Now let's open our Bibles together to John chapter
5. That was good singing tonight. I can tell
you're really enjoying singing. And I think that
that's the sign of a church whose people walk
with God. You can't help but sing when the Holy
Spirit is dominating your life. Music is just
part of it. It bubbles out. And even if it's
just a joyful noise or a foot stomping like John
was doing up here on the stage during that offertory,
I don't know if you noticed, I moved my feet
back under the chair just to protect them lest
he should really get excited. And maybe you didn't
know before that John did direct music for a
period of time in a Jewish temple. That's why
they have named him John Benham. You see. The
son of Ham. Lots of Ham. Time to stop, right?
He gets a turn now and then, too, so, you know,
turnabout's fair play. John chapter 5. We're
going to look there tonight to begin our message
on the resurrection of the dead. The hope of
the resurrection of the body beats within the
breast of everyone who has ever placed the body
of a loved one in the grave. In John chapter
5, we have a word of the Lord Jesus regarding
this matter. He says, beginning in verse 25,
truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming
and now is. when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live.
For just as the Father has life in himself, even
so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.
And he gave him authority to execute judgment,
because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at
this. For an hour is coming in which all who
are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall
come forth, those who did the good to a resurrection
of life, those who committed the evil to a resurrection
of judgment. Let's bow together. Father, I pray
that now as we look into your Word, the Spirit
of God who inspired the writing of these words,
so that we today might have an authoritative
final voice from you would illuminate our hearts
and open our understanding to them and to this
great truth that we look at this evening in Jesus
name Amen The Lord Jesus said an hour is coming
and now is When the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God and those who hear shall live
That is the age in which you and I live. And
the resurrection that seems to be in view here
is not the physical resurrection, but it is the
spiritual resurrection of one who, having been
dead in trespasses and sins, trusts the Lord
Jesus Christ and is spiritually brought to life.
An hour is coming, he says, and now is. when
that will take place. But in verse 28 he says,
an hour is coming, and notice he does not say
and now is, but he says an hour is coming in
which all who are in the tombs shall hear his
voice and shall come forth. There is no question
but that in verse 29 he speaks of the physical
resurrection of every person who has ever lived
on the face of the earth. Now our theme tonight
is going to be the physical resurrection of the
body. Of course, spiritual resurrection is a
wonderful truth. We who are dead in our trespasses
and sins, it says in Ephesians chapter 2, he
has quickened. He has brought us to life in Jesus
Christ so that now we are alive in him spiritually.
No longer are we in the death of sin, but we
are in the life of the Son. But even we who are
alive in the Son may one day die physically and
our bodies be put into a grave. What this message
tonight is going to deal primarily with is the
blessed hope that we have That though we may
die and our bodies be planted, we will be resurrected.
This is not only a New Testament doctrine. The
hope of the resurrection has always been a part
of the faith of God's people. We see this, for
example, in the book of Job in the 19th chapter.
I'd like for you to turn quickly to several Old
Testament passages. As we see that even throughout
the centuries before the coming of Christ there
was the belief in the resurrection of the dead.
Job chapter 19. Just when the book of Job was
written is uncertain. Conservative, Bible -believing
scholars debate that issue. Personally, I believe
that it was written close to the time when Job
lived, but some date it later than that. Job
lived, it would seem, from the content of the
book, about the time of Abraham, the patriarchal
age, about 2000 B .C. Notice the words that are
attributed to Job by the Holy Spirit as he inspires
the writer of this book in verse 25 of the 19th
chapter, and as for me, I know that my Redeemer
lives, says Job, and at the last he will take
his stand on the earth. Now, this is an amazing
statement for a man who did not have a word of
written revelation from God. Nothing had been
written to this point inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Nothing of the Bible that you have in your hands
was present for Job to read and to study for
him to base his faith on. But what Job did have
was the oral transmission. passed down from generation
to generation of godly families regarding what
God had said. It is that information that causes
Job to spring forth with this great statement
of affirmation. Now he goes on to say in verse
26, even after my skin is destroyed, yet from
my flesh I shall see God." Here he affirms his
belief in the resurrection, and though all of
life in its circumstances be turned against him,
as it happened at this point, and even though
he himself, critically ill with affliction, even
though he himself died, he says, from my flesh
I shall see God. whom I myself shall behold and
whom my eyes shall see and not another, my heart
faints within me." What he means by that last
statement is, I am just overwhelmed by this.
