NO ONE THERE TO MOURN
One small town in southeastern Wales has recently decided to provide volunteer mourners for service funerals that no one is expected to attend. People in the area who served in the U.K. military but have no next of kin can now know that someone will be there, thanks to the idea of army officer Christian Griffin, from Blaenavon, Torfae, Wales. When Griffin learned that some funerals go unattended, he brought the idea of volunteer mourners to the Torfaen council, which voted unanimously to adopt the proposal. “In a society that is increasingly individualistic and quite lonely,” Griffin said, “it would be nice to just have a bunch of people who just go to [the] graveside, stand there, and commemorate that person in their very last moments.”

NOT ALLOWED TO MOURN
Today’s reading describes the death of the wife of the prophet Ezekiel—and the Lord’s command that he restrain his public mourning. Ezekiel interpreted the Lord’s message: in the same way that the prophet lost his precious wife, God was about to take away the object of the people’s affection—the temple and Jerusalem itself, which the Babylonians would soon destroy. And the former residents of Judah would not feel free to mourn in all the ways they might wish. Through it all, they would know that the Lord is sovereign.

Questions

• What would you say if you were asked to speak at the funeral of someone you didn’t know?
• When have you felt forced to hide your true emotional reaction to something?
• How should the people have responded to this sign shown through Ezekiel?