Thursday 19 July 2012

Another Funeral address

The tiny community of King Island has has a spate of recent deaths of King Islanders or people who have lived and worked on the Island for some time.  At last cound 14 in the past 6 week.  I have given gospel presentations, encouraged the people to consider there own mortality.  This one I thought needed tio be particularly about comfort.

Comfort:
We have been hearing people speak this afternoon of Graham and how special a person he was.  Visiting Jenny and her family on Monday morning I saw a home full of photos of family.  I heard stories of the bonds between Graham and his siblings, his friends, his children and his grandchildren.  Jenny although still in a state of shock at the suddenness of her Graham’s death, told me just as I was leaving what privilege it had been to be part of Graham’s life and family for the 42 years of their marriage. 

Some of the words I remember Jenny using ... he and his brothers got on so well ... a gentleman ... he didn’t swear ... loved his family ... so many friends ... lots of interests ... everyone will want to say farewell.

·        But many of you didn’t get that chance to say that final farewell.  Graham’s death was so quick, so unexpected.  
·        That is just one of the reasons funerals are so important. They give us the opportunity to say our goodbyes.   
·        And comfort each other in our shared grief.
God’s comfort in our time of grieving.
This afternoon I want to offer what I hope are a few words of comfort.  They come from the Bible.
God cares for us all ... he weeps when we weep.
Comfort, Comfort my people says your God.  Speak tenderly to them  ... Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

I said a moment ago I wanted to offer you some words of comfort.  Three words in fact ... Hesed ... Shalom ... and grace.
Hesed.
Is a Hebrew word the Bible translates in a few different ways.  The unfailing love of God; the never ending love of God; the special unchangeable love of God towards his people.
It is the love that God has for us that can never be taken away, that can be depended on at all times.  It is about the God who is always there.
When everyone else is busy, he is listening.

When we wake lonely in the middle of the night and long for someone to talk with; cry with or shout our pain too; Hesed is the promise that God will be there when you need him.

Shalom
Shalom is another Hebrew word that holds the promise of comfort.  Shalom again has several expressions of meaning.  It is about peace with God and from God that results in wellbeing, safety, prosperity and completeness.

Shalom is peace that comes from God.  Knowing God cares for us, it about knowing that despite how we may be feeling today that the sun will rise tomorrow morning because God is in absolute control of the universe.  That God is the almighty, all-powerful creator but at the same time is the God who is watching over us, living with us and is here now weeping beside us today.

·        Shalom gives rise to peace of mind in the midst of our sorrow and grief.  It helps us trust there will come a time when life will resume.  That the pain you presently feel  will not last forever; there will be a time when you will be able to remember Graham not with sorrow or a tear, but  gladness and a smile as his memory brings back the joys you have shared with him

The third word is Grace.

Grace is a key attribute of God.  Grace means God is merciful, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and graciousness.  Grace is always associated with mercy, compassion, and patience as the source of help and deliverance in our distress.

Grace is the reason Jesus became a human person just like us.  He experienced the pain of seeing people he loved die, his earthly father Joseph, his cousin John the Baptist and his  close friend Lazarus.

·        God has been in the same place you are now, he knows what it is like to lose someone you love dearly.

·        Grace means that God will listen if you call to God for help, and that God knows your pain because he has felt it too.

Friday 6 July 2012

A funeral address

I had to take a funeral yesterday for someone I got to know reasonably well in the two years i have been on King Island.  I always find funeral services particularly difficult.  I want to comfort those there, but I also want people to think about their own mortality.
This is the address I gave yesterday.

Today is a sad occasion it is Ken’s funeral.  For many of us on King Island, Ken was a long time resident and involved in many Island organisations ... a very well known and respected member of our little community ... for others Ken was a good friend and mate; someone whose company and friendship will be missed .   For his family he was Dad, grandfather, uncle or cousin; someone who was loved deeply and who will go on being remembered and missed for as long as you live.
 We are here today to share our grief and support each other through that sorrow.   Death is painful, it is not something we like to dwell on but lately it has been unavoidable.  Someone said to me when they heard Ken had passed away that he is the 10th person they knew with King Island connections to have died in the last couple of months.  Poet John Donne wrote ...
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
As well as any manner of thy friend or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Death diminishes us, the death of someone we know changes us.
I have usually taken scripture classes in most of the places I have worked.  In my last place, Norfolk Island I had most of the children in the local school at some time over the four years I was there.
Classes often said ... “Why do we have to waste time doing this when we should be doing something important like maths or science?
The last year I was there was very different.  During the school holidays the brother of one of the boys in the class I was to take died in very tragic circumstances a few days before the first lesson.  So instead of the lesson I had prepared we spent the time letting them express how they were feeling and trying to answer any questions as best I could that they had about death when they asked.
I prepared the next weeks scripture lesson but the week before had raised more feelings and more questions for the class so we spent that lessons as well looking at the possibilities of what might happen after death, what other people and faiths taught  and when they wanted to know, I told them what I believed.   Over the next weeks we looked at life’s other big questions: why are we here?  What did they really want from their lives?  How would you know if you had wasted your life? 
Six months later one of the boys (as 6th class boys will) started mucking up.  I did not get a chance  to do or say a thing because one of the other boys got up told him to be quiet ... “the stuff we were talking about was really important.”
What we believe about life and death if we stop and take the time to consider it properly, is important.  When we look at the possibility of our own mortality it can change our priorities, it can sort out what is really important to from what is not.
It can help us face our death and can give comfort when we mourn the death of someone we love dearly.
I believe that the grave is not the end.  We are all made to live beyond the grave.  All the major faiths share that belief in common but they do not all agree on what that life is like, or how you get to enjoy it.
For me I believe we receive that life as a gift from God through faith in Jesus Christ, who lived, died, rose from the dead and showed himself to hundreds of witnesses as proof of who he was and that life is eternal.
We all have to make up our own minds what we believe.  Today I want to encourage you to take that question seriously and not just brush it off as of no importance.  Ask yourself what do  you believe happens after death? and What evidence do you have for believing it?
Can you face your own mortality with confidence?
... any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.And therefore never send for whom the bell tolls; for tomorrow it may toll for thee.