He says, this is just too much for me to ponder
that truth. And so we see that Job believed in
the resurrection. Abraham, who was a contemporary
of Job, likewise believed in the resurrection.
For example, in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
19, the writer there records that Abraham believed
that God was able to raise his son from the dead.
So he believed in the resurrection and the implication,
a rather quick resurrection, of his son Isaac.
Not only the patriarchs believed in the resurrection,
But the prophets of God who spoke for him to
ancient Israel likewise spoke of the resurrection
of the dead. I invite you to turn to the book
of Isaiah and the 26th chapter of Isaiah. Look
then at the 19th verse. where he says to the
people of Israel, the people of God in the Old
Testament, where he says to them, your dead will
live. Their corpses will rise. You who lie in
the dust, awake and shout for joy. To lie in
the dust was a phrase meaning to lie down in
death. Awake and shout for joy. For your due
is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will
give birth to the departed spirits," he says.
And then turn to the book of Daniel, a man who
followed Isaiah by some years, right after the
book of Ezekiel, Daniel and the twelfth chapter
of his prophecy. He says in verse 2, And many
of those who sleep in the dust of the ground
will awake these to everlasting life, but the
others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
And so basically what Daniel says here parallels
the statement of Jesus that we read in John 5.
that in the physical resurrection there will
be those who will be raised to life, everlasting
life and blessing, and there will be those raised
to judgment, or as Daniel puts it here, to disgrace
and everlasting contempt. And then the book closes
with this special personal word to Daniel. But
as for you, go your way to the end. Then you
will enter into rest and rise again for your
allotted portion at the end of the age. And so
to Daniel as an individual, this word from God
comes, go your way, you will die, but you will
be raised from the dead so that you may share
in the glory of the people of God that you've
written about in your prophecy. And so the prophets
revealed the truth of the resurrection in the
Old Testament. Likewise, we see the resurrection
in miracles that occurred in the Old Testament.
Elisha, for example, was involved in the resurrection
of two individuals. You recall he had dealings
for a time with a Shunammite woman who was very
kind for him and cared for him. And as a result
of that, he asked her what she would desire as
a favor from him because of the kindness that
she and her husband had shown to him. And she
responded by saying certain things. And he said,
well, you're going to have a son in a year. And
she basically said, oh, cut it out. Don't lie
to me. Quit teasing me. But that's what Elisha
said. And you know, in a year, This woman had
a son. She held a son in her arms. And the boy
grew up, the text there says in 2 Kings chapter
4. And the boy one day went out to see his father
in the field. And apparently it was a very hot
day and the lad had what we might call a heat
stroke. And he was very ill. They took him to
his mother and he died in his mother's arms.
A very sad, heartbreaking picture. And she immediately
then left to go find Elisha. And the story goes
on that Elisha knelt down over the boy, pressed
his body against the boy's body, and prayed.
And the body began to warm. Now the boy had been
dead several hours by this time. And then it
says he got up and he walked around, probably
from anticipation, you know. Something marvelous
is going to happen. And he did it again, and
the boy sneezed seven times. I believe it says
seven times. And then he awoke and came back
from the dead. Eventually, at the close of his
ministry, Elisha died and he was buried in a
certain place. And sometime after that, A man
died and his friends were going to bury him and
they encountered a band of marauders from their
neighbors who were attacking them at that point.
