Diocese of Leeds Learning



Messages of hope for funerals – from IME session on 21st October 2020From Caroline Brown:John 6:35-40 ‘I am the bread of life’Reading: Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’In our Bible reading, we heard Jesus give a description of himself; he said ‘I am the bread of life’. These words, along with the others that we heard, have been rearranged into a hymn which, since its composition in the 1960s, has been the source of consolation for many, many people in their mourning of a loved one or friend. The hymn is a message about the shelter and comfort and hope that can be found in God through His Son Jesus Christ, and it points to the strength and peace and reassurance that can be received at any time, in any place or in any situation; Jesus is the bread of life who fills our emptiness, who nourishes our souls and who prepares us for enjoying life in God’s presence forever…Let’s listen to the words of the hymn’s first chorus: ‘I am the bread of life. You who come to Me shall not hunger. And who believes in Me shall not thirst. No one can come to Me unless the Father beckons. And I will raise you up, and I will raise you up, and I will raise you up on the last day’. If you google this hymn later on, you will also hear another description of Jesus through his words: ‘I am the resurrection, I am the Life, if you believe in Me, even though you die, you shall live forever’…Although death is inevitable (unwelcomed) and brings disruption to our lives, particularly as we adjust to face the future without……, this service reminds us that, with Jesus, death is not the end and we can know his sustaining presence as we do indeed face the future. As we commend ……into the hands of God, we are being invited to respond to Jesus words ‘come and believe’ and we are being invited to experience the fullness of life that he truly offers. You may be familiar with the Bible verse ‘There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven’…so, as we encounter this time to mourn, let’s remember that there is also a time to embrace Jesus as the ‘bread of life’ and, maybe, we will take the following words as our own prayer: ‘Jesus, come, fill my emptiness with your presence. Jesus, come, fill my loneliness with your love. Jesus, come, fill my troubles with your peace. Jesus, come, fill my sadness with your joy. Jesus, come: come, Bread of Life, refresh and restore me’, Amen. From Che Seabourne: (Written for an elderly lady who is a believer) (Enid)Enid was a well-known figure here at St Asaph’s. Many of you will know that Enid knew the love of Jesus in her life.Jesus understood what it was to grieve. In one of the accounts of Jesus’s life, written by John, we read about the death of his friend Lazarus. Jesus wept for his friend.As Christians, we believe that Jesus was there at the very start of the universe. He set the stars in their places. And yet, when his friend Lazarus died, he wept.Christianity isn’t about the absence of grief, or sadness. Christianity is about knowing that Jesus walks alongside us in our grief, and offers us hope.I spoke earlier about an account of Jesus’s life written by a man called John. We usually call that account John’s ‘Gospel’ – and that word ‘Gospel’ literally means ‘Good News’. John writes these incredible words about Jesus:‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son – Jesus – what whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him’.The wonderful promise of Christianity is that through Jesus, death is not truly the end. ‘Whoever believes in him shall have eternal life’. Enid knew the love of Jesus in her life, and trusted in his promise of eternal life. So for us today, it is only right to grieve, and to miss her being in our lives, but it is also right to point to the hope she knew in Jesus.We’re invited to know that same hope, and that same promise of eternal life. Let us pray that we may know life and hope in Jesus Christ as we say: (Lord’s Prayer, trad.)From Dorothea Bertschmann What is awaiting us after death? To be really honest with you, I don’t know.This might seem surprising, because after all vicars should be specialists in this matter.But I don’t know.In the Bible we have a lot of impressive pictures:There will be a last reckoning, complete justice for all at long last.There will be a new creation, a city where the streets are made of gold.But there is no accurate description, no timetable, no map.What is awaiting us after death?For all we know it is over when our heart stops beating and our brain goes dead.Let me tell you in a story what I hope and believe as a Christian.I once had to travel to a city for a conference. A really big city in the US, and though the language would be English I was still quite nervous: How on earth would I find the way to the conference hotel? Would I need cash? Or was card better? Was there a bus? How much would a taxi be?But then I learnt that somebody would wait for me at the airport, and give me a lift.Let’s call him Ben. We corresponded a bit backward and forward and I fired my anxious questions at him.But he kept saying in his chilled way: Don’t you worry, I’ll be waiting for you.And that calmed me. This knowledge: There is this chap waiting for me. I will be made welcome.And I tell you, it was a beautiful moment, when I finally had made it through the customs, tired, disheveled, dragging too much baggage along with me....and to see a guy who exactly looked like Ben on a picture he sent me, whom I knew already but had never met in real life and who said with a big grin on his face: You must be Dorothee. How was your trip?What is awaiting us after death?I don’t know for sure. Death can look like a scary journey into a foreign land.But I trust I will be expected and made welcome.I believe that somebody is waiting for me. And this somebody is Jesus, who has opened God’s heaven for me.From Elspeth Cansdale:They say that love makes the world go round and I think that’s true. The reason why we are so sad today is because of the love we felt and still feel for Susan. But have you ever wondered why we as humans are seem programmed to love – to look for love and give ourselves to each other so completely? Well I believe we were designed that way by a creator God whose very essence and being consists of love. At the beginning of the Bible it