Fighting for the resurrection.
While not unheard of, it's not typical for a CT writer to applaud the United Church of Christ for its theological stances. However, let's give credit to whom it is due.
Last month the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a lawsuit filed by St. John's UCC in Bensenville, Illinois. The church is trying to prevent the city of Chicago from digging up the 1,400-grave cemetery in a plot right next to O'Hare International Airport. Since the summer of 2001, the city has been working to expand the overcrowded airport -- one of the busiest in the world and one to avoid at all costs during the summer and winter and any other time that weather tends to be inclement. (On top of that, it is the headquarters of the "Worst. Airline. Ever.")
Last month the Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling, which found the city's attempt to relocate the graves did not violate the church's First Amendment rights, "because Chicago's motive for relocating nearly 1,300 graves is strictly secular," reported the Chicago Tribune. Other cases are working their way through the courts, and they claim that moving the graves would interfere with worshipers' and family members' religious freedom.
One might dismiss the religious freedom argument. After all, plenty of people are opposed to expanding the massive airport. Bensenville Village President John C. Geils told the Chicago suburban Daily Herald "This is a clear case of discrimination and a denial of the deeply held religious beliefs of the church and the affected families." The village, and several others, is also fighting the expansion. So, cynics might argue the church is being used by local governments, or perhaps St. John's agrees with those parties that a bigger O'Hare means a bigger headache for local residents.
However, take a look at the lawsuit. Why are they suing? The lawsuit states:
Destroying the cemeteries not only "inhibits," but completely precludes Plaintiffs from fulfilling their religious obligation to care for their fellow Christians, and to ensure that their full participation in the Resurrection is not jeopardized by disturbance of the sacred ground where they were laid to rest until Resurrection Day.
Amen!
While physically disturbing a grave does not jeopardize the corpse's salvation, the violation of a "sleeping" Christian has for centuries been a serious matter. Until the widespread use of embalming following the Civil War, in fact, disturbing the dead was a grave deed. Dead Christians were merely asleep as they awaited the resurrection, at which time, because God would return them to life just as he did Jesus, it would make sense to have all the bodily pieces nearby. Visit any old graveyard on the East coast (dating from the 1600s and early 1700s), and nearly every tombstone will say something about the body of the Christian beneath the ground awaiting its quickening on the last day. (See N.T. Wright for more on the theology of the resurrection.)
Perhaps St. John's UCC is using traditional Christian theology in order to keep its church and cemetery, but they've recalled a central belief that many evangelicals who claim the label of orthodoxy have forgotten, at least in practice. This UCC church is keeping "the sacred ground where [their brothers and sisters] were laid to rest until Resurrection Day."
Thanks be to God.
Posted by Rob Moll on June 15, 2008 8:38PM
Comments
I agree with the Resurrection and that more Christians should remember it as a central hope of our faith, but does the UCC really believe that a destroyed body makes it impossible for God to resurrect the person? I'd say probably not.
If that's not what they believe, then making such a claim in the lawsuit is a twist of the truth in order to achieve their own ends. I don't agree with that.
Posted by: Etienne at June 16, 2008
Shouldn't the foundation of orthodoxy be the Bible itself instead of what is vaguely defined as "traditional Christian theology"? While it sounds pious and well intentioned, the belief that believer's "full participation in the Resurrection [could be] jeopardized by disturbance of the sacred ground where they were laid to rest until Resurrection Day" is unbiblical and in fact diminishes the powerful event that is the resurrection of believers. There is no mention in the Bible (by Paul or John in Revelation which are the two main places for doctrines about the resurrection of believers) of the need to have one's body parts more or less intact and undisturbed in order to have a "full participation in the Resurrection". In the first century, believers were decapitated, mutilated, burned, lost at sea, and so on... however, there is never a mention of them being at risk of missing out on any aspect of the resurrection. Why? because the power of God, who holds all the elements of the universe together, is able to reconstruct the body of every believer with perfection no matter how damaged or scattered it has been and transform it into a glorified body that corruption can never touch. This is the awesome nature of our hope, that no believer will miss out on the resurrection for something that they most likely had no control over and that evil or careless men, the devil or the world will not be able to spoil our reunion with the Lord. It is of great comfort to know that all the fury of hell, all the hatred of humans can only harm me in this life, but will have no effect in the next and much less in the prelude to the millennium and eternity (Luke 12:4-5; Rev 20:6). The key to that hope is that at the last trumpet, the dead in Christ we have the first honor and all will be changed from perishable, damaged, mutilated, imperfect to imperishable, whole, and perfect as we enter the kingdom of God and death and its negative effects (including being disintegrated or blown apart) on the body will be 1 Corinthians 15:54 swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:50-57) This is true orthodoxy worthh fighting for because its foundation is scriptural.
