Harold Graves. Lyn Elder. Esther Peterson.
I was going through some stacks of papers today, and I just happened on my funeral files. It turns out that I have a file for every funeral I have ever officiated. Just in case I need to move anytime soon, I'm trying to get organized. And part of that organization requires that I go through my old files.
Winona Mischley. Mary Lynn Schweiter. Lee Oei.
I counted the files as I looked through each one. Seventy-three funerals. Some were memorial times for dear, dear friends. Sometimes I didn't know very well the people who had died, but I had some connection with a family member. Sometimes the funerals were for my own family members. But every funeral service was an opportunity to tell yet another story and to lean once again on God's grace and God's presence.
Benjamin Perkins. Phyllis Starr. Lois Elder.
I did my first funeral before I had even become an honest to goodness pastor. Technically, I was interim pastor at the time. Not too many years before, I had taken the ministry course at the seminary that allowed us to visit funeral homes and talk about memorial services. As I recall, we even had a tour of the "back part" of the funeral home and we saw where things happen that nobody talks about. Now, just a short time later, I was serving a church and a woman in the church happened to die. I assumed that some of the older seminary professors who were in the church would step in and take a leadership role, but they deferred to me. I might have been the interim pastor, but I was just a child. But there I was doing the funeral for a lovely ninety-two-year-old woman named Peggy Clausen. I remember learning a lot that day.
Laura Lewis. Elva Stricker. June Mendel.
Shortly after becoming an honest to goodness pastor, another person in the church died. Cliff Reiquam. I was actually with him in the hospital room when he died. His wife had stepped out to get some rest, and that's the moment he chose to die. I'd like to tell you that being there when it happened didn't really affect me, but that wouldn't be true. I was new in the ministry then, but I remember thinking in that moment that my life would probably put me in places where very few other people would frequent. And that's not a complaint. As hard as some of those places are, they are also some of the holiest places I've ever known.
Larry Price. Dagmar Svensson. Shirley Harrop.
There are so many different ways that people die. Of my seventy-three funerals, there have been many stories of simple old age. There has certainly been disease. There have been a number of suicides. A few car accidents. Only one plane crash that I can recall. Most of the people were on the older side of life, but quite a few of the people were remarkably young. Some seemed completely ready for the end, while others hadn't yet realized that there was an end. Some died with all kinds of unfulfilled dreams, while others would have told us that they were content and satisfied.
Paul Gay. John Hamarstrom. Paul Mason.
It dawns on me today what an honor it is to be in the storytelling business. I'm not about to claim that every one of my seventy-three deserves the title of "great." But I will say this: many of them - no, most of them - do deserve that title. And yes, I realize that it's not up to me to give that title. Still, as the one who often pieces the story together, I've run across some incredible lives - lives marked by grace and courage and faith and sacrifice. And when the time comes, it is a holy privilege to stand up and tell stories like those. I have been blessed in my ministry to be able to tell so many stories of the great ones.
Frieda Graves. Kay Barry. Ruby Towles.
Naturally, most of us would rather just avoid the whole world of funerals. It's that simple. And who could argue with that? But if we were really to do that, all those great stories might simply be lost. And we cannot really afford to let that happen. After all, when we find ourselves in the presence of the great ones, somebody needs to tell their stories.
Dorice Steffen. Jesse Stricker. Cora Caldwell.