Monday, May 13, 2002
Monday, May 13, 2002
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
When I was serving a little church in rural Georgia, one of my member's relatives died, and my
wife and I went to the funeral as a show of support for the family. It was held in a small, hot,
crowded, independent Baptist country church. They wheeled the coffin in and the preacher
began to preach. He shouted, fumed, flailed his arms.
"It's too late for Joe," he screamed. "He might
have wanted to do this or that in life, but it's too late
for him now. He's dead. It's all over for him. He might
have wanted to straighten his life out, but he can't now.
It's over."
"What a comfort this must be to the family," Willimon thought sarcastically.
"But it ain't too late for you!" the preacher
continued. "So why wait? Now is the day for decision. Now
is the time to make your life count for something. Give
your life to Jesus!"
It was the worst thing I had ever heard. "Can
you imagine a preacher doing that kind of thing to a
grieving family?" I asked my wife on the way home. "I've
never heard anything so manipulative, cheap, and
inappropriate. I would never preach a sermon like that."
She agreed with me that it was tacky, manipulative, callous. "Of course," she added, "the
worst part of all is that it was true."
(Romans 6.8
NRSV)
William Willimon is a brilliant writer who often sees right to the heart of things. He wrote
these provocative words in the CHRISTIAN CENTURY:
Dear Jesus, my life will count for something with you living in my heart and life everyday.
Amen.
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