A Defense of Eulogies

Some time ago I was helping a family plan a funeral service of a woman. Her son began to talk about the eulogy. I hadn't thought in terms of a eulogy. Indeed, the trend has been to have a “traditional” church service with a sermon on a biblical text. The idea is that the service and the sermon should lift up Jesus Christ as the hope and promise of our salvation. There is certainly nothing wrong with this. But, often the services end up seeming impersonal. It is not unusual to attend a worship service and hear very little about the deceased.

After a recent funeral two men came to see me. The first man wanted to tell me how different the funeral was from those he attended at his own church. In his church there are fine sermons on the comfort we receive from our God in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the services and sermons are interchangeable with any other person's funeral. The second man came to me and said that he wanted to begin writing down some of the anecdotes from his life for his children. He wanted his children to share some of them with his preacher in hopes that a personal touch, even a humorous touch, might be given to his own funeral service.

A Christian funeral should lift up Jesus Christ as the hope and promise of salvation. We need to hear the message of redemption and God's love. We need to sing the hymns that have reinforced the confidence and trust of the faithful over the centuries. But, there is nothing wrong with speaking of the dead, so to speak. We gather as a community of faith to worship and praise God––but, it is in the context of remembering and giving thanks to God for the life of a particular person.

The funeral service can contain favorite hymns and scripture readings. It can even contain favorite poems or non-scriptural readings. But, it is in the eulogy that we might begin to see a glimpse of one's life and personality - one's uniqueness.

A eulogy doensn't have to replace a sermon. I believe a sermon is still a necessary part of a funeral service. This is especially true if a friend or a member of the family does the eulogy - a practice I heartily endorse. But, for the pastor who is conducting the funeral or memorial service alone, combining the elements of a eulogy in the framework of a message of Christian hope and redemption is best.

I offer the limited resources of this web site to assist you in thinking through this process.

God bless you.