Douglas's Funeral

This morning Dean attended Douglas' funeral and these were his thoughts afterwards:

So, how do you address the congregation at a funeral where you had little respect for the deceased and really didn't like him very much. After all, I only knew the man as a cantankerous old drunkard who placed a heavy burden on his son and never showed any appreciation for his loyalty and unconditional love.

Michael & Joyce have been saints in how they have tolerated Douglas and his behaviour over the last few years, especially after he had them evicted from the house. But I've elucidated on that on enough already.

A few things real struck me at his funeral this morning: firstly, those that had 'supported' Douglas at the time of the court case were no where to be seen when he was hospitalised and were very conspicuous in their absence today. Secondly, death & funerals really can bring out the worst of human nature in people. Douglas' first wife (whom he divorced over 20 years ago) suddenly appeared, she was very 'emotional' but was clear headed enough to demand that the house be given to her! Thankfully, Michael & Joyce have quite a bit of support and his neighbours are outraged by this, so that should be a non-starter. Also, for a man who was supposedly 'very well respected' within the community, only 12 people attended the funeral. All in all it was a rather pathetic event.

Normally, I make myself scarce straight after the service thus avoiding the graveside part of the proceedings, however this was not possible today as the funeral policy didn't pay for transport to the grave so I was the taxi. I don't mind doing this for folk, but the graveside ceremony is truly awful and not an experience to be recommended.

So, back to the original question; and the answer is.... I don't really know! I spoke for about 5 minutes, carefully avoiding the deceased, instead I tackled the issue of why we're here and why we should "Seek first the kingdom of God". Hopefully I didn't offend anyone, certainly not my aim to.