And they had to get rid of the body quick and
so they just sort of dumped the body into the
sepulcher where Elisha's body was. And the Bible
says that when that man's body touched Elisha's
body that man was resurrected from the dead.
probably as a sign to the king that God was going
to give them victory in that time. You see resurrection
occurred in the Old Testament. Now, those people
resurrected died again. It was not a resurrection
in a body that would never die, but they were
brought back to life and then experienced ultimately
another death, physical death. But resurrection
was, on occasion, the experience of people in
the Old Testament. And then our Savior, of course,
spoke about resurrection as we have seen in John
chapter 5. Perhaps the most amazing statement
He ever made was there beside that tomb of His
friend Lazarus when He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He had said to Mary, do you believe
your brother will rise again? She believed in
the resurrection. She said, yes, Lord, at the
last day, you know, way yonder, down the road,
someday, He's going to rise again. And then Jesus
said to her, and it just sends chills through
my body to imagine Him saying this to her, resurrection
stands before you. I am the resurrection and
the life. He who believes in Me, though He were
dead. yet shall he live. He who lives and believes
in me shall never die." And then of course he
proved that he was resurrection life incarnate
by calling Lazarus forth from the grave. And
there were others that Jesus resurrected. Well
I want to spend the rest of our time tonight
thinking regarding our own resurrection from
the dead and the resurrection of those whom we
love and who have gone to be with Christ. I would
like for you to turn with me into the New Testament
first to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is often
called the resurrection chapter because it deals
with this doctrine of the resurrection. This
is a doctrine that has from the beginning been
under attack. from various quarters, and it's
under attack by those today who say that this
life is all there is. There isn't any more after
this. Now the apostle writes in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 that in fact this is not all there
is. He says in verse 20, but now Christ has been
raised from the dead, the first fruits of those
who are asleep. Now, first fruits is a term strange
to most of us, but it was very familiar to the
Jewish readers of Paul's epistle, the people
in that day. For the first fruits were the first
produce received from the fields. In the Jewish
offerings, these were a part of their sacrificial
system. The first fruits were offered to God.
And the reason that the first fruits were was
because this indicated that all the rest of the
harvest that was to come likewise belonged to
him. But the offerer was saying, God, you have
priority in my life. The very first of my field
I bring to you, though it represents it all.
Now what it says here is that the Lord Jesus
is the first fruits of those who are asleep.
Now that is a metaphor or picture of those who
have died in Christ. In other words, when He
was raised from the dead, He was raised on behalf
of, as representative of, all of those who die
in Him. He is, as the Ryrie Study Bible puts
it, the earnest or prototype of resurrections
to come. Now he goes on to say, for since by
a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam all die. We die because
of our sin, because of Adam's sin that brought
death to the human race. As in Adam all die,
so also in Christ all shall be made alive. Now,
I do not take that to mean that it means only
all believers shall be made alive, but in a broader
sense, even as the first part of the verse is
in a broader sense. For it is through Jesus Christ
that all will eventually be resurrected, some
to life and some to judgment. But each in his
own order Christ the firstfruits, number one.
After that, those who are Christ's at His coming,
then comes the end. Some people put that, then
come the end ones, those who are to be resurrected
following that, when He delivers up the kingdom
to God the Father, when He has abolished all
rule and all authority and power. Now the point
that we're making here is this. that the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ guarantees that every
person who has ever lived on the face of the
earth will one day stand before God in a resurrection.
Not all at the same time, as it makes it clear,
each in his own order or time. But eventually
all will stand before him resurrected. Now, Revelation
chapter 20, where we have spent a little bit
of time in recent weeks, elaborates a bit more
upon this matter of the future resurrection.
Would you turn there with me, but don't lose
1 Corinthians 15. We're coming back. Revelation
chapter 20. resurrections to come. There is what
is called the first resurrection as it is named
here. It is important to keep in mind that the
first resurrection, that of the righteous to
life, does not all take place at the same time.
In fact, there seem to be two phases of that
resurrection. First, there is the resurrection
of the dead in Christ in this age at the rapture
of the church. That's phase one of the first
resurrection. Phase two takes place a little
bit later, several years later, before the Lord
Jesus Christ begins his millennial reign. At
that time, all of the rest of the righteous dead
are raised. In the first phase only the church,
those who have died in Christ in this age, but
not the patriarchs, not the prophets, not the
godly people of the Old Testament, not even John
the Baptist. Those people will be resurrected
later, just prior to the initiation of the millennial
reign of Christ. It says in verse 4, And they
sat upon them, and judgment was given to them.
And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded
because of the testimony of Jesus, and because
of the word of God, and those who had not worshipped
the beast or his image, and had not received
the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand."
