02/04/2020
This is a brief summary of "Please Don't Say These Six Things at My Funeral" by Chad Bird. I really like this book because it states my own beliefs. I hope you enjoy this also.
"Please Don't Say These Six Things at My Funeral" by Chad Bird - Aug 21, 2014
There will come a day, perhaps sooner, perhaps later, when the man in the coffin will be me. They say the dead don't care, but I'm not
dead yet, so as long as I'm still alive, I'd like to have some say in what goes on at my funeral. And, truth be told, I think the dead do care.
Not that they will be privy to the details of what happens at their own funerals, but they still care about the world, about their family,
about the church. The saints in heaven continue to pray for those who are still on their earthly pilgrimage, so how could they not care
about them?, Because I do care now, and will care even after I'm with the Lord, here are some things I hope and pray are not said at my
funeral. I care about those who will be there, about what they will hear. I want the truth to be spoken, the truth about sin, the truth about
death, and, above all, the truth about the love of God in Jesus Christ. So, please don't say ...
1) He was a good man Don't turn my funeral into a celebration ofmy moral resume. For one thing, I don't have one. I'm guilty of far
more immoral acts than moral ones. Secondly, even ifl were the male equivalent of Mother Teresa, don't eulogize me. Talk about the
goodness of the Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us in the true faith. Talk about our good Father who's made us
all His children in baptism. Talk about the good Husband that Christ is to His bride, the church. Don't say, "He was a good man," but
"our good God loved this sinful man."
2) Chad ... Chad ... Chad I don't want to be the focus ofmy own funeral. I was not the center of the liturgy on Sunday mornings, so why
should it be any different during my funeral liturgy? If anyone's name comes up over and over, let it be the name that is above every
name Jesus. He is the one who has conquered death. He is the one in whose arms I will have died. He is the one, the only one, who gives
hope to the bereaved. Let me decrease that Christ may increase.
3) God now has another angel Heaven is not going to de-humanize me. In fact, once I am resurrected on the last day, I will be more
human than ever before, for my human soul and human body will finally be in a glorified state that's free of sin. People don't become
angels in heaven any more than they become gods or trees or puppies. The creature we are now, we shall be forever. God has enough
angels already. All He wants is more of His children in the place Jesus has prepared for them.
4) We are not here to mourn Chad's death, but to celebrate his life So-called "Celebrations of Life" (which I have written against in
"The Tragic Death of the Funeral") do a disservice to the mourners for they deny or euphemize death. The gift of life cannot fully be
embraced ifwe disregard the reality of death, along with sin, its ultimate cause. Whatever the apparent reason for my decease may be a
sickness, accident, or old age the real reason is because I was conceived and born in sin, and I built atop that sinful nature a mountain's
worth of actual sins. The only person's life to celebrate at a funeral is the Savior conceived of the virgin Mary, who became our sin on the
cursed tree that we might become His righteousness in the blessed font, who buried sin and death in the empty tomb He left behind on
Easter morning.
5) Chad would not want us to weep When Lazarus died, Jesus wept. Those tears betoken a God who's fully human, who experienced
the sadness and grief we all do at the death of those we fove. To cry is not to deny that our friend or family member is with the Lord, but
to acknowledge that in this vale of tears there is still death, still loss, still suffering. I do want those who mourn my death to weep, not for
my sake, but for their own, for it is an integral part of the healing process. But while they weep, let them remember that in the new
heavens and new earth, God "shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be
any mourning, or crying, or pain," (Revelation 21 :4 ).
6) What's in that coffin is just the shell of Chad What's in that coffin is the body that was fearfully and wonderfully made when our
Father wove me together in my mother's womb (Psalm 139:13-14). What's in that coffin is the body that Jesus baptized into His own
body to make me part of Him. What's in that coffin is the body that ate the saving body of Jesus, and drank His forgiving blood in the
Supper, that I might consume the medicine of immortality. And what's in that coffin is the body that, when the last trumpet shall sound,
will burst from my grave as a body glorified and ready to be reunited with my soul. My body is God's creation, an essential part ofmy
identity as a human being. It is not a shell. It is God's gift to me. And one day I'll get it back, alive, restored, perfected to be like the
resurrected body of Jesus. Of course, there's always more that could be added to this list and perhaps you'd like to add more in the
comments below but I believe these get the point across.
I want the beginning of my funeral to be focused on Jesus, as well as the middle, as well as the end, as well as every point in between. I
care about those who will attend. Let them hear the good news, especially in the context of this sobering reminder of mortality, that
neither death, nor life, nor anything else in all creation, can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord, for He is the
resurrection and the life.
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