Have a blessed All Hallows Eve

One of my favor ite church camp songs is “Dem Bones Gonna Rise Again.” Therefore, riding on those lyrics, and approaching All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day, I share with you a few words about skeletons, about bones.

Below St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is the Necropolis where lie the bones of the Apostle Peter. Thousands of bone fragments of Christian martyrs are also stored there; and, beneath every Catholic altar, is a bone, or a fragment of one of these martyr’s bones, sent by the Vatican.

The veneration of these relics can be traced to the earliest days of the Church. After Polycarp had been burned at the stake, Christians at Smyrna wished to carry off his remains. In 156 A.D., they wrote in a letter, “we took up his bones, which are more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold, and laid them in a suitable place, where the Lord will permit us to gather, as we are able, in gladness and joy, to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom.”

At the end of Genesis we read that Joseph made the Israelites swear when they left Egypt that they would carry his bones with them: presumably to be buried in Canaan.

Ezekiel recounts the prophet in a valley filled with bones of scattered skeletons.

Jesus, on his last earthly day, was put to death on a hill called Golgotha, surrounded by a ghastly collection of skulls – bones.

The book of Second Kings provides an explanation, through the life of Elisha, for the success of Israel against Aram. It explains why the dynasty endured four generations, despite the flaws of a disobedient king. God, in his love and wisdom, provides a “savior” whenever there is a need of a “savior,” whether that “savior” is a prophet or a king, a man of God or a sinner. As if to ensure that the point is not missed—that the abiding effects of Elisha’s ministry will continue even after his death— the narrator of Kings tells a somewhat comical, but nevertheless powerful story— powerful, because Elisha has long been dead and buried. Only his bones are left: “So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. As a man was being buried, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha; as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he came to life and stood on his feet” (13:20-21).

The message of this story in Second Kings is that despite death, Elisha’s power, symbolic of God’s power, continues to live and enliven.

When we pray to a Christ “who was dead, but is alive forevermore,” when we worship with brothers and sisters who have found God at the side of the grave, when we take up God’s word and read of men and women, saints and sinners who once lived, and in their living found a God who was sufficient for their world, we touch bones that are so filled with the Spirit of God that they fill our spirits with life also.

No soul is so dead that it cannot be brought back to life by the power of God. No life is so decayed that it cannot be redeemed and resurrected by the love of Christ Jesus. It’s in the Bible, and it’s under the altar: Dem Bones Gonna Rise Again.

Have a blessed All Hallows Eve.