This happened this week – there is no moral to the story. It’s just one of the many things that happen in church life that are hard to believe.
As is their custom, the ministers drove their own car and led the hearse and other funeral procession cars from the church out to the cemetery. The ministers got out of their car at the gravesite and began walking to the hearse as all the other cars were parking and people walked to the gravesite. As the ministers approached the hearse, they heard the undertaker mutter, “Oh, sh**!” Since that is not normal language at a funeral, one of the ministers asked what happened.
“We locked the keys inside the hearse.” And they didn’t have a spare key with them. When they called the funeral home to get a spare, the funeral home said they didn’t have a spare, either! After a quick huddle, the ministers and the family agreed to proceed with the funeral at the gravesite without the body since the casket was inside the locked hearse. The undertakers spent the funeral trying to get into the hearse. When the funeral was over, the ministers, family and friends left the undertakers standing outside their locked hearse in the bitter cold of a January day.
Lead On!
Steve