A Proper Burial

A young minister was asked by a funeral director to hold a graveside service for a homeless man, with no family or friends.

The funeral was to be held at a cemetery way back in the country, and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there.

He was not familiar with the backwoods area, and became lost; and being a typical man did not stop for directions. He finally arrived an hour late. He saw the backhoe and the crew, who were eating lunch, but the hearse was nowhere in sight.


So he apologized to the workers for his tardiness, and stepped to the side of the open grave, where he saw the vault lid already in place. He assured the workers he would not hold them up for long, but this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. He poured out his heart and soul.


As he preached the workers began to say "Amen," "Praise the Lord," and "Glory!" He preached, and he preached, like he'd never preached before, from Genesis all the way to Revelation.


He closed the lengthy service with a prayer and walked to his car. As he was opening the door and taking off his coat, he overheard one of the workers saying to another, "I ain't never seen nothing like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."