A Thought About Funerals

A typical service in a Christian church has two main parts of the program: A time of musical worship, and a time for a sermon to be preached. Worship followed by learning, adoration leading to instruction.

This order enables the congregation to first focus on God and their relationship with Him. The sermon that follows can then be engaged with in a good frame of mind, in a more accurate sense of context. Worship enables me to momentarily break the habit of focusing on myself, of placing myself at the centre of the universe, and instead focus on God, placing Him in the centre of everything. When biblical teaching is received, we should first apply it to our relationship or understanding of God, and only to mankind after this. Worship could be said in this way to not only provide an accurate context for any sermon, but for any part of our daily lives.

If a typical church service consists of worship and then practical application, then I propose that funeral services are the reverse of this.

A funeral service begins with focus on the soul who has left the life they had on this earth. It is the late individual, not a shared belief, that first draws all of the attendees to this event. But as the event explores the memories left by a single lifetime, it may then progress to placing them in the larger picture.

This could be seen in comments such as those that say a person has left an enduring legacy, or that they have changed the world in a significant way. Or, more likely, it could be seen in a religious service where a small sermon comments that the individual has now joined the many who are closer to God than ourselves, and that God has brought this person to their true home. This in turn reminds us that we all share the hope for this return home, and to be reconnected with our creator. A focus on the individual turns to a focus on the larger reality of God and His love that stretches past our own death. What a source of hope and joy!

So a funeral service first focuses on the immediate, on practical application, and then progresses onto awe, adoration, and potentially worship. In one sense, death turns out to be no different from life, in that it can direct our attention towards God.

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