Cremation

Yesterday I attended the last of five funerals (Celebrations o f Life) within the last two months. In reflection I noted that in each case the family has chosen to have the deceased family member cremated. This is something that was unthinkable to me growing up. I suspect I even considered it wrong and probably sinful.

Of course, by now I have changed my mind and I have spelled out my own desire for

cremation in the appropriate papers and have even paid for it in advance.

While most Protestant Churches (and some Roman Catholics) now approve cremation I try to recall my earlier views and one still held by some today. Some opposed cremation because they judged that the person desiring it somehow or other thought cremation would make resurrection impossible. Resurrection is, of course, a belief that cannot be proven. It is a matter of faith and hope and for many a surety. Others decried cremation because it seemed to dishonor the sanctity of the human body. Still others just never considered that option.

It was not considered an option in my youth. I was born in and lived in a house with the Zion

Lutheran Cemetery just a hundred yards or so away. Every single member of Zion was buried in that cemetery at a very low cost, maybe even at NO cemetery charge. I know all the graves were dug at no charge by members of the church. Now even that cemetery has built a columbarium and

my late brother-in-law law Raymond will be the second person to have his cremains there. I have been active in my current congregation, Calvary Lutheran in Solana Beach CA to install a  columbarium in our sanctuary. Of course, a columbarium holds only cremains. In a couple of days I am assisting in placing the cremains of a former military officer in a three-person space at Fort Rosecrans National Memorial. In the San Diego area burial at sea is very common..

Because I lived in Hong Kong, worked with Chinese brothers and sisters and participated in many burials (no cremations) I checked to see about current practices there. I found that cremation is now becoming quite popular and that in Mainland China the government has dictated that in all major cities all bodies must be cremated. However, the Chinese often still seek very earnestly to have a gravesite for those cremains as they feel it a family duty to return to their ancestors’ burial sites and bring offerings and remembrances.

I close this blog with a somber reflection on the death and cremation of our eldest son David just four years ago. My wife Jane and I took his cremains and decided to strew them in the sea at a spot we loved, to enjoy viewing together from our balcony. I am glad he was cremated and his remains ae part of the Pacific Ocean.That episode is fodder for another later blog. I am glad he was cremated and his remains are now a part of the Pacific Ocean.

And this I believe, that while the mysteries of the after-life are many, the hope of the resurrection of

the body whether after cremation or dissolution remains firm.

Christmas Now (2018) and Then (1933)

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 Christmas continues to be The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. A great time to celebrate and to remember. This year I decided to remember Christmas 85 years ago (1933 when I was 6years of age) and this year when I am 91

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Jane and I flew non-stop from San Diego to the JFK Airport in New York. This, of course was undreamed of when I was 6. To fly across the country in 6 hours (or even to board an airplane) was way beyond my greatest imagination. I had to think about the preparations needed for the 60-mile trip to Grandma and Grandpa Kieschnick in Lincoln Texas. That meant packing our Model A Ford for a long trip. We had to be especially sure that we had enough patches for the inner tubes of our car. We had to anticipate the likelihood of a flat tire as we rode along those country roads, I recalled how mom and dad and (at that time there were 8 of us crowded into that slow moving car of ours) and we had to leave room for some of the canned vegetables or fruit Grandma Kieschnick was sure to send back home with us.

When we reached Connecticut Daughter Elizabeth had her home beautifully and wonderfully decorated. The candles were always lit, the fireplace always burning, the Christmas tree majestic. She even remembered special foods from my childhood special fried sausage on Christmas morning, eggnog every night, homemade cookies and candies all over the place. I remembered the deep poverty of 1933 as we were in the heart of the Great Depression. We were thrilled to get an orange in our Christmas stocking. I received back my little tricycle that the birds had carried away a couple weeks before Christmas and then reappeared all repainted and shiny under my Christmas tree.

The Christmas Eve worship experiences were radically different. When I was a child the service focused on the children with all of us parochial school kids sitting in the front of the church, reciting our “pieces”, singing the carols in three part harmony and giving memorized answers to pre-assigned questions from our teachers, always beginning with “Welches hoest fest feiern wir in diesen tagen?” (Which high festival do we celebrate in these days?). This year the children’s pageant had been presented the previous Sunday. More radical differences: the pastor was a woman!! Those in attendance included black people, Hispanics and people from India-. I honestly believe that if any black persons had come to our Christmas Eve service in 1933 they would have been asked to leave the church or go sit in a secluded corner apart from the white people there. Once again daughter Elizabeth did honor tradition. After the service she took me to the big tree in the front of the church and there was that old paper bag and in it were the traditional orange, a few nuts and of course: a whole package of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum. In  1933 I got one stick and that was the total amount for the year!

When I was six my family and all of my relatives lived within a day’s driving distance. Now my kids live on both coasts and one daughter-in-law lives in Spain. Christmas contact included not only Skype but also email, texts, Facebook and all the other connections that were well beyond our Walburg days when we did not even have a telephone.

So the differences abound. Yet Elizabeth and family were centered on that first Christmas as she had the Advent wreath lit, the Scriptural prophecies read and the timeless message were celebrated. God is love and came to dwell among us and daily invites us bring Joy to the World, a world ever changing and ever the same.