51-57 But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:
Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?
1 Corinthians 15:51-57, The Message
When you think of a trumpet blast, what do you think of? The first thing that came to my mind was taps. Taps is the name for the trumpet or bugle song played at the end of the day to signal “lights out,” or is played at a funeral. One version of its origin is that a Union soldier in the Civil War found the tune in the pocket of his son killed fighting for the Confederate army. It is also known as “Butterfield’s Lullaby”. The story goes that General Butterfield had to bury a soldier. They were too close to the Confederate line to shoot the customary three shots to honor a death and so he wrote this song of three notes. We might know the words to the first verse but there were a couple other.
- Day is done, gone the sun, From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
2, Fading light, dims the sight, And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar, drawing nigh, falls the night.
3. Thanks and praise, for our days, ‘Neath the sun, ‘neath the stars, neath the sky;
As we go, this we know, God is nigh.
4. Sun has set, shadows come, Time has fled, Scouts must go to their beds
Always true to the promise that they made.
5. While the light fades from sight, And the stars gleaming rays softly send,
To thy hands we our souls, Lord, commend.
Centuries before “Taps” was written, Paul writes about the sounding of the blast of a trumpet that will signal the end of day as we know it and will signal the honoring of the dead. Let us spend time praying for the many caught in war zones in our world today or are being held as hostages. Lord, have mercy! Draw near to them in their hour of need. Comfort their families. We long for the day when fighting will cease, the dead will be honored and peace will reign. May death be swallowed by triumphant life!
On the Way to Wonder 