Sermons

Three weeks ago tomorrow was the funeral of Krystal Ebel- a funeral attended by scores of Desert Palm Church folks and by hundreds of students from Dobson High School, probably 400 people. About a half-hour before the service was to begin, a gentleman I didn’t recognize caught my eye. He recognized me as the pastor- I must have been in uniform that day.
Reaching out a heavily-bookmarked paperback whose cover didn’t seem to match anything on my own bookshelves, this gentleman said that he wanted me to read some sections of it in the service, because it might be very helpful to the family. He then quickly began to tell me about its stories of near-death experiences, about physical resuscitation, and about communications which people had received from their late spouses or children. I honestly don’t remember too many details of our conversation, except for my response.
“I’m sorry. That’s just not going to happen. Plans for this service are very firmly set.”
“Well, I really think this would be helpful to the family, and to all these kids. Those children in that High School don’t hear anything but Darwin and evolution, somebody’s got to tell them the truth.” He wanted to turn the funeral into an opportunity for evangelism.
“Well, sir, you happen to be talking to someone who believes in evolution, and I happen to think it’s one of God’s greatest gifts to us. This is not an appropriate day to be doing this. I will be preaching about the resurrection, though.” He gave me this funny, perplexed smile, and somewhat slowly walked toward the parking lot, book in hand.

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