One of the themes of this blog is that the word continues to become flesh and that the point of reading and studying the Bible is to embody its words in our lives.  Here is another take on that theme.

I officiated at a memorial service last week for a dear friend of mine.  There were other participants in the service: the host pastor, musicians, grandchildren and daughters.  It was my privilege to lead a few prayers and to preach the sermon.  That sermon was fairly typical for me on such an occasion.  It incorporated observations of my friend’s life mixed together with an exposition of an appropriate passage of Scripture.

Afterwards I analyzed what I had done in light of some of what I have written in this blog and I was able to see the process I use more clearly.  The post, “A Question for Preachers.” examined the way a sermon flows out of the preacher’s embodiment of a text.  Our preaching is only authentic when we are able to preach what we practice, or at least are attempting to begin to practice.  It is a matter of the word of scripture finding its way into our mind, and then down into our heart, and then out into our life, and then back into the words of the sermon.

Doctrine and life, colors and light, in one

   When they combine and mingle, bring

A strong regard and awe: but speech alone

   Doth vanish like a flaring thing,

   And in the ear, not conscience ring.  —George Herbert

This same process can be used for the sermon at a funeral/memorial service.  It does demand that Scripture has been embodied not just in the preacher but also in the life of the person who is being remembered.  And it can only work when the preacher knows that person in more than a superficial way, to have been able to see the word take flesh in her.  As pastor of the same small congregation for 25 years, I was privileged to see God’s word work its way into the lives of that flock.  So I have had plenty of opportunity to preach this kind of sermon.

Whenever I am asked to do a funeral/memorial service, I look for a passage of Scripture which seems appropriate to the life of the one who his died or to the situation of those who are grieving, preferably both.  To put it more precisely, in terms I have been using in this blog, I look for a passage which has been embodied in the one we are remembering and which I hope can be embodied in the lives of those who have gathered for the service.  That is a pretty high bar.  Sometimes this comes quickly because the person has shared his favorite passages with me along with how they have changed his life.  Sometimes it takes patience and reflection and affection until something emerges.

Here’s how the process worked out in the last memorial service:  My friend had a zest for life which included a fondness and appreciation for the old mixed with an openness to the new, a readiness and a desire to learn new things.  I wanted to focus on my friend’s faith which supported her openness to the new.  There was a story which illustrated her character for me:  After her knee began giving her so much pain that she couldn’t walk around town like she had done for 60+ years, and after her daughters had taken her car keys, she surprised me with a novel solution to her problem, “I think I’ll get a horse.”  Who’d a thunk.

I chose a passage from Revelation (21:1-6) which asks us to have the faith to be open to the new—and the unimaginable—when it promises, “Behold, I make all things new.”  That’s where I was able to begin and it led me into so much good material in the passage and in my friend’s life!  And as a bonus the passage ends with, “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life.”  I was back to my first thought as I remembered my friend, her zest (or “thirst”) for life.

So my question for those who would preach a memorial sermon:  How has this person embodied the word of God?  And my question for each of us:  Will the person who does your funeral be able to see how the word became flesh in your life?