Extract from funeral homily, preached 26 04 07
Readings "She is Gone" (see below) and John 14:1-7
A few moments ago we read the poem “She is Gone” which was taken from the order of service for the Queen Mothers funeral. It contains the line “or you can be full of the love you shared”. This reminds us of St Paul’s affirmation in 1 Corinthians 13, that Faith, Hope and Love remain. When we die we lose all our lose all our earthly possessions and our body returns to dust and ashes, but in the Christian Faith we believe our soul returns to God and in some sense its faith and hope and love are retained.
In the paragraph from the gospel of John that we read at the start of this service we heard Jesus speaking to his disciples shortly before his death. He said, “In my Fathers house there are many dwelling places…I go and prepare a place for you.”. This once again affirms the Christian hope that the essential part of us survives death and goes to dwell with Jesus. Thomas struggles to understand this and asks, “Lord, how can we know that way”. And Jesus answers, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. To us with our very material understanding of the universe it is not easy to understand this comment, but it seems that it is Jesus himself, the man who conquered death, who shows us the true way, and who shares his resurrection life with us. So this is our hope for ????. May she follow Jesus, the way the truth and the life. It is also the hope for each one of us. May we too grow in Christian love so that when we die the love may remain, and go to dwell with Jesus in one of the Father’s many rooms.
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