Perceptions: Back to the Church for Meat Loaf

Tony Campolo tells about the African American church he attends in Philadelphia that celebrates student recognition Sunday once a year. After a few students had spoken, the pastor stood and said, “Young people, you may not think you’re going to die, but you are. One of these days, they’ll take you to the cemetery, drop you in a whole, throw some dirt on your face and go back to the church and eat meat leaf.”

What an awesome sermon opener but also what a underscoring of the fact of death.
After I had preached at the funeral of an inspired and inspiring person, a guy approached me and said, “The problem is when you have to do my funeral, you won’t have all those wonderful things to say.” My response was, “Well, thank God you still have time to change that. Begin to live now in such a way that I won’t be on the spot and have to dig deep when I preach your funeral.”

Maybe that is something we all really need to think about.