There Are Two Kinds of Funerals

            I haven’t been to many funerals but I’ve been to enough to notice a difference between a few of these.

            When I was going into my freshman year of high school I lost a close relative of mine. I was heartbroken. We all knew it was coming but none of us were truly prepared to deal with the loss. When it was time for the viewing there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Before the service began there were a few sniffles with boxes of tissues being passed around and there was arguing in front of the casket. Once the preacher began to speak sobbing ensued.

            With the tears being shed it was almost as if there was no real peace in the room, no peace in our family or in our hearts. The preacher had to speak loudly for everyone to hear. I can’t remember too much about what was said, but I remember the theme of the message matching the tone of my family’s tears: They are forever gone. Now there will always be something missing in our lives and there is nothing that can mend our hearts. We should just take our loss and try to find a way to cope and move on.

At this time I was not in Christ. All I knew up until then was that there is no life after death.

Since then I have been to more Christ centered funerals. Recently I went to a funeral to support a friend who lost a loved one. I’ve never heard such laughter, felt such love and seen so many embraces being passed around by the family who where rejoicing in the lives once lived by the recently passed. Of course there were tears but these tears were not the same as the tears I’ve seen being shed in the past. These tears had more life and love in them. These tears were uplifting, merciful, and in worship to God.

The difference between these funerals was God. God was invited and he was praised.

In this funeral the Pastor had a greater message that summed up what our attitudes about life and death should be. He read the passage Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain”. What a perfect verse to speak on at a funeral. If we truly give ourselves up to God there is no real deep sorrow but a great joy. We rejoice because death is not the end of us. We don’t simply live and die. We are given a life so that we might know Christ and to have the ability to proclaim his name. Death should not be feared because Christ has taken away its sting. It is now something we should readily accept because it brings us back to Christ. We live our lives on earth for the gospel of Jesus Christ and whenever we do pass we are reunited with our savior!

We are so thankful that you have joined us on this journey to become and make disciples of Jesus. We have enjoyed the blessings of the Lord this past year and a half. It has been an incredible journey so far full of ups and downs, but we have seen God move in ways we could have never imagined. We hope and pray that you have experienced God’s presence in your time with us.

As great as the past year has been we are expectant and eagerly looking forward to what we believe God is leading us to in the next year. We wanted to take a moment to get you up to speed.

We will be kicking of “Groups” at the beginning of the year. This is a place for the whole family to plug into a deeper community environment throughout the week. While there will be one structured meeting time during the week, our hope is that you will develop relationship that will overflow into daily interaction with one-another.

We also want to get you more involved. As a result there will be more opportunities for you to serve on various “servant” teams and once a quarter we as a church will be partnering in love with an outside organization with our giving and/or volunteering.

Lastly, many of you have asked or been curious and the answer is yes, we are actively pursuing a building of our own. Right now it doesn’t make sense for us to purchase so we are looking for a place to lease. By obtaining a space of our own we will be able to better accommodate families, do more outreach in the community, and (drum roll please) have a later start time for our Sunday gathering.

There is more, but we know that you are thrilled with excitement and currently can’t contain your joy so we will allow you to express yourself and will share the rest with you when you have calmed down a bit. We look forward to this next year with you and hope you continue to partner with us on this journey to pursue Jesus. We love you.

Jimmy Rodriguez