I took a couple of hours off yesterday afternoon.  Among other things I prepared a couple of raised beds by turning the soil, adding some compost, and then planting some lettuce and peas.  As I covered the seeds up and walked away I thought of the funeral I participated in the day before.  Like so many before it, the funeral ended at the cemetery where a few brief words were spoken and the committal was done "in the sure and certain hope of the day of resurrection."  And then, slowly, family and friends began to move away from the grave, toward one another and their cars.    All had been done that could be done.  It was in God's hands now.

"If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you...If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it in patience,"  (Romans 8: 10-11, 25).

As a farmer plants the seed and goes away in anticipation of harvest, as the one filled with grief turns away from the grave in the sure and certain hope of the day of resurrection, we live in hope of that which has been promised.  There was a harvest last year the farmer will say.  That's enough evidence to convince him to release his seed again this year.  There was the resurrection of Christ, there was that event long ago that is at the heart of the Christian faith.  It is enough to enable us to release those we have loved and lost to the same God who "raised Jesus from the dead."

We live in hope!

Prayer:  Not far from the our deepest lost lies the gift of hope.  As the rich earth embraces the seed and gives new life, so let your promise stir within us and renew our hope.  Amen