Read John 10:22-30

Fourth Sunday of Easter

For the two and a bit years of the COVID-19 pandemic, I averaged roughly one funeral a month, sometimes two. I regret that experience because the congregation could not share in that ministry with me. Because I know that even today, some of you would not live the way you do if once a month you had to spend three or four hours writing a funeral meditation about the meaning of death, that if you had to think and pray about what you would say to the family, and if you had to stand beside the open grave and the mound of dirt, and try to make the critical farewell significant for the grieving family and friends.

I regret that I was the one who did all of this once or twice a month. Not because it was a hard job and I wished someone else would do it, but because it was a gift (a gift of eternity) to me, and I wanted to share this with my congregation.