thoughts on funerals

I conducted one funeral and attended another last week.  The first was a request by a friend from church who's mother passed away up in Casper, Wyoming.  The family no longer has ties with any church up there, so they asked if someone from our church could drive up to Casper (5 hours) to conduct the funeral... so I went.  It was my first funeral as a pastor, which was a surprise for some.  Even though I worked as a missionary for over 20 years, I was never in a situation that required me to marry or bury.  In our 10 years in France our local church never lost a church member, nor did we have anyone get married - otherwise I would have certainly been involved in the ceremonies.  Anyway, I wasn't too nervous about doing this funeral since I knew it would be a small crowd of mostly family members.  Michael gave me some good tips before I left, and I went up the night before so I could spend some time with the family members to find out what their desires were for the service.  Have you ever noticed how weddings and funerals tend to bring out either the best and the worst in people?  Ironically, neither ceremony has anything to do with those in attendance, but family members can get so bent out of shape because they want to push THEIR agenda on everyone else.  In the end, all four siblings shared a favorite memory of their mother, and I spoke for MAYBE 10 minutes.  I decided beforehand that there's nothing worse than long-winded preachers at weddings and funerals, so I kept it short and sweet.

Then two days ago was the memorial service for the Chief of one of our local fire stations who died after battling brain cancer for two years.  I've never attended a firefighter's funeral, and I was deeply moved by the ringing of the bell (to signal a fallen comrade) and the Final Call - the last moment of the memorial service when the county dispatch makes a call (through the church sound system) to the deceased firefighter's number.  There is a moment of silence, then the call is repeated... again followed by silence. Finally the county dispatch says something like, "This is the final call for 501 Chief Jeff Davis - faithful husband, father and friend.  Chief Davis, you will be dearly missed."  I didn't personally know the Chief, but I got tears in my eyes when I heard these words.  Powerful symbolism, and a fitting memorial for a man who served his community well.