The postmodern axiom that utilitarianism is the highest virtue has been part of the reason some faithful Christians are opting for cremation when they die. Cemeteries, after all, take up precious land. Others opt for cremation because it is usually less than half the cost of burial. And still others choose to be cremated because cemeteries are just too eerie. They would rather be spread over their favorite mountainside than reside in a macabre cemetery. One man put his father’s ashes in a finger hole of his bowling ball, so his dad would be with him when he bowled a perfect game.
Environmental enthusiasts affirm California recently joining Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Vermont in legalizing human composting. After all, according to one estimate, cremation releases an average of 534.6 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air per body, totaling 360,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasses a year just in the U.S.
In composting, the body is put in a container and covered with straw, wood chips and alfalfa that allows microbes to break down the body in about 30 days. After curing for another 2-6 weeks, the family can use the cubic yard of composted-loved one to fertilize their flower bed.
Composting denies that each individual is a special creation made in God’s own image and precious in God’s sight. Treating the body as nothing more than part of the material world, denies the uniqueness and worth of each individual. Composting is not a new idea although its widening acceptance is new.
In the 1958 movie Houseboat, widower Cary Grant teaches his son the meaning of death. Holding a pitcher of water while they sit on the side of his houseboat, Grant tells his son, “The pitcher has no use at all except as the container of something. In this case a container for water which you can think of as my life-force.” Pouring the water into the river, Grant explains, “The river is like the universe, you haven’t lost it [life-force/water]. It’s just that everything constantly changes. So perhaps when our life-force, our souls, leave our bodies they go back into God’s universe and the security of becoming part of all life again, all nature.” In other words, the human body is just matter that can be recycled into a tree or garden.
Radical Feminist Rosemary Radford Reuther in the 1980s describes what happens in death in more academic prose:
[O]ur existence ceases as individuated ego-organism and dissolves back into the cosmic matrix of matter/energy, from which new centers of the individuation arise. It is the matrix, rather than our individuated centers of being, that is ‘everlasting,’ that subsists underneath the coming to be and passing away of individuated beings and even planetary worlds.
I recently explained to my young grandson that in the past churches often had cemeteries located next to them. As people entered the church, they were reminded that life on this earth is short, thus forcing them to adjust their earthly priorities in light of the eternal. I asked my grandson what it would mean if the church had a swimming pool next door rather than a cemetery. He answered, “Life is short, enjoy it while you can.” Perhaps that’s another reason for composting. The dead are out of sight and we can get on with our fun.
Composting and even cremation destroy the individual. They deny the truth in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting”. They deny Scripture’s truth, “For he [God] chose us in him [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons….”
Christians at Corinth asked, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” And Paul answers, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised 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 natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Can God raise a body that was lost in the World Trade Center destruction or buried at sea? Yes. God is God, he can put flesh back on dry bones. But, should we not honor the body even in death?
Unlike the current movement toward cremation and now composting, a recent walk through the cemetery of old Grace church that was established in 1697 in Yorktown, Virginia and the Bruton Parish Cemetery in Old Williamsburg, Virginia, showed a very different attitude toward burial. For many of those people, their grave was an opportunity to honor lives of obedience and sacrifice and to witness to the resurrection of Christ.
According to his headstone, General Thomas Nelson, Jr. who died on January 2, 1789 was “the mover of the resolution of May 15, 1776 in the Virginia Convention instructing the delegates in Congress to move that body to declare the colonies free and independent states. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, War governor of Virginia, and Commander of VA’s forces.” The stone records, “He gave all for liberty.”
Virginia and Nathaniel Taylor’s stone from 1897 witnesses to their faith, “In God’s care; We shall sleep but not forever; we shall meet to part, no, never on the resurrection morn.”
Benjamin Earnshaw Bucktront who died on August 4, 1846 challenges all who pass by, “Mourn not my friend, I feel no more the smart of the afflicted head or aching heart. Mourn for your sins against a gracious God; believe in Christ and feel his precious blood. This stone is witness that the warning given choose the good part and follow me to heaven.”
Human beings are created in the Image of God. That imageness does not depend on gifts, ability, sentience or even life. It is assigned by God. It extends from the moment of conception to eternity. That’s why we respect the body that bears the image of God even in death and we are rightly horrified when soldiers’ bodies are dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. Our Savior was resurrected bodily and continues bodily to reign in glory. One day those in Christ will see his nail-pierced hands.
Graves also prevent history from being revisioned by modern day historians. No one can deny the powerful faith of our forefathers and mothers in this country when they walk through a cemetery. The stones give witness to the strength and hope derived from their Christian faith as they faced illness, wars, and deprivation.
No one can deny the historical accuracy of the Civil War when they visit the markers of the dead. The histories of towns and cities are forever etched in granite. Arlington Cemetery testifies to the sacrifice of men and women for freedom and liberty.
There is another important reason for choosing burial. Our graves testify to the fulfillment of God’s promise to raise us to eternal life. Joseph’s story in Genesis 50:25 illustrates the promise. When Joseph was about to die in Egypt, he assured his sons that one day God would fulfill his promise and take them to the Promised Land. And he made his sons promise that on that day they would carry his bones to the Promised Land. In Exodus 13:19, the promise is fulfilled when it records, “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, ‘God shall surely take care of you; and you shall carry my bones from here with you.’”
For four hundred years while the Israelites endured slavery in Egypt, every time they walked past Joseph’s grave, they remembered the promise that one day they’d take those bones to the Promised Land. Joseph’s bones were a visible reminder of God’s promise to the Israelites.
Our grave is a reminder to all who pass by that these bones will one day be raised. Every cemetery is a testimony. Every tombstone is a reminder. Every dead body is a promise waiting to be fulfilled.
Many congregations hold Easter sunrise services in a cemetery. It’s an appropriate place to be on Easter morning: appropriate because in the cemetery we remember another cemetery with an empty tomb. But, it’s most appropriate because the cemetery is the place of promise: these graves will open, these dead will rise, “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first….and thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
Even in death we have an opportunity to witness to our confidence in the promise of God in Christ of eternal life. Because Christ was raised bodily, we too shall be raised. Death has lost its sting.
Sue Cyre is a past board member of the Institute on Religion & Democracy. She previously served as Executive Director of Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry (PFFM), an initiative providing resources to assist adherents in their defense of the biblical theology. Cyre also served as editor of Theology Matters.
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