When you look at those phrases in verse 4, they
identify a particular group of people. That is,
those people who have died righteous as believers
in the tribulation period. Now it says about
them, and they came to life and reigned with
Christ for a thousand years. Now of course there
are those who allegorize this. who say that it
somehow represents spiritual resurrection, that
there's nothing literal to be taken here in these
verses. I strongly disagree with that. I believe
that a thousand years means a thousand years.
And that prior to that thousand year reign of
the Lord Jesus Christ, those righteous people
who have given their lives, who have died in
the tribulation period after the rapture of the
church now, They're not a part of the church,
but they are righteous people who died in the
tribulation period. They will be resurrected
to share in the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But this is where we also plug in the Old Testament
saints. David, for example, who was promised
that he would have a seed that would reign on
the throne after him. David and those of the
godly people of Israel. and the godly people
before Abraham, who were certainly not a part
of Israel but were godly people, they will be
resurrected at this time to be a part of the
millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then
it says in verse 5, the rest of the dead, who
are they? They are the unrighteous dead, the
lost, those who are in hell. He says the rest
of the dead did not come to life until the thousand
years were completed. This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in
the first resurrection. Over these the second
death has no power. But they will be priests
of God and of Christ and will reign with him
for a thousand years. Now, when that thousand
year reign of Christ has been consummated and
completed, there is again a rebellion on the
earth against the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going
to go into that in a later message, so I won't
say more about it now. That will be followed.
That will be followed by the resurrection of
those who are lost and the final judgment of
all of the unsaved of all time. They will be
resurrected not in a body like we will have,
like Christ's body, but nonetheless a body which
it would appear they will inhabit in their suffering
forever. For it says in verses 11 through 15
that they are brought before God, the dead, the
great, the small. Verse 12, standing before the
throne, the books were opened. And another book
was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the
dead were judged from the things which were written
in the books according to their deeds. This is
not believers now. This is not the church here.
This is not the righteous people of the Old Testament.
These are not the saved people of the tribulation
period. But these are the unsaved dead who are
now brought back to life for a period of time.
to be judged by God at what is called the great
white throne. And it says the sea gave up the
dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave
up the dead which were in them. And they were
judged, every one of them, according to their
deeds. Not to see if any of them might be saved.
That's not the purpose. But the purpose in view
here, sad as it is, is that their final determination
of suffering. might be measured. For you see
now the full impact of their ungodly lives can
be measured. Not until the end of time is their
judgment possible. God did not give Hitler his
final judgment when he committed suicide in that
bunker in 1945. Hitler, because of his wickedness,
is in hell tonight. That person is there in suffering.
But he will be brought back to stand before God
at this second resurrection. And the purpose
will be to fully measure the evil and the wickedness
of his life as it has been carried down through
the generations since he died. And on that day,
when he is brought back to life and along with
him all of the unsaved, the full measurement,
the full weight of their sin will be measured.
And then their judgment will be meted out. And
it says, Death and Hades were thrown into the
lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake
of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written
in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake
of fire. And that is the second death. Thank
God that the second death has no power over any
of his. We are forever delivered from that judgment.
But oh, the awful fate awaiting those who are
outside of Jesus Christ and who die lost and
apart from Him. Now would you go back with me
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 as we bring the message
to a close because one of the questions that
often is asked is what kind of a body will my
loved one have? What kind of a body will I have
in the resurrection? What will I look like? Are
there some changes you want to make? Well, I
think all of us could probably suggest some changes
that we'd like to see. In 1 Corinthians chapter
15, the Apostle Paul gives us some answers which
are very tantalizing to our imagination. I begin
in verse 35. But someone will say, how are the
dead raised? And with what kind of body? Do they
come? You fool! That which you sow does not come
to life unless it dies. And that which you sow,
you do not sow the body which is to be, but a
bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something
else." What he is saying here, he's going to
agriculture, and he says, look, when you are
going to plant wheat, you don't plant the wheat
stalk, you plant just the bare grain. You put
that in the ground, that grain dies, it germinates,
and it brings forth a stalk. Now it comes from
that seed, but it's a plant. It's the same thing,
but it's different. It's not identical to what
you put in the ground, but it's identifiable.
