book entitled Buried Alive published in 1895 recorded over 700 incidents of people who were literally saved by the bell which is where that phrase comes from.
The phrase graveyard shift originated in reference to folks who were hired to stay awake and listen for the bells in graveyards at night.
Advances in medical science and the process of embalming eliminated the fear of being buried alive.
But the problem is it still happens.
Many of us feel buried alive by the burdens of life.
We are weighed down with debt;
covered over with problems,
inundated by stress and anxiety.
Our lifestyle can suffocate us or bury us alive.
St. Luke's version of the events of that first Easter is interesting because according to tradition, Luke was a physician. He looks at the resurrection though the eyes of one who had seen an awful lot of death.
Luke's version carefully describes how Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James came to the tomb in the predawn darkness on the first day of the week. They came to finish embalming the body of Jesus. The job had been left half-done because the Sabbath began Friday night shortly after his body was taken down from the cross.
For the Gospel of Luke, the symbol of the Easter miracle is not what the women saw, but what they didn't see.
The stone was rolled away and the tomb empty. They realized Jesus was alive. The corpse had moved and the funeral was over.
The women ran to share the good news with the other disciples. It is interesting to read Luke's description of how the men responded. The translation that we read this morning says the men thought what the women had to say was an idle tale.
That is kind of a sexist translation because in the original Greek, Luke uses a medical term that literally says it seemed to the men that the women were delirious.
It was a term he might use with a patient who is suffering from delirium caused by a high fever.
It seems like a good description to me, because the women had caught a fever of faith that left them with Easter Delirium.Christians have been delirious with Easter ever since.
Cynics and sophisticates dismiss Easter as an idle tale, a psychological crutch, a quaint illusion, but since none of us have died, whatever we believe happens when we die, we believe by faith. We put our faith in either the permanence of death or in the durability and tenacity of life.
Like the women that first day, Christians who believe that life is stronger than death, may seem delirious. Frankly, though, I'd rather be delirious about life than buried alive by the things of death.
When we come to the edge of all we know,
when we have done all we can do,
we must walk to the edge of our limits and jump off.
One of two things will happen:
Either God will catch us or we'll learn to fly.
To live the Christian life is to cast ourselves on the winds of life.
It is learning to
see the invisible,
hear the silence,
and trust the eternal.
It is to live as a people infected by a fever which causes us to believe that life is stronger than death, that light dispels darkness, and that ultimately love defeats hate.
Easter fever does not deny the existence of death; remember, we are people of the cross. But people infected with Easter Fever believe that death is not the final word.
Although we cannot see past the grave, we believe in the amazing grace of the One waiting for us on the other side.
Easter calls us to put down our burial spices and the things of death and embrace the life of resurrection God offers us here and now.
One of the great acts of grace in our lifetime has been the powerful stories coming out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. Lead by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others, the Commission sought to heal the deep wounds of South Africa. They dealt with many major issues and with personal issues that symbolized the very real pain and suffering inflected by racism.
In an emotionally charged courtroom, a South African woman stood with her silent tears, listening to white police officers acknowledge their atrocities. Officer van de Broek admitted that he had shot her 18 year old son at point-blank range. Then, he and others partied while they burned her son's body, turning it over and over until it was reduced to ashes. Eight years later van de Broek and his associates returned to seize her husband. She was forced to watch while they poured gasoline over him and set him on fire. As the flames consumed him, her husband's last words were simply, Forgive them.
Now, van de Broek awaited judgement. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked the woman what she wanted. Calmly weeping, she said, "I want three things. I want Mr. van de Broek to take me to the place where they buried my husband's body so I can gather up the dust and give him a proper burial."
"Second, Mr. van de Broek took all my family from me, and I still have a lot of love to give. So twice a month, I would like for him to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him."
"Third, I would like Mr. Van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him. I would like to embrace him so he will know my forgiveness is real."
As the elderly woman walked slowly across the courtroom, Officer van de Broek stood to receive her embrace and fainted. He was overwhelmed by the spiritual power of this African woman. In the back of the courtroom, someone began to sing Amazing Grace.
And so it was. It was the grace of a woman infected with Easter, who could not let hatred and death have the final word in her life.
All around us are hints of the power of resurrection. Trees which seemed dead a month ago now bud into new life. Flower beds that were brown and dry now have tulips and daffodils and irises fighting their way into the light of the sun.
Perhaps, the most powerful symbols of resurrection are here around us. There are many present this afternoon who had come to the end of their hope. God was dead and buried for us. But here we are singing our hearts out because we have been infected by Easter Fever.
In a world and a community that is increasingly self-absorbed, materialistic, and egocentric, our church is filled with people infected with a faith that calls them to service, generosity, and compassion.
We have known first hand the power of resurrection.
Asked what Easter means the 6 year old says, "Rabbits and eggs and candy," the 16 year old says, "It means Jesus rose from the dead or something like that." the 86 year old says, It means I have only begun to live.
To me, Easter means we need never come to the end of our hope.
Easter fever has infected my whole being with a passion for life which will keep me from ever being buried alive. May God bless you today with a fever which just may save your life!
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.