The Life Changing Graveyard Story

My father is buried in a small country cemetery in the neck of the woods where he was born.  It was a long time ago when we went there for the burial and in the over sixty years since then a lot of new graves have been dug.  There is nothing unusual about this church cemetery.  The landscape is dotted with thousands just like the Pierce Chapel Church Cemetery.  Cemeteries are places where memories are remembered and where stories are told.  And, somehow or another, they take on the nature of a place that is holy.     

Of course, all ground is holy because all ground passes through the hands of the Creator God, but graveyards are certainly viewed as more than ordinary ground by those who go and leave someone there.  It has always seemed that church yards are good places for cemeteries to grow.  The sermons preached from the pulpit inside the church speak of the life to come, Resurrection Sunday is celebrated by its people, and as the people worship inside, there is this ever present reminder of the communion of the saints.   

The Scripture, too, has its graveyard stories.  From Abraham's purchase of burial ground to the place where Lazarus lay waiting for Jesus, the stories abound.  Of course, the greatest and most profound graveyard story is the one which is told after Jesus was crucified on what we call Good Friday.  From the burial ground owned by Joseph of Arimathea came the resurrected and about to ascend into heaven Jesus and, thus, life and death has never been the same.