Preach Magazine Issue 4 - Preaching in the digital age | Page 40

40 COLUMN COLUMNIST KATE BOTTLEY What am I supposed to say? I’m not known for being lost for words. I always have plenty to say. To be honest, many would argue I sometimes have far too much to say. But – just every now and again – the words seem to not be enough, to be empty and meaningless. A s any person who does funerals knows, everyone gets tongue-tied at times. Times like the visit to the next of kin, when you ask what the loved one enjoyed doing, and you’re left trying to make some link between a Bible passage and their passion for crosswords. My training incumbent once preached a great funeral sermon about bingo and ‘my Father’s house’, get it? Of course there are some funerals that are easier than others, but to be honest they are all pretty tough, and they never seem to get easier. Often the family doesn’t know what Bible passage they would like, but when they do, the twenty-third psalm crops up frequently. If the person is older and has led a full life, the truth of the resurrection is a joy to preach, but sometimes the circumstances are somewhat different. A child – very young, tragic circumstances – slipped under the water at bath time while mum was taken ill. The visit was tough, I WAS ANGRY AND NOT LOOKING FOR ANY PLATITUDES. WHEN ANYONE DIES IN TRAGIC CIRCUMSTANCES WE FIND OURSELVES SAYING TO THEIR NEAREST AND DEAREST, ‘I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY’ tougher for them than me of course, and the community and family had rallied round. It was my job to try and put together the service and to find a passage to preach on. Words of comfort and consolation, words of hope and peace. Some preachers, other preachers, might not have any problem with this. But for me, being honest, searching through the scriptures was tough. I was angry and not looking for any platitudes. When anyone dies in tragic circumstances we find ourselves saying to their nearest and dearest, ‘I don’t know what to say’, and this was a much bigger version of this. Should it be ‘Jesus blesses the children’ or a narrative of Jesus’ suffering, the message being ‘he is in it with us’? Remembering my training, when I was told ‘It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it’, I decide the tune is more important than th H\