tells us that when God created human beings he made them in his image. Our capacity to love, our need for relationship is because human beings contain the divine DNA of God. God is love. The bible tells us it’s the most important part of His character. And that is why love really does makes the world go round. And that is why it hurts so much today. So I want to assure you that God loved Susan. He watched over her all of her life and rejoiced at her successes and wept at her struggles. That is part of loving someone as we all know. And because God loves Susan so much we can trust her into his hands today. Secondly I want to tell you that God loves you. He knows how much you loved Susan, he knows all that she meant to each of us and he is feeling the pain of our loss and wanting to comfort us right now. It is easy to receive the comfort of God’s love just ask him. You can use any words or none. I can guarantee he will hear you and help you. Because yes… he loves you. Thirdly I want you to know that God is not only wanting to comfort you he has himself experienced the pain of loss. Our Bible reading tells the story of Jesus, God’s son, who 2000 years ago became like us and suffered death. This was and is the most important moment that God showed human beings how much he loves us. (The shame and wrongdoing of humanity was stopping them knowing God’s love, putting a barrier in the way. When Jesus died he removed that barrier, taking the consequences of our mistakes on himself so that we could know God’s love again. ) And because God raised Jesus from the grave even death cannot separate us from His love. Through Jesus we can know God’s love surrounding us every day through all the ups and downs of life. So that is my message of hope in the midst of the sorrow we feel today. God is love. He loved Susan and we can trust her into his loving hands today. And God loves you. He understands what you are feeling and wants to comfort you. And he offers his love to you not just today but for all eternity. God bless you. Amen.From Jonathan Brennan:Funeral Reflection – John 14.1-6“There’s no place like home”, that line from the song Home, Sweet Home, is probably a very familiar phrase to us all. ‘Home’ means lots of different things to many different people, and you will all have your own idea of what ‘home’ means to you. It might be the place where you grew as a child. Perhaps it was that first house or flat you got when you stepped out on your own as an adult. It might be the place you moved to when you started your life with a partner or spouse. And whilst I know that where we live can sometimes be a difficult place, I hope that for you, home is where you are living right now.In our reading from the Bible today, we hear of Jesus describing his home. It wasn’t Bethlehem where he was born, it wasn’t Nazareth where he grew up, it was the country roads of Galilee or the bustling city of Jerusalem where he taught and ministered to the least and lost and where he would eventually die. For Jesus, home is with his Father in Heaven for the rest of eternity. As Christians, we believe that Jesus was the Son of God and his victory over death by his own sacrifice on the cross opened up that home up to all of us. In the reading, Jesus is able to describe what that home is like – there are many dwelling places, many different spaces or rooms – there is space for us, and a room set aside. It’s a rich image and one that captures our imagination, because there really is no place like our home in Heaven.Not only is that image of a heavenly home a comfort to us as we reach the end of our lives, but it should also be an inspiration to follow in the way of Jesus who has gone ahead of us to prepare a room for us there. Our path to that heavenly home is signposted by Jesus himself – he is the way, because he is the truth and the life. The journey of life that we live on earth can be full of joys and sorrows, incredible highs and desperate lows. I know that when I have travelled somewhere, whether the trip has been the adventure of a lifetime or been fraught with difficulties or problems, I always look forward to getting back home. And so it is with the journey of life. Whatever the journey has been like for us, we always have a welcome in our Heavenly home.As we gather today to celebrate the life’s journey of N, a journey that now comes to an end, we trust that he/she is now in his/her true home at last.From June Cockburn:Based on John 14And so we hear the words of Jesus, “Do not let your hearts be troubled!”These words sound scandalously insensitive at a funeral – don’t they?How can we, how can you have hearts that are healed?Untroubled?Jesus says, “Trust in God; trust also in me.”Given that Jesus, a human like you and me, was speaking to his friends on the night before he died – how on earth can he say “trust me?”It is because, though he would die, he knew that his life was in God’s hands. More than that, he knew that he was God.When he died, he didn’t stay dead. He rose to life again. And Christians believe – I believe – that he is still alive. The source of our hope, our hope of heaven and life with God and one another for ever, is rooted in Jesus.He doesn’t just say, ‘Trust me.’ He says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”Amidst the many pains and griefs you share, Jesus is the one we can trust to strengthen our hearts to face each day, and by walking with him have a sure and certain hope of life beyond death.From Laura Martin:Psalm 139: 1-18 and Revelation 21: 1-4Gathered here today, one way in which we remember and celebrate the life of Ann is by telling some of the story of her life. Over the years each of you will have collected your own precious and cherished memories of Ann and together we can piece together a vivid and wonderful picture of the kind of person she was and the unique qualities that she brought to this world. We know about her career in retail, her much loved family, her wide circle of loyal friends, her interests in knitting and furniture renovation and her warm personality. But none of us know every part of the whole story. As Christians, we believe that there is someone who has been there at every moment of Ann’s journey, not just observing her outside life but also listening to the inner life too. There is one who has heard every whispered hope