Monthly Archives: December 2017

I was asked by a friend on Facebook – “What are your thoughts about cremation?”  Here is the thread!

Ron Baker First, my own personal experience includes cremation. When Jill donated her body to the University for anatomy students to study, the remains were cremated. Her remains are currently in a columbarium here in Kindersley. I will be buried there with her (which means I will be cremated).

Ron Baker Second, I do not find in Scripture a convincing argument for what we call a traditional burial – but there are strong indicators that this was a prevalent form of burial. There are bones that are transported at a later date/time. Funeral fires are mentioned (this may or may not be cremation). There is certainly a tradition of burial in a tomb or a special place (which would indicate a traditional burial). We also hear of the stench of the grave (again, traditional burial). Meanwhile, people are burned in buildings – what happens to their remains?

Ron Baker Third, the culture can and should influence our methods of burial. My pastoral friends who do not condone cremation have a good point. In our culture (Western) we consider bodies to be throw aways! We lack a sense of the sanctity of life. In the final burial of the body they are both honoring the body in death as in life and they will make sure that someone is with the body or has care for the body right to the final accompaniment of that body to the final resting place (and remaining until the burial has been completed). This can signal strongly the sanctity of life in death.

Ron Baker Fourth, I do not think that God condemns us for either choosing a traditional burial or cremation. I do think that we can make a statement about life with our burial. Feel free to be a rebel and choose a cause to represent in your burial. If you don’t the people around you will. In my daily readings I just finished the burial of Jehoram – a not great king! Here is the reading I was looking at (NLT): "Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. No one was sorry when he died. They buried him in the City of David, but not in the royal cemetery."

Ron Baker Oh, and I have a book I’m currently working on about a funeral director called THE DIE RECTOR. I’ll touch on some of these thoughts in the book – more from a story line than a systematic theology approach.

For a few weeks I have reflected on the pall used at funerals.

In my church tradition, there never was a pall place over a coffin.  You got to see the full glory of the coffin, or its paucity.  I have never been one to really notice – especially since in a short while the coffin will be covered in dirt and no one will care.

But often someone does care.  Greedy funeral homes will want you to buy an expensive casket – your loved one deserves it.  Families will look for a sturdy and air tight coffin.   Some will want the impression the loved one carried during their life reflected in their coffin.

Until you arrive in a church where the coffin is draped in a pall prior to the service and during the service. 

The pall is “a fine cloth” “often velvet for spreading over the coffin.”

In many ways this makes us all equal in death.  The pall is the property of the church where the loved is memorialized and the funeral service takes place.  Regardless of who you are, your coffin will appear the same as the previous coffin, and the same as at the next funeral.

Not a bad symbol of unity, regardless of how diverse a congregation may be.

I’m involved in two funerals this week.

We say that you can’t take anything with you when you die – there are no U-Hauls behind the hearse.  Most of us do want to leave something behind of ourselves.  Something of lasting value.  Something that will be remembered.

But can we?

Our earthly legacy is only as good as its promoters.

I remember one man telling me that eternal life for him was his children.  What happens when they all die out – or are wiped out in a tragedy?  What about the pyramids?  One bomb could level that in seconds.  How about great ideas that you patent or inventions you make?  Archives can be lost and inventions bested.

In the end, true legacy must rest in eternity.  A beacon that points to eternity, from your life, reaps reward.