First Funeral

Earlier in the week I officiated my first funeral. Mrs. Ludella Evans died on Sunday evening and Forest and I performed both the memorial and graveside services.

As I thought through what I would say I remembered a Charlie Johnson, now pastor at Trinity Baptist in San Antonio, telling about his first funeral in a sermon a few years back. I thumbed through my Charlie Johnson tape collection and found the one I was looking for. "The Death of Death" was the title. I drove around all Wednesday morning listening to Charlie tell about going to his seminary professor's office and sobbing belligerently in the face of such a humbling task. My eyes teared up and a lump filled my throat. What was I going to say to that family?

Instead of tenderly encouraging Charlie as might have been expected, that seminary professor got up from his chair, walked over to Charlie and sternly said, "Listen here young man. Stop your crying. You are going to go and tell that family that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead because that is the ministry and the message that we have been entrusted with and that is the message we must proclaim."

Indeed it is the message we have been entrusted with. And for that trust I am deeply humbled...