More on taps

My post on Taps from a few days ago appeared in the Turlock Journal yesterday and apparently not everyone was amused.

No offense intended. I was mostly poking fun at how we've had to resort to computerized bugles. And on a more serious note I was using the opportunity to point out the contradiction of ending a Christian service where the focus is on the resurrection of the dead on such a pensive note as Taps.

Now, in fact I'm not against the playing of Taps (while it isn't sacred, many people find it meaningful). However, if I were allowed to put things in order I'd simply move the taps and the gun salute to the beginning of the committal service. Then I'd proceed to read the powerful words of scripture which declare a hope beyond death -- that which keeps us from being swallowed by grief. We end on an upbeat!

I realize that this is a bit contrary to custom and how many people deal with death. But it is exactly what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

In the Moravian tradition the church band gathers in the graveyard early on Easter Sunday. And they march over the graves while playing Easter hymns. Some might consider that disrespectful. Quite to the contrary, though, it is making light of the power of death and declaring that Christians aren't stuck in graveyards. While we recognize the pain that goes with the temporary separation of death, we also make light of it and declare it impotent. And that is what we what we will emphasize the most.