Let’s see, you did say you wanted a funeral pyre. Sort of a Viking send off. That has a certain je ne sai quoi to it. I’m not sure it would be eco-friendly. After all they had a tendency to burn the whole boat for a chieftain like you. Of course, if we modernize it a bit and do it in a crematorium–especially if we could harness the heat to produse energy–then we could go out doing something positive.

I know that some years ago when I read Jessica Mitford’s book THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH, I was persuaded that funeral directors were vultures preying upon people at a very vulnerable time. Working with a number of funeral directors over the years, I came to the conclusion that, while some were no doubt vultures, most of the ones that I encountered were performing a real service to people who were in real need of assistance–handling an immense number of details, for instance. We do learn from expereience, you see.

Back to the pyre. When my mother died suddenly 44 years ago, she just didn’t come home! My father, who had been with her when she had her fatal heart attack, had had her cremated and her ashes scattered. A memorial service was held a week later at her home church. When my father died 30 years later, he had requested the same treatment for himself. My brother was requested to scatter his ashes on the flower garden. It does seem appropriate. Maybe you are on to something here.

Thanks

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Almost any church can point to the things they do together as they attempt to impact the community for the sake of God. Visiting nursing homes, food drives and pantries, soup kitchens etc etc. Some churches are real good at doing these things and advertising the fact. And that’s great. But I think it’s more important to encourage people to be disciples when they are ‘out in the world’ and apart from the faith community. Too many people put in their time doing good works with the church and then take a powder on the rest of their lives. Kind of like giving at the office.

I guess what I’m saying is that we should be doing both.

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For me it’s more about tithing and the use of resources. If one views their offering as say a health club membership then sure, they expect amenities in return. Nice facilities, grounds keeping, air conditioning, nice playground for their kids, child care, etc. However, if those offerings are to go to doing the work of the Kingdom, none of that matters. It’s a different way of looking at the resources at our disposal.

Kathy often quotes: “If your church’s doors were to close today, would the community miss you?” … that’s a tough one to swallow. Not “would your members miss you” but does your church make enough of an impact in its community to be missed.

Jesus knew he’d only need the tomb for a few days…

(Spoiler Alert!) At the end of the movie “Legends of the Fall” the hero, knife in hand, is killed by a grizzly bear and it is referred to a ‘good death’. Considering that the man was an adventurer at heart and would have hated a slow, lingering, bed ridden death, I agreed. Bev didn’t see it my way.

I don’t know what this has to do with anything, I just thought I’d bring it up.

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I really don’t want to conjure up the sight of your body laying in an open, third-world field being torn apart by scavangers

Man, I think that would be cool… ‘come on, you saw the ‘Lion King’… I hear Elton John now It’s the ci–rcle of life…

I like the idea of being returned to the earth… broken back down to the base elements.

Christian Beyers last blog post..God’s Love is Like a Punch in the Gut?

Kathy, I almost picked up a mystery book written by some guy who ‘founded’ the Body Farm – he has a whole series out. Is that the same guy you’re reading?