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This is the story that arises in our lives.  Not what we have done to impress our world.  But what God has done to bring us into the “next world.”

I say this because I’m living most often these days among those who are older and soon to be stripped of life in this world.  I buried an 83 year old today.  I visited a 99 year old recently.

Our talk is not of changing our world.  Our talk is of a world to come, of the aches and pains of this world, of family and friends whose situations in this world are a concern to them.

Seems to me that life is best described as God working in and through us.  The more we let him sway our thinking and actions, the more we come aboard His desires and direction.

Bluntly put, and without a desire to become fatalistic, God will do what God purposes.

Coming on board with God means that I get to partner with God in the happenings around me.  And nothing could be better than that.  I purpose to shine light on God and God then shines light on me.  Pride of life has nothing to do with who I am, and everything to do with who God is.

A slight reversal to how our world views life.

But then, I’ve always been one who saw life from upside down!!

There is a certain place in life where life on earth is no more.  For those past saints (and sinners), life is in a new format.  And, in Christian Theology, a new body and new format of life is yet to come.  In between there is a blessed time together with Jesus, but certainly a longing for a reunion with both others and our bodies.

That is the type of thought that makes a Sunday funeral worth considering.  For the years  of my ministry and time involved in the church, I can’t remember going to a Sunday funeral. 

Today, in a sense, is a new beginning for me.  I will conduct a funeral service where we will inter a body in the ground with a sense that on resurrection day, that person will have a new body.

This is all based on the resurrection of Jesus – celebrated each Sunday in our services.  While other faiths may concentrate on a Friday or Saturday or another day of the week (and our own Christian writers tell us to be sure we don’t turn the day of the week into an idol), Christians use Sunday to remind us that Christ is risen.

And because he is risen, we too have a confident hope that we will arise to a reunion with Christ and others. 

A great message for a funeral service taking place this afternoon.  I’m looking forward to this!!

Today we leave for a reunion.  Of family.

Family I don’t really know.  In remarrying, I also married into a whole new family.

The other day someone asked how you know that you are family.  Their answer had to do with sitting around a table, eating and talking deep.

I see and understand that approach, particularly for a church family.

But in this case there is a different branch to the family.

I have chosen to be a part of “family”.  Without ever meeting all the family.  But having met one of the family and become deeply committed to that person.  Now I am meeting more and more of the family.  Some of them are great – in fact, I couldn’t have chosen a better group.  Some are living with physical sickness – I understand their toils. 

And today I meet more.  I imagine some will be very likeable, others perhaps less so.  That is not the question of whether they are family.

They are. 

The question really flows back to me.  Am I willing to be family to them?  Because I have committed to this family, the answer is “yes”. 

YES – with great joy!  And perhaps, YES – with a push.

But definitely YES!

I have been visiting a parishioner for the last few days in the hospital.

Yesterday was one of those days where the end is approaching.  So later in the evening I dropped in to the hospital.  Some of the family were standing by the bed.  I chatted with them and prayed for them.

These days are not unlike days from the not too distant past when my wife passed away.  You hear the same breathing and gurgling.  You sense the effort that is required to stay alive.  And you know a passing to another place is imminent.

Although the family was somewhat reluctant to have me pass through those same circumstances again, they were also glad to have me there.   And perhaps that is the point of the scripture that tells us we can comfort those with the comfort with which we have been comforted.

And so, my days will be filled with activity in this next little while.  A part of that activity will be “paying it forward”.  And I thank God for the strength and the comfort that He has given.  May God comfort this family in like measure.