In recent months I have attended more than a few funerals and sent numerous notes of condolence. It is always a tender moment and a holy privilege. We’ve lost longtime ministers, elders and members of congregations. Some have lived long lives; others were taken too soon; all are deeply missed. Colleagues have lost parents, spouses, and children. We’ve all lost friends.
I’ve quoted the American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp in the pages of the Record before: “Life is short. Even in its longest days.” Contrary to what the movies and the media tell us, death does not take a holiday.
Death stirs up many emotions. Whenever I prepare to preach at a funeral, or attend a memorial service, I often find my thoughts moving in different directions, swirling really.
First, I feel grief. Sometimes it is my own deep pain for the loss of someone I knew, loved and respected. Sometimes it is the pain I feel for the family and friends of those left behind. In all cases, I feel sorrow for the loss.
Second, I feel gratitude. In prayer and reflection, I find myself thanking God for the person whose life we are celebrating. Every life is a gift from God. No one should die alone. All should know that they are beloved children of God.
Lately I’ve been especially grateful for a generation of men and women who have been the heart and soul of the Presbyterian Church in Canada for the past 60 or 70 years. I’ve stood at hospital bedsides and been to funerals of people who have given and prayed and worked sacrificially for decades. Now in their 80s and 90s, these folks have served the Lord in their time. To that generation, the living and the dead, I say, “thank you.” You are to be celebrated. We have a goodly heritage (Psalm 16:6).
Thirdly, I feel grace. Grace is unmerited favour. It is a sense of being loved and accepted apart from anything I have done or not done. It is coming to realize that life is a gift. I did not have to be here; but I am.
Grace enables me to embrace the gift of life, even though it often seems so short and fragile and random. Grace empowers me to use that gift for the glory of God. Grace fills me with faith in the risen and ascended Christ, and with hope in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
Yes, death becomes us all. But thanks be to God, because not even death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
P.S. I am writing this column on Wednesday, March 13, the day Pope Francis was elected. Let us pray for him and for our sisters and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church, that they may be given grace to bear witness to Christ, and that we all may be one.
Yours in faith, hope and love,
John Vissers
