This is a celebration of life, not of death. Our memories of Norma have not died. Her spirit has not died.
In the reading from the letter to the Thessalonians one of the issues facing the early church was addressed. Early Christians, and this is one of the earliest texts in the New Testament, were concerned about their brothers and sisters in Christ who died. There was an expectation at that time that the end of the world as they knew it and the second coming of Christ was imminent.
So they didn’t want friends and loved ones who died to be excluded from rising to be with the Lord forever.
So they are encouraged by the words of Paul’s letter that those who die in the Lord will be cared for, and all will meet the Lord when He comes again.
The Romans passage adds another dimension to this message of consolation. “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be the Lord of both the living and the dead.”
The God we believe in, the Jesus we believe in, the Holy Spirit we believe in, does not only care for us in life but in death.
We have no idea of the mysteries of death and eternal life. But we know God will never forsake us. As Paul says, we do not die to ourselves. We live on in the memories our friends and family, in the lives we have impacted.
Our Christian faith is a lived out faith. We believe God is active in our world. So it does make a difference how you live your life, and respond to God’s call.
So we gather today to give thanks to God for Norma and all the many lives she has touched. We mourn her death, but we celebrate her presence among us, and entrust her to God’s care.
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