preaching Christ

There have been a number of deaths in recent days.

If I'm not seeing and meeting with folk who've been bereaved, I'm preparing for funeral services. And if I'm not preparing these funeral services, the chances are I'm conducting one!

There wasn't a huge big crowd at the one today. Enough to make the singing loud and strong. Enough to give a real sense of occasion. But not a huge crowd.

Most of the folk who were present I didn't know. Which is often the case. Some knew the man who had died. Some were the friends of his wife. And some came along, as her friends and her colleagues from work, in support of his daughter.

I don't know who they are or what their different circumstances are at all. All I know is that this may be the one chance that they have to be challenged to think through what life's all about, and why it is that Jesus is important.

A lady came up at the end and thanked me for the service and, as she put it - "arguing the case for Christian civilisation."

I fear that maybe slightly overstates the thing. I don't want to rise above my station.

But she's right in a sense. I won't just speak about the person who has died. I'll try and put that person's life and death in context, and point folk to the Lord.

That's what I'm called to be doing, after all. Not to be saying nice things about people who're no longer there (although I try to do that as well, of course). But to be bringing the word and the call of the Lord, who is always emphatically present.

In the end, and at the end, it's with him that we all have to do.