One of probably the most moving places I actually have ever been to is a countryside churchyard in western Finland. I used to be in Finland for an ecumenical conference and people of us on the conference had gone to say morning prayer on the local Lutheran parish church. After the service I visited the church yard and was struck by row upon row of an identical black gravestones with the names of the dead carved on them in grey. Seeing those grim black gravestones within the half light of a November morning in Finland was intensely moving.
When I asked who the dead were, I used to be told that they were the Finnish dead from the wars that Finland fought against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany from 1939-1945. It was also explained to me that early in these wars the principle was established that ‘the boys could be brought home.’ Wherever Finnish servicemen died every effort was made to bring them home to their parish church for a correct Christian burial.
If we ask why it was so necessary to bring the boys home, the reply is that it was because Finland was a Christian country and consequently accepted the traditional Christian tradition that the bodies of the dead must be treated with proper respect.
It was an identical reflection of the Christian tradition that may very well be seen on this country when from 2007 -2011 the streets of Royal Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire were repeatedly lined with those that wished to pay respect to the bodies of the service personnel who had been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and who had been brought home via a flight to RAF Lyneham. People instinctively felt that the fallen must be treated with proper respect and that this meant showing honour to their bodies once they were driven through the town.
Was it hardly realised is that the Christian tradition of honouring the bodies of the dead was strongly countercultural when it first began back in the times of the Early Church. As the American theologian Thomas Long comments in his book on Christian funerals, Accompany them with singing, drawing on the sooner work of Margaret Miles, some of the bizarre types of early Christian activity within the eyes of their Roman neighbours was:
‘… the Christian practice of burying the dead – not only their very own dead, however the poor as well. In Roman society, the bodies of poor people, if left unattended, were dumped in a standard pit, a paupers’ grave. Respectable Romans were horrified by the inhumanity of this, and a few of them even formed burial societies to be sure that no one would go with no proper burial. However, despite the lofty rhetoric of those charitable organisations, no person actually desired to do the dirty work of burial, of handling a dead body – except the Christians. Not only did they volunteer to bury the dead, Miles says, they ‘insisted on gathering the bones of those that have been executed full refusal to resign the Christian sect. They put these bones in a spot of honour and described them as capable or possessing the sanctity of the living holy person.’ Educated secular Romans were convinced that each one of this concern amongst Christians for bodies could only be the product of ignorance. One well-placed Roman, Miles reports, speculated that the Christians who were willing to bury the dead as an act of service were surely ‘fleeing from the sunshine,’ briefly, ignoring the enlightened wisdom but only minds and souls were spiritual more bodies were corrupt ‘bags of dung’ and price nothing except to be despised. In other words. Christian attitudes toward the body were as counter cultural in antiquity as they’re today, if no more so.’
If we ask why the early Christians adopted this countercultural attitude to the bodies of the dead and the practices that went with it, the reply is, Long says, that they based it on ‘their theology of creation and their experience of Jesus Christ.’ Their theology of creation told them that God had created human bodies and that like every thing else created by God they were ‘superb’ (Genesis 1:31). Their experience of Jesus Christ told them that the bodies of the Christian dead have everlasting value because, just like the body of Jesus, they may in the future be raised to share life with God perpetually.
To put it one other way, Christians have seen, and proceed to see the embodiment of human beings as a present from God that must be celebrated not only during life, but in addition at the purpose of death. As Long argues, which means that a Christian funeral is, or must be, a bit of liturgical drama that has certain specific characteristics that link the funeral service to baptism:
‘When Christians, travelling along the baptismal path die, the corporate of the faithful who were there to guide them initially are also there to hold them at the top. In baptism, recent Christians are ‘buried with Christ by baptism into death’ they usually come up from the waters raised ‘to walk in newness of life.’ In funerals these same Christians, having travelled the pilgrim way, are once more buried with Christ in death within the sure confidence that they will probably be raised to recent life. In baptism the faithful sang them into this recent lifestyle; and now they gather around to sing them to God in death. Just as they washed the brand new Christian within the waters of baptism, they now lovingly wash the body of the deceased. Just as they adorned the newly baptised Christian with the clothes of Christ, they now adorn the deceased in clothes fitting to fulfill God and maybe place a pall, an emblem of the clothes of baptism, over the coffin. As the Church has been travelling with the baptised saint on the road of religion, the church now walks with the deceased on the last mile to the place of farewell.’
The Christian theology of human embodiment and the Christian understanding of the funeral as ritual drama that flows from it has three consequences that I believe Christians need to remember today.
The first consequence is that Christians must challenge a well-liked view of death that fails to do justice to its reality. This popular view of death is reflected in a well-known anonymous funeral poem that runs as follows:
Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I’m not there, I do stay awake.
I’m a thousand winds that blow.
I’m the diamond glints on snow.
I’m the daylight on ripened grain.
I’m the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken within the morning’s hush
I’m the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.
I’m the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I’m not there,
I didn’t die.
From a Christian perspective this poem is mistaken on two points. (a) The dead are most definitely dead, just as we affirm within the Creed that Jesus most definitely died. (b) The dead haven’t been dissolved into the forces of nature in some type of limitless reincarnation. The dead, although dead, remain human. Their human souls have gone to be with God and to await the approaching of the brand new creation and their human stays, whether in the shape of corpses or ashes, are in a selected place (or places) where they may remain until God reunites them with their souls on the last day.
The second consequence is that a Christian funeral service must be greater than only a time to recall the lifetime of the one that has died, necessary though that is. Instead, it also must be an occasion wherein thanks is given to God for the one that has died, each for his creating them, and for giving them recent life in Christ. It must be an occasion wherein the Christian hope of the resurrection of the dead and everlasting life is proclaimed. It must be an occasion wherein a one that has died is committed into God’s keeping for the subsequent stage of their Christian journey. Finally, it must be an occasion when the body of the departed is interred or cremated – where there’s a body to be buried or cremated.
The third consequence is that, if in any respect possible, the body of the dead must be present on the service. Their embodied presence as a part of the Christian community now takes the shape of a dead body and so their body must be with their brothers and sisters in Christ for this point of their journey, just as they were there for his or her baptism and were there week by week for Sunday worship and at other times. The Coptic Christian tradition wherein the body of a dead Patriarch is seated in full regalia on the Patriarchal throne one last time to be greeted by the faithful may strike Western Christians as barely ghoulish, however it unmistakably makes the purpose concerning the embodied presence of the Christian dead and is significantly better than viewing them as present only through memory or via a photograph montage.
The fourth consequence is that the faithful should accompany the body of the dead person all of the technique to interment or cremation. Their earthly journey doesn’t end until they get to that time and their Christian brothers and sisters should go together with all of them the best way.
The final thing to notice is that each one that has been said implies that Christian must object to, and protest against, the practice of a discount ‘direct cremation’ which is currently being frequently advertised on television. Having the dead taken away for an unattended cremation with the ashes being returned later goes against all of the theology and good Christian funeral practice I actually have just outlined.
As Christians have at all times insisted, there must be a correct Christian funeral service wherein, where possible, the dead are present in the shape of their body and wherein all the weather of an excellent funeral liturgy are also present. This is the last act of Christian service that Christians can provide for a dead brother or sister within the Lord and it shouldn’t be denied them. It may cost money, however it is money that deserves to be spent. The post funeral bun fight is optional, a correct Christian funeral service shouldn’t be.
