The Last Word
Hosea 11:1-11; Luke 12:13-21

August 5, 2007


One of the things in ministry which you cannot control or schedule is funerals. People will simply not cooperate! When it comes to funerals I would not go so far as to say, “I’ve seen it all.” There are always new surprises. I have participated in the last rites of a wide assortment of individuals. Some have been saints, and there have been a few scoundrels. In presiding at funerals and memorial services I have tried not to compromise my integrity. The mourners should not be given occasion to think that they have shown up at the wrong funeral!

In reflecting upon today’s Gospel Lesson I wondered, if I were called upon, how I would handle the funeral of the man in the parable? Here is a possible scenario. It is a Monday morning, of course, when the phone rings, and I answer:

“Hello.”
“Good morning Reverend. This is Rig Mortis at the Easy Rest Funeral Chapel. How are you today?”
“I’m fine. Are you calling about your new layaway plan?”
“No, not today. We would like you to do a funeral for us Wednesday afternoon.”
“Possibly. Who is the deceased?”
“The departed is Mr. Nabal.”
“The name doesn’t ring any bells.”
“He was a farmer in the area. His farm is just outside of town where all the new bins have been going up.”
“O, yes, I’ve seen the place. It looks like he had quite an operation. Had he been ill?”
“He hadn’t had any health problems that anyone knew about. It seems he had a massive coronary. He was found in front of a mirror--clutching a "Freedom 55" folder in his hand.”
“Do you know what Church he was affiliated with?”
“As far as we could determine he never went, so we figured he was United.”
“Are there some family members I could visit with, to help plan the service?”
“I’m afraid not, Reverend. He had no family. No living relatives we could trace. He was quite a loner.”

The conversation would go on and I would agree to officiate at the funeral. But what would I have to say in my words of remembrance? Truth be told, this would not be as challenging as some funerals at which I have presided. The funeral sermon would have the traditional three points.

I.. HE WAS A GOOD FARMER

The parable begins with the statement that "the land of a rich man produced abundantly." He enjoyed a bumper crop year after year. At harvest times the bins would not hold the fruits of his labours. This happens because the farmer knows his business and because he works hard at it. Of course he doesn't do it all himself. God gives the growth. God is the source of water and sunshine. This farmer never recognized his partnership with God.

But God also gives growth to all sorts of weeds and bugs. The farmer has many battles to fight before the grain is safely stored in the bins. He needs to know about soil and seeds and seasons. He needs to be diligent in applying appropriate insecticides, fertilizers and weed killers at the right time. An abundant crop is the evidence that this man did all the right things. He was a good farmer.

II. HE WAS NOT A BAD MAN

In my visits with the next-of-kin prior to the funeral I usually ask them to share with me their remembrances of their loved one. Sometimes, because of grief and shock, it is hard for them to articulate their memories. And it has not been unusual to hear a response such as:

"He never did anyone any harm," or
“He never spoke a bad word against anyone.”

And it is sad they cannot remember any good he did to anyone in his lifetime.

Similarly, this rich farmer was not a bad man. He never harmed anyone. He was not a serial killer. He was not a child molester. He was not even an inside trader! You cannot fault him for being a burden on society in any way. This man worked for what he got in life. He was no "welfare bum.”

We can remember this man as a respectable and productive member of society. He was not like that beggar Lazarus, who was such an embarrassment, sitting on a rich man’s doorstep, covered with ugly sores, with mangy dogs licking them.

This man never took handouts. There was never a need to call the cops to tell him to “move along.” There was no need for “take-charge” politicians to give him a kick and tell him he should go get a job. He was a model citizen. He worked. He paid taxes (and didn’t defraud the tax man by claiming charitable deductions). And best of all, when he dies, with no will and no next-of-kin, all his wealth goes into government coffers. We can honestly say, He was not a bad man.

III. THE GOSPEL

In a funeral service we remember the life of the individual who has departed this life. We also affirm our faith. On this occasion I might quote our creed, which begins, “We are not alone,” something this rich man had never comprehended in his lifetime. An essential part of a Christian funeral is the affirmation of the Gospel. How the deceased responded in life, and how the congregation might respond is between themselves and God. For this particular funeral I would probably quote these famous words of John Donne:

"No man is an Ilande, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Conti¬nent, a part of the maine; ...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

There are some funerals where the crowd is curious about what the preacher might have to say about the departed. I do not know if it would be a very large crowd that would gather for this man’s last rites. What they would need to hear, regardless of how independent, and uncon¬nected, and self-centred he was, this rich man belonged to the human family.

"Any man's death--diminishes me." If the human family really believed and practised that, we could rid the world of war and poverty.

We are horrified, and our hearts break, when he hear on the evening news that a child has been killed in the crossfire between rival teenage gangs. And in response to the killing of an innocent child, or the slaying of a police officer on duty, there are cries for the restoration of the death penalty. What's wrong with capital punishment? What is wrong with it, is that in taking the life of another person, however vile that person may be, we are diminishing ourselves.

We are all made in God's image. The tragedy of the Rich Fool is that, looking in the mirror, he did not see God or any resemblance to God, or any connection with humanity. The Gospel truth we must be in touch with at every funeral, whether we are remembering the life of a hero or a scoundrel, is that we who are left are diminished by his death.

We learn in the Creation story that humankind is made in the image and likeness of God. The human race has marred and disfigured that image. Some, like the Rich Fool, have obliterated it entirely. What is unique about Jesus is that he was totally faithful to that image. When we behold Jesus we behold God.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Col 1:l5

The human being Jesus was is God's intention for all humanity and for each of us.

The tragedy of the Rich Fool is that he was a self-made man (or so he thought). He did not care that God had made him and gave him life. He did not care that he was a piece of the continent. He had no sense of obligation or joy of giving and receiving. For him the final word, and all that mattered was the bottom line. All that mattered was the value of the goods in his barns and the balance in his bank account. There was no thought about the epitaph he was preparing for himself, "Here lies a rich fool"

There was no "epitaph" for Jesus. But his life was summarized in five words of Peter in one of his sermons:
"He went about doing good" (Acts 10:38)

Jesus was not independent and self-sufficient. He did not have “ample goods stored up.” In fact it was the gifts of others that enabled his ministry. And for Jesus, bread for today is sufficient.

If the Rich Fool had seen, as he looked in the mirror, not simply his own face, but a vision of a child of God, and a member of the human family, then those words, “he went about doing good,” could have been his epitaph.

It would be my hope for this funeral that those who came to mourn would distinguish between what the deceased was and what he could have been, and that they would discern the difference between storing up treasures for themselves and being rich toward God.

Preached by Howard Hanson
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan