Thursday, July 12, 2012

On Funerals and Christian Cliches

This past weekend, I was in Orlando, Florida for the funeral of an uncle.  My Uncle David was the youngest of my mother’s siblings dying at the age of sixty.  Diabetes took it’s toll on David’s body and finally that body gave out.  David leaves behind a grieving widow and five children, three of which are too young to have to have to deal with losing a parent.

David was an active of an Apostolic church in nearby Sanford.  As we went to the viewing at the funeral home and the next day at the church, I came to face to face with all those cliches you hear when someone dies.  “God is in control.”  “He’s not in pain anymore.”  “This all happens for a reason.”

My seminary trained brain tells me I’m not supposed to accept such trivial sayings.  I’ve learned that such words just cover up the pain that people are really going through.   I’m supposed to see such sayings as a twisting of theology and incredibly insensitive to those suffering.

I know that’s what I’m supposed to think.

But now I don’t mind hearing them.

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