#29 In Life and in Death

Last week I officiated my first funeral. A ninety-eight-year-old member of our congregation died early in the week; we gathered on Saturday to remember her life, mourn her passing, and celebrate the hope we have in Jesus Christ. The whole process, from my first contact with family members through planning and conducting the funeral to parting conversations after lunch, was pretty special. Funerals and the grieving process can be extremely emotional and difficult, but they're also quite sacred. They lead us to reflect on the core of our Christian beliefs. We shared memories of a beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother and did our best to capture the essence of who she is. We reflected on her legacy. We meditated on Psalm 23, noting how our sister has come through the valley of the shadow of death to dwell in the house of the LORD forever. We recited the first Q&A of the Heidelberg Catechism, professing our comfort of belonging to Jesus Christ "body and soul, in life and in death." We sang songs of hope. And at the gravesite, we said our good-byes, clinging to Jesus' words from John 11: "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die." The part of the day that has stuck with me the most was reciting the Apostles' Creed together at the gravesite, ending with our belief in "the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." Death is not the end, for Jesus Christ is our victory. That part about resurrection is important. If only our souls lived forever, then I don't think we could say death is defeated. Part of us would be lost in death; we'd just have some sort of spiritual work-around. But with resurrection, death is truly defeated. Even our bodies come back to life in Christ. Death cannot claim any part of us forever. That gives us hope and that gives us joy, even in the most somber, solemn times.

Grace and peace,
BMH