You planted a wheat seed, now a wheat stalk comes
forth from that. So it's not exactly the same.
But it's identifiable as the same, the same thing.
He says, but God gives it a body just as He wished,
and to each of the seeds a body of its own. All
flesh is not the same flesh. There is one flesh
of men, another of beasts, and another flesh
of birds, and another of fish. A good piece of
chicken does not taste like walleye. And a beef
steak doesn't taste like a pork roast. He's saying
God has given different flesh to different animals.
All flesh is not the same, though it's flesh.
And he says there are also heavenly bodies and
earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly
is one and the glory of the earthly is another.
There is one glory of the sun. Another glory
of the moon, another glory of the stars, for
stars differ from stars. A star differs from
star in glory, so also is the resurrection of
the dead. And now he uses some couplets which
help us get a better handle. He says, it is sown,
that is the body, it is sown a perishable body.
It is raised an imperishable body. Our present
body is perish. Our present bodies are subject
to constant change and decay, as we said this
morning, the wrinkles that come to us. But he
says the resurrection body is a permanent body.
It is changed once and for all, our bodies, to
be like Christ's body, an incorruptible, imperishable
body. incorruption or imperishable means, not
capable of deterioration. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ was raised from the dead 2 ,000 years
ago. If He were to stand here before us tonight
and manifest Himself in His resurrection body,
He would not look one whit different than He
did 2 ,000 years ago. For that body does not
age, it does not decay or deteriorate. It is
an imperishable body, it is permanent, unlike
the bodies we have now. He goes on to say, it
is sawn in dishonor, it is raised in glory. Now
God honored our bodies originally with His image,
but that image was marred by the fall into sin.
No longer do our present bodies fully reflect
God's glory, nor can we appreciate God's glory
in our present bodies. Our bodies at the present
time are dishonorable bodies in that sense. It
does not mean that our bodies are sinful. But
the honor that our bodies once knew before the
fall into sin is no longer there. But, he says,
that body, the resurrection body, will perfectly
reflect God's glory and we'll be able to appreciate
it perfectly because it is raised in glory. He
says it is sown in weakness. Our present body
is limited. And the way we treat it sometimes
can cause it to be even more weak than it might
be. And that weakness that we have and which
grows culminates ultimately in physical death.
I suppose that most of us have at some time seen
a body in a casket, perhaps even before the body
has been taken by an undertaker. I remember one
time being called at the church office in Kentucky
and being told that one of our members had just
died. His son had been taking a nap, his son
was a teenager, had been taking a nap in another
room and walked back in the living room and there
sat his father in the chair as though he were
still watching television, but he was gone. And
when I went, there this gentleman sat in the
chair just like he was asleep there, but completely
weak. He was gone. The body is weak. It is sown
in weakness. And ultimately, the hands are folded
across the chest in weakness. But the resurrection
body, it says, is raised in power. That resurrection
body, as I suggested this morning, is not dependent
upon food or exercise or sleep. It's capable,
I suppose, of all of those things. But it's not
dependent upon them. That resurrection body is
not subject to natural laws. like our present
body. They are material bodies, flesh and bone,
Jesus said, but they are bodies which can dissolve
into thin air and disappear at the same time.
Our present bodies are sown in the grave in weakness.
They collapse. But the resurrection body is a
body of eternal power and energy. And then he
says, It is sown a natural body, but raised a
spiritual body. The word natural here is the
Greek word suke, which is the soul. In other
words, our present body is centered around our
soul, that part of us that responds to our environment,
the emotions, the intellect, the will. Our present
body responds to the desires of the soul. That
body will be a body that will be primarily focused
around and responsive to our spirit. I am making
a distinction between soul and spirit here, though
that is difficult to do. But that spirit of us
is that God -conscious part, that part of us
that can know God, the part that is dead in the
center. that comes to life in regeneration. The
resurrection body will not be a body that is
primarily focused upon that soulish part of us,
but rather upon the spiritual part of us. It
will be a vessel in which the Spirit dominates.
It will be a body made to perfectly serve God.
And now he goes on to say, so it is written,
the first man, Adam, became a living soul. Here
he goes back to quote from Genesis chapter 2.
