The Funny Bone

A young minister was asked by a funeral director to hold a graveside service for a derelict man who had died while traveling through the area with no family or friends.

The funeral was to be held way back in the country.  This man would be the first to be laid to rest at this plot of ground.  The minister was not familiar with the backwoods area and became lost.
Being the typical man he didn’t stop for directions.  When he finally arrived an hour late, he saw the crew and backhoe, but the hearse was nowhere in sight.  The workmen were eating lunch and he apologized for his tardiness.  They looked at one another but said nothing.

He stepped to the side of the open grave, to find the vault already in place.  He assured the workers he would not hold them long, but that he had been asked to say a few words, it being the proper thing to do.  As 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,” so he really got wound up.  He preached like he’d never preach before and before he knew it an hour had gone by.  He closed in prayer and it was finished.

As he was walking to his car, he felt that he had done his sense of duty and felt a renewed sense of purpose and dedication.  As he was opening the door and taking off his coat, he overheard one of the workers saying to another, “I’ve been putting in septic tanks for 20 years, and I have never seen anything like this before.”