Burial at discipleship

Last week in discipleship, one of my students asked if we could walk through the liturgy for a burial, so that's what we did this week.  It prompted a lot of questions (and gave me some food for thought for the liturgy committee), and as we were leaving the chapel, the same student said, "This was SO much better than what we did last semester!"  Hmmm... no one complained or spoke up last semester...

For me, the highlight of our discipleship time this week was listening to the students share their experiences "in the field" with burials.  Most of my discipleship group is from eastern Uganda, and one student is from Rwanda.  Even those from the east are from different districts and tribes, and therefore have different cultures and norms.

One of the students asked, "What would you do if you had an Indian in your congregation, and he died, and his family wanted to burn him and scatter his ashes?"  This poses an interesting question, because culture transcends almost everything else.  I shook my head no, but one of the other students gave the best answer.

"No, no, no."  He shook his head emphatically.  "No.  This is when I exert my authority as a priest and bury my Christian as a Christian.  It doesn't matter what the family wants or what the culture dictates.  He was a Christian, and I will give him a Christian burial, and will make the sign of the cross over his grave that matches the sign of the cross made on him at his baptism."

Amen.