or cried lament, each fear, each joy and each delight. God has heard it and seen it all. As psalm 139 tells us, God is familiar with all Ann’s ways. He has known her intimately and he has loved and delighted in her. But the story does not end here. Yes, today is a difficult day. For now, we have to say goodbye to Ann and certainly we grieve her loss. Grief is painful and it is real. But whilst we must grieve, the bible assures us that we can also have hope. Hope of a life to come is a powerful and deep longing in the human heart because, if this life is all there is, then an occasion like today would be a marked by an absence of hope and thus an even deeper sadness. But the good news is that real hope lies at the heart of the Christian faith and, therefore, at the heart of this funeral for Ann. It is a hope given to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus. His triumph over death opened-up for humanity the hope of a glorious eternal life with a God who knows us and loves us and is full of compassion. He has gone ahead of us and prepared a place for us with him. His promise was that those who die can be raised to new life in Christ, to dwell with him forever. And our reading from Revelation 21 paints a wonderful picture of what this hope-filled future will be like - a future where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain, a future where there will be no distinction between heaven and earth because God will have come and made his home with us, a future that will therefore be more wonderful than anything we can ever imagine.So, on this day when we have come together to celebrate Ann’s life, when we remember her with great love and affection, when we look back upon the ways in which she enriched our lives, when we feel great sadness that she is no longer with us, let us rest in the knowledge that hope has the final word - hope in a gracious, merciful and loving God who, through Jesus, wants all people to be saved and to share in a glorious future with him. Rest eternal grant unto Ann, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.Amen.From Paul Sunderland: As Christians, we find comfort in prayer, and as we have heard already xxx was no stranger to answered prayers, so we pray, Lord, we know your love reaches beyond the grave. At the end of our days on earth be with us and those we love. May xxx rest in your eternal peace and we also ask that you love surround those who’s live is saddened by his/her passing. We especially pray for xxx we ask, Lord, that you hold them close today and in the weeks and months ahead. We know that grief is a road with no destination, but Father, we ask that you steer them safely through the twists and turns that lay ahead.I would like to read a poem to you which I hope will also bring you comfort.A Song of Living (Amelia Josephine Burr 1878)Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.I have sent up my gladness on wings, to be lost in the blue of the Sky. I have run and leapt with the rain , I have taken the wind to my breast.My cheek like a drowsy child to the face of the earth I have pressed. Because I have loved life, I have no sorrow to die I have kissed young love on the lips, I have heard his song to the end. I have stuck my hand like a seal in the loyal hand of a friend. I have known the piece of heaven, the comfort of work done well. Because I have loved life, I have no sorrow to die. I give a share of my soul to the world where my course is run. I know that another shall finish the task I must leave undone I know that no flower, no Flint was in vain on the path I trod. As one looks on a face through a window, through life I have looked on God. Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die. I would like to offer you a moment of silence to remember xxx in your own way.From Sally Osborn;Written for a funeral where most of the congregation were committed Christians and struggling to feel grief because they felt they should be happy and grateful that their relative was now ‘in heaven’… We’ve all read a good book or watched a film for a second time; we know the ending and we know the story ends happily. Sometimes we want to skip through the earlier bits of the book or film, the bits where things go wrong, where things hurt, and fast forward to the glorious end when everything is all OK again.And yet, if we do this, something is lost… The triumphant and beautiful ending is diminished if we haven’t travelled with the characters through the ups and downs, the sorrows and joys of the whole story.As Christians, we already know the ‘end of the story’. The promise of resurrection and eternal life in God, gifted to us through Jesus’ love, a love that took him to the cross, to death and through that suffering to the glory of the resurrection.As Christians, we already know the ‘end of the story’, we know that ‘it will all be OK’, and yet… we have to live through the story before we reach the end. Just now, we have to travel through the empty, hollow feeling of grief; we have to travel through the tears, travel through the memories that bring joy and just as suddenly bring the tears back again. To live through this part of the story is to start the healing process within us.And we never journey through this alone…Jesus himself knows what it is to live as a human being, he has walked the path of human sorrow and he walks with us now. Jesus, who even as he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, was overcome with grief for his friend and was moved to tears. Jesus who, knowing that he was going to the Father in glory, was so deeply distressed as he waited in that garden at Gethsemane.And so, as we know how our stories will end, as we hold the sure and certain hope of our resurrection and the glory that awaits us all, as we prepare to commend xxxx to that glorious care of God, we also realise that we can’t fast forward through to the end. Instead, with Jesus, we have to live through the pain and the grief of today, a grief that’s all mixed up with the joys of remembering a life well-lived. Confident that, even as we grieve, Jesus is already beginning to heal us. Confident that Jesus is leading us on, showing us once again little glimpses of joy and that xxxx rests safely in God’s care and protection. ................
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