Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
Exceptions to the rules are called exceptions to the rules because they occur so infrequently that they are exceptions to the rules; ergo, it is prudent to play by the rules while acknowledging there are exceptions to the rules.
Assuming kneejerk defensiveness to the following sentences by the guilty and those assuming I'm too stupid to grasp exceptions to the rules, I think it's, uh, prudent to mention exceptions to this rule about funerals and our Facebooked-Out-Selfie-Selfish narcissists.
So here's a quick nod to the exceptions before esteeming the rule to dissuade temptations to elevate exceptions to the rule as if exceptions are not acknowledged as exceptions to the rule.
If that sounds redundant, it's because it takes Skinnerian patience with those who think guys like me, again, are too stupid to grasp exceptions while being smart enough to know exceptions aren't rules.
Duh.
The following rule about funerals has exceptions concomitant to military personnel, the geographically challenged and, uh, other, uh, exceptions.
Problematically more than parenthetically, when you've got pulpiteers and pewsitters who don't honor their rules in Holy Scripture and jurists who don't honor their rules in the Constitution and play by exceptions more than rules, the abnormal may have become the new normal with exceptions being the rules because exceptions allow for the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual anarchy preferred by those pulpiteers, pewsitters, jurists, and other apostates that Jesus said are making sheep more fit for hell than they are themselves.
Sooooooo on to the rule about funerals.
People die without consulting our calendars.
By grace through faith in Jesus, saints move from the Church Militant to Church Triumphant when it's most often inconvenient.
I believe that's God's plan.
Our calendars, as well as emotions, are upset by the most often untimely "passings" from here to eternity with no consideration to convenience.
Again, I believe that's God's plan.
Our calendars and convenience are upset to compel us to pause, ponder, and praise God for our beloved in time and shared paradise forever by grace through faith in Jesus.
Unfortunately, there's a new trend in our Facebooked-Out-Selfie-Selfish culture - Can you say narcissism? - that postpones grief, closure, and celebration to accommodate calendars and convenience.
Instead of funerals occurring within a reasonable period of time - let's say up to a week and less than two - that forces family and friends to amend their calendars and convenience because the dearly departed deserve that kind of respect and deference in cognizance that calendars and convenience are to be upset for funerals by God's design and destiny, funerals are postponed to accommodate calendars and convenience.
Increasingly, people postpone the grief, closure, and celebration for two weeks, a month, months, or a year or more to accommodate the calendars and convenience of our Facebooked-Out-Selfie-Selfish narcissists.
Nota bene.
This charade is not being foisted upon us by most funeral directors and pastors that were mentored to honor family wishes and refrain from prophetic utterances in the planning and execution of rites.
Nope.
It's the Facebooked-Out-Selfie-Selfish narcissists whose calendars and convenience are more precious to them than a tribute to the resurrected by grace through faith in Jesus with all glory, laud, and honor to God.
No wonder the risen Christ wants to barf.
If we can't put our calendars and convenience on hold for...
Now go back and read the nod to exceptions that preceded this rule; remembering exceptions to the rules are called exceptions to the rules because...
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
@#$%
Shatter the sound of silence!
Wake up! Look up! Stand up! Speak up! Act up for Jesus!
Salt! Shine! Leavenate!
@#$%
@#$%
3 comments:
My wife died October 30, 2016, and while we have had a memorial service we have not yet had an service to bury her. We both elected to be cremated and have our ashes mixed. She was cremated and her ashes are in a "Couples Urn" awaiting my ashes, yet to be done. I have the urn with her ashes at home. It was on the hearth by the fireplace but I decided that was not a good place for it. I was afraid I would build a rip roaring fire one winter night and she would look over, see the flames, and think she was in the wrong place. So our children, grandchildren, and great grand children wait for me to put my ash with her ash. C'est la vie et mort.
Good stuff, Robert!
what I said and quoted at a recent funeral (a rabbinical source):
Like on the riverbank, we gather at the confluence of Passover and Easter.
We draw from the well that is our Jewish heritage:
One may not eat or drink in presence of the lifeless, to do so is to mock
the dead who cannot eat or drink
One may not speak ill of the dead not because the lifeless person was
perfect when alive but because he or she cannot respond. Living humans have
the obligation to stand for the honor and dignity of the lifeless one who
now is mute.
It is not the purpose of a eulogy to provide an evaluation of someone’s life
as if it were an exit interview….. It is not the purpose of a eulogy for
humans who are themselves imperfect to stand before others in the presence
of the lifeless person and render judgment upon that person. That is the
task of God.
Post a Comment