But notice he says, the last Adam, who is that?
Well, that's Christ. The last Adam became a life
-giving spirit. Notice the first Adam became
a living soul himself. But the last Adam, Jesus
Christ, is life -giving. He has power. He is
the one who will give us this new body. He says,
however, the spiritual is not first, but the
natural. Then the spiritual. In other words,
Adam came first and then Christ. The first man
is from the earth. What was Adam made of? Therefore
he's earthly. The second man is from heaven.
That's Christ. As is the earthy, so also are
those who are earthy. Now that's all of us. in
the physical sense. But he says, as is the heavenly,
so also are those who are heavenly. That's not
everybody, but that's believers. In other words,
one day we will be like him, the second man from
heaven. He goes on to say, and just as we have
borne the image of the earthy, that is Adam's
image, we also shall bear the image of the heavenly,
Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse 50, and
this is one verse that has meant a great deal
to me in the last six weeks, now I say this,
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. Neither does the perishable
inherit the imperishable. You know what? You're
never going to get to heaven the way you are,
and neither am I. Something has to happen to
us, either physical death and then resurrection,
or the change that will take place at the rapture,
which he described as beginning in verse 51.
Something must happen to the body in which you
and I live, for it is like that grain of wheat
that is bare and alone. Something has to happen
to change it. so that that body can appreciate
heaven. Something has to change us so that we
will be incorruptible and imperishable. This
flesh and blood that you and I live in now will
never walk the streets of gold. We only walk
asphalt and cement and earth, but never gold.
Because we have to have a body like Christ's.
a body of glory, a spiritual body, to enjoy the
kingdom of God. And that is, my friend, the destiny
of every one of us who knows Jesus Christ. We
will have a body in the resurrection that can
fully enjoy all that God has prepared for those
who love Him. How can we go to the graveside
and place into the ground the body of someone
that we love? How can we there at that graveside
sing hymns of hope and assurance? How can we
gather together in a funeral service or a memorial
service and celebrate We can do that because
that one to whom we have said goodbye Will be
seen again You say well if it's not going to
be exactly the same body Will I know my loved
one? absolutely When you plant a grain of corn
in the ground Do you know that that's a corn
stalk when it comes up you identify it don't
you or wheat? Likewise, that body that you have
as it were planted in the grave, though it will
be changed, it will not be identically the same
body, it will be identifiable in some way as
exactly the same person that you knew and loved
here in this world. After I got back from the
trip that we took last month to bury my mother,
Hugo Hegstrom stopped by one day at the office.
I think most of you know Hugo, or at least you've
seen him here. He is the gentleman who comes
wheeling his wife in the wheelchair. They sit
right down here on Sunday mornings. By the way,
when I think about a husband who loves his wife,
I don't know of a better example than that gentleman
and the love that he has shown her in the two
and a half years since her incapacitating stroke.
But he'll go stop by to see me at the office.
And we chatted for a while. And he said, I want
to tell you about my mother. And he told me how
many years it had been since she passed away.
She was a wonderful Christian. And he said, you
know, my mother was lying on her deathbed. And
we all knew the time was short. The children
were all gathered around. And he said she was
restless. She had to get up and then she got
back in bed, though she was very weak, had to
have help. And he said she just seemed to be
slipping slowly and slowly and slowly away. And
all of a sudden, he said, she began to have strength.
And looking, he said, with open eyes, beyond
us who were standing there at the bedside. She
exclaimed, the Lord is coming, the Lord is coming.
And she slept and was gone. I can't tell you
how that comforted my soul, him sharing that
experience. That doesn't happen too often anymore
because people are so often sedated by medication
at that point. I could only imagine what my mother
experienced in that instant when the coronary
called her out of her body. And then Hugo told
me about his grandmother. He said, my grandmother
likewise was on her deathbed. And my mother and
others, he said, were gathered around her. This
was many years ago now. And he said, as she was
fading, she suddenly picked up a towel that was
on the bed. And she began waving it. Now you
may wonder what that's all about, but the older
people here know that that's how you used to
wave hello to people. In fact, if you've been
in Europe, along the line that divides East and
West,