A
SELECTION OF BIBLE READINGS SUITABLE FOR A FUNERAL
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." John
6:35-40
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had
already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem,
some
two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and
Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard
that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed
at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been
here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that
God will give you whatever you ask of him." Jesus said
to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said
to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection
on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection
and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die,
will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never
die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes,
Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the
one coming into the world."
John 11:17-27
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many
dwelling places.
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a
place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will
come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there
you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am
going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where
you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I
am the way, and the truth, and the life.
John 14:1-6
What then are we to say about these things? If
God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his
own Son, but
gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us
everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect?
It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus,
who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the
love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
"
For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Romans 8:31-39
Now I would
remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed
to you, which you in turn received,
in which
also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you
hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you
have come to believe in vain. For I handed on to you as of first
importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our
sins in accordance with the
scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on
the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared
to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five
hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still
alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then
to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he
appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit
to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward
me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than
any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is
with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so
you have come to believe. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised
from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection
of the dead? If there
is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;
and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has
been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found
to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he
raised Christ--whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead
are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has
not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is
futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have
died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped
in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact
Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those
who have died. For since death came through a human
being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human
being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his
coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he
hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed
every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign
until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy
to be destroyed is death.
But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what
kind of body do they come?" Fool! What you sow does not
come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do
not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat
or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen,
and to each kind of seed its own body.
So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is
perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor,
it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in
power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body.
For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this
mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body
puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality,
then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
"
Death has been swallowed up in victory."
"Where, O death, is your victory?"
"Where, O death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But
thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling
in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your
labor is not in vain.
From 1 Corinthians 15
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers
and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve
as others
do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those
who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the
Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of
the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For
the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's
call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven,
and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive,
who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them
to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord
forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians
4:13-18
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the
first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was
no more.
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out
of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
" See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."
And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am
making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for
these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It
is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the
water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and
I will be their God and they will be my children.
Revelation 21:1-7
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