Tony Campolo writes:<\/p>\n\n
I went to my first black funeral when I was 16 years old. A friend of mine, Clarence, had died. The pastor was incredible. From the pulpit he talked about the Resurrection in beautiful terms. He had us thrilled. He came down from the pulpit, went to the family, and comforted them from the fourteenth chapter of John. "Let not your heart be troubled," he said, "'You believe in God, believe also in me,' said Jesus. Clarence has gone to heavenly mansions."<\/p>\n\n
Then, for the last 20 minutes of the sermon, he actually preached to the open casket. Now, that's drama! He yelled at the corpse: "Clarence! Clarence!" He said it with such authority. I would not have been surprised had there been an answer. He said, "Clarence, there were a lot of things we should have said to you that we never said to you. You got away too fast, Clarence. You got away too fast." He went down this litany of beautiful things that Clarence had done for people. When he finished—here's the dramatic part—he said, "That's it, Clarence. There's nothing more to say. When there's nothing more to say, there's only one thing to say. Good night. Good night, Clarence!" He grabbed the lid of the casket and slammed it shut. "Good night, Clarence!" Boom!<\/em><\/p>\n\n Shock waves went over the congregation. As the preacher then lifted his head, you could see there was this smile on his face. He said, "Good night, Clarence. Good night, Clarence, because I know, I know that God is going to give you a good morning!" The choir stood and starting singing, "On that great morning, we shall rise, we shall rise." We were dancing in the aisles and hugging each other. I knew the joy of the Lord, a joy that in the face of death laughs and sings and dances, for there is no sting to death.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3447,3448,3665,3886,3933,3935,3943,4032,4062,4093,4101,4134,4167,4303,4541,4590,4645,4723,4828,4829,4901,4903,5198],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-45267","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-assurance","tax_ctp_tags-assurance-of-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-confidence","tax_ctp_tags-eternal-life","tax_ctp_tags-faith","tax_ctp_tags-faith-feelings","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-funerals","tax_ctp_tags-glory","tax_ctp_tags-grave","tax_ctp_tags-grief","tax_ctp_tags-heaven","tax_ctp_tags-hope","tax_ctp_tags-joy","tax_ctp_tags-new-life","tax_ctp_tags-paradise","tax_ctp_tags-physical-death","tax_ctp_tags-promises","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection-of-believers","tax_ctp_tags-security","tax_ctp_tags-security-in-god","tax_ctp_tags-trustworthiness-of-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\n