tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post6778815386543543657..comments2024-03-27T15:47:46.091-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: I want you to cry at my funeral. . .Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-78331076489199478582014-08-17T18:09:56.759-05:002014-08-17T18:09:56.759-05:00We are dealing with this very problem at this very...We are dealing with this very problem at this very moment, right across the street from my home. My neighbor died this past Friday, and he was a long time Anglican. His surviving wife is a Baptist, and she cannot comprehend the idea of an Anglican funeral according to the Book of Common Prayer. <br /><br />Not only the wife, but all the surviving family, through about 4 generations, are Baptists. They were entirely bent out of shape yesterday when my neighbor's priest told them that they would not be permitted to sing some sappy little song about rainbows and butterflies at the funeral. They are saying, "well, that would never be a problem at a Baptist funeral," and they are probably correct. It has causes a lot of unhappiness and bitterness with the family, and it is sad to watch.<br /><br />This is a well written piece, and I will save it for future reference.<br /><br />Fr. D+<br />Anglican PriestAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-43107550189052388052014-08-17T15:27:12.546-05:002014-08-17T15:27:12.546-05:00John Flanagan: indeed flesh and blood have not rev...John Flanagan: indeed flesh and blood have not revealed this to you but our Heavenly Father, through our dear Lord Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit!<br />Peace and Joy!<br />George A. Marquart<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-18700213815987460772014-08-17T15:24:17.642-05:002014-08-17T15:24:17.642-05:00I am not sure that “so that you may not grieve as ...I am not sure that “so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope,” means that St. Paul “expects” us to grieve. The sentence permits an interpretation to the effect that “we should not grieve at all, as do those who have no hope.”<br />A peculiar thing happens in Philippians. In 1:21, St. Paul writes, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain,” and in 1:23, “my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better…” But in 2:25, he seems to change his mind when it comes to Epaphroditus, “25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, 26 for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.” Suddenly not taking Epaphroditus to heaven is “God having mercy on him.” And St. Paul would have had “sorrow upon sorrow” had Epaphroditus died. How do you explain that? Is one St. Paul the Theologian and the other St. Paul the human being? I don’t know.<br />The long and the short of it is that when we Christians grieve at the death of another Christian, we grieve for our loss, for ourselves. As such it is a selfish action, one which our Lord would not succumb to. But just because we cannot help doing it makes it no less a sin. The Good News is that our Lord even forgives those sins which we do not think are sins.<br />Peace and Joy!<br />George A. Marquart<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-42874002399205038682014-08-17T14:54:22.676-05:002014-08-17T14:54:22.676-05:00I worked as a national cemetery representative for...I worked as a national cemetery representative for two years 2006-2008 in NY. It was a job I acquired after retiring from a civil service job I had done for 34 years. I worked for the national cemetery overseeing interments, leading funeral processions to grave sites and moving families through the ceremonial military colors and religious prayers. I probably was present at about 2000 burials, and heard the short eulogies of ordinary people grieving in their own tearful farewells for their loved ones. I heard the often scripted prayers of clergy assuring the family members that their loved one was now in Heaven. As a born again Christian, I often felt that some of the tears shed could well be in grief for the ones who did not know The Lord, cared not for grace, for Christ, for the redemption He bought with His blood, nor...to be honest....probably did not desire to be with Him in eternal life. We do not know who is saved and who is finally lost, yet we often give others the benefit of the doubt, conscious of our own unworthiness. As for me, I do not wish tears of grief upon my death, but tears of joy only, and let my epitaph be simply "He was a sinner saved by grace, and he is at home with The Lord."John Joseph Flanaganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06596324816480709495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-74241046353755256172014-08-17T13:49:55.454-05:002014-08-17T13:49:55.454-05:00In 1 Thessalonians 4:13,Paul is speaking to Christ...In 1 Thessalonians 4:13,Paul is speaking to Christians worried about saints already asleep. He expects them (and therefore ourselves) to grieve, but not as those without hope. Whether Jesus grieved or raged at Lazarus' funeral is not an indicative, but a narrative account. Paul is speaking to Christians in his letter, and is asking/telling them not to grieve as non-Christians do, but with the assurance and confidence of Christ's promise to ressurect us.Janis Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02947508427040251166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-72983430761442401792014-08-17T08:24:19.062-05:002014-08-17T08:24:19.062-05:00What happens to us when we grieve for a loved one ...What happens to us when we grieve for a loved one who has died is laden with so much emotion that even Christians loose sight of what is right and proper. I remember when I first heard the song, “Take Me”, from Les Misérables, when Jean Valjean asks God to take him instead of the gravely wounded Marius. Was Jean Valjean willing to take the punishment of going to heaven in place of his daughter’s friend? I had not so learned Christ.<br />Both among the Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Lutherans it is a popular belief that our Lord grieved for his friend, Lazarus, when Scripture records that He wept. There are two verbs which describe our Lord’s emotions in the verse just preceding the one that says He wept. I have looked at every occurrence of these verbs, ἐμβριμάομαι and ταράσσω, in the NT (something that is easy to do today, using Strong’s Concordance online), and I find not a single instance in which these words mean or imply “grieving”. If anything, ἐμβριμάομαι implies anger or indignation.<br />Our Lord did not give any signs of grieving for several days, knowing that His friend was dead. Why should He suddenly succumb to grief a few minutes before resurrecting Lazarus? We should remember that this entire sequence of events is not about Lazarus, his sisters, the Jews or the mourners. Our Lord tells us what it is all about two days before He decided to walk to Bethany, by which time Lazarus was already dead for two days. John 11:4, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Then, just before raising Lazarus, He said, John 11:41, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that You sent me.” Grieving is not part of the equation here.<br />Our Lord wept because He knew He would bring suffering to His friend; He was going to bring him back from the place of eternal bliss into, quite literally, the vale of tears. The Gospel turns our reality and our fundamental beliefs upside down. This becomes clear when, on the evening of His own death, our Lord told His Apostles, John 14:28. “… if you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father …” But the fact is that we are incapable of loving “the Lord our God with all your heart and with all our soul and with all our might,” and therefore we grieve. <br />The time of death is a somber time. I cannot see myself urging people to celebrate the occasion, even though I know that the Orthodox requiem is more of a celebration than a ceremony of grieving. In Russian one “sings off” the dearly departed. But grief is a sign of our sinful nature, because, if we believe what our Christian faith teaches, the saint who has departed is vastly better off than he was here on earth. We should rejoice, but we grieve because of our loss; we grieve for ourselves. Our Lord forgives us our grief, even when we claim that it is worthy.<br />Peace and Joy!<br />George A. Marquart<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com