{"product_id":"a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-a-funeral-9781949888119","title":"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to a Funeral","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to A Funeral \u003c\/em\u003emay seem inappropriate as the title of a book that talks about deaths and burials. But as a former teacher astutely observed, words have uses rather than meanings. Funny is one of those words. Something may be funny\/ha-ha--amusing, humorous or funny\/odd--unusual, out of the ordinary, even weird. And there are times when a thing is simultaneously funny\/ha ha and funny\/odd.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy experience across more than sixty years of ministry has included all three uses, and that fact began early. Though a Baptist, I began like a Methodist serving a circuit of two rural churches. They referred to me as their pastor, but I was more like what the Air National Guard calls a \"week-end warrior.\" I was a college student in Birmingham, the churches were 120 miles away in Chambers County, and I had no car when the first one called me. One met on first and third Sundays, the other on second and fourth Sundays. On fifth Sundays I went hungry  And to keep things interesting, though the churches were in the same Alabama county, one operated on central time and the other on eastern.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI discovered this pattern applied in ministering to those who were genuinely grieved as well as to those, to put it nicely, \"less emotionally stressed\"; of whom there are many. Moods and happenings have run the gamut from: pious to secular; heart-breaking to funny bone-tickling; sublime to ridiculous; holy to irreverent. \u003cem\u003eA Funny Thing Happened on The Way to A Funeral\u003c\/em\u003e, therefore, seemed most appropriate as a title.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Parson's Porch\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/07\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781949888119\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 140\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.37lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.30d","brand":"James a. Auchmuty","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42314592190645,"sku":"9781949888119","price":14.41,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_32b43cf2-a465-44a9-a69f-a6dd2bb1cc0b.jpg?v=1659411390","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-a-funeral-9781949888119","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}