Posted by: Alain Maashe at June 16, 2008
Keeping graves "sacred" may be in agreement with traditional Judeo- Christian theolgoy, but definitely is contrary to the teaching and works of Jesus Christ. We had better re-evaluate Scriptures and God's power to understand the truth about the resurrection! If God "is" (in the Present Tense) the God God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He is not the God of the dead but of the living! (Matt. 22: 23-33). Such men of God, although dead, are not found in "sacred" graves but alive and well in glory with their LORD (Luke 9: 30-32). Hallelujah!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Ephrem Hagos at June 17, 2008
I do not agree with the beliefs of the UCC and that the resurrection will surely take place for those that belong to Jesus.
However the issue is regarding the law of the land of US. There is always supposed to be a clear demarcation of religious freedom. However the State of Illinois with the city of Chicago and the proponents for the expansion of O'Hare clearly passed laws to discriminate on a specific religious beliefs.
There are many people that still believe in this.
What is a little unsettling is that the country can take possession of land in another city / county and when that entity does not want to allow it to be taken over.
Reminds me of the case of Naboth's plot of land. When Naboth wouldn't sell it, Jezebel hired men to lie and have Naboth killed. Then they took posession of the land.
May God pass judgement on the Expansion on O'Hare and the evil conspiracy as he did on Jezebel and Ahab!
Posted by: Bob from Illinois at June 17, 2008
Yes, as a Christian, this not jeopardizing the Resurrection stuff seems a bit more like superstition to me than faith. But maybe they're saying that some UCC people do worry about that & it shouldn't be the government's decision & the UCC is thus fighting on behalf of those people. Maybe.
Posted by: Joel at June 17, 2008
The UCC is still living in fear because that is what has been taught to many people for centuries. Just because something has been believed for thousands or millions of years, does not make it true. The resurrection is a total myth because once the soul leaves the body, it is utterly impossible for it to return to the material world in the flesh of It's former human. The true Resurrection is when you awaken in the spiritual world and continue your life in the Heavens whether its the lowest of them (darkness) or the highest (light). Stop living with false beliefs and find out what the ministers won't tell you.
What O'hare needs to do is get different people to run it from the owner on down and reconstruct what it has in order to accomodate the busyness of the airport. It's not all that different from any other airport, it just has the wrong people are running and developing it.
Posted by: Freak at June 18, 2008
It's just politics. Get over it.
Posted by: Paul at June 20, 2008
I know the belief in the bodily resurrection isn't there, but it is of comfort to families. I heard this year of a belief all our resurrected at age 33 (http://blogs.pioneerlocal.com/religion). That provided me comfort following my mother's passing.
Posted by: Brett at June 21, 2008
Surely, no orthodox (note the small "o" employed here) Christian theologian would contend that Christians arrested during the reign of Nero-- who were affixed to stakes, then covered with pitch, and then set on fire to illuminate an outdoor dinner party hosted by Nero-- are NOT going to fully participate in the bodily resurrection... Or am I wrong about this? What about those Christians who's bodies devoured by more than one particular animal in the arenas of ancient Rome?
I applaud any Church or any theologian willing to refute the sorts of gnostic and neo-platonic notions of a non-corporeal afterlife that (unfortunately) permeate our contemporary Christian landscape. And I do NOT approve of disturbing the graves of ANYBODY, for any reason. But to think that the city of Chicago might somehow be able to thwart God's ability to physically raise the dead is just plain silly.
Posted by: Matthew at June 22, 2008
I guess I am a cynic, because I believe groups opposed to expansion of using this cemetery and this church (http://blogs.pioneerlocal.com/religion). Aren't those who are buried there being used as pawns in a political game? Is that right?
Posted by: Brett at August 8, 2008
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