Speaking at the All Souls Services tonight at Holy Trinity, Tarleton, Ordinand Danny Abraham prays “May we and the faithful departed find comfort and peace in the eternal love of God, draw strength from His love in our grief, and may we always attain our hope from God as we look toward the life of the world to come in Christ Jesus, where pain and sorrow will exist no more, only love.”
Homily in full:
Love is an incredible thing, something that transcends above all other pleasures this world has to offer, and more often than not, is somehow able to transcend words; ask anyone who has tried to express love through words in a greetings card, in wedding vows or even face to face with the one for whom that love exists. Despite having the ability to evade words that are even close to adequate, there are ways in which to describe love, and each of us gathered here this evening will have our own interpretation of what love is.
Love is undeniably unique, sometimes curious, always extraordinary. Love is a gift that has no price tag, such is its enormity and value. Love has an unquantifiable power to bring us so much joy, so many happy memories, so many reasons to smile and to laugh. And love can express itself in so many different ways. The butterflies in the stomach feeling, the cup of tea in bed each morning, the all-embracing hug which only a certain person can execute to an unpracticed perfection.
But love, for all the positive feelings it has the ability to give, also has a power to make us feel pain in ways we could never imagine, pain that threatens to cause a fog to descend that has the ability to cloud our memories, steal our joy and distort reality. There is no doubt that the death of someone we love comes with a pain that is unlike anything else we have ever experienced before.
The author of Lamentations recalls his own loss in the passage read to us this evening. In this case, the author is lamenting the loss of the national identity as the people of God during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem and the exile that followed. They describe this pain as the soul being ‘bereft of peace, having forgotten what happiness is’, and subsequently, the author appears to be almost doubled over through this pain, the health of his soul acting as a crushing weight over the rest of his being. Perhaps you are here this evening accompanied by a similar feeling of pain and grief, feeling disorientated as you journey through life without your loved one, particularly if that pain is in its early stages of rawness.
Perhaps the passing of many years has helped you heal a little from that early stage, perhaps not. Maybe that pain still feels as fresh as the day you first encountered it, or maybe it still has residence in you, but not in the way it did in those early days. Wherever you are, and however you’re feeling, there is no judgement, no pressure, no need to be ashamed of your lament.
In fact, lament is absolutely essential to the health of our minds and souls, and particularly in the stages of life that contain grief and loss. The shortest verse in the Scriptures is made up of two words; Jesus wept, which communicates that outward expression of lament and grief is necessary, and to lock up these feelings is dangerous and unhelpful. We must take time to grieve as we need to, allowing the pain to work its way out in healthy and manageable ways in order to allow the process of healing to truly take root.
As we gather this evening to take time to lament and to remember the ones we have lost, but the ones we have loved, we do so in the presence of God, the very being of love itself made manifest in Christ Jesus. It is in the person of Jesus where we can take refuge in our grief, to whom we can pour out our pain, sorrows and frustrations, and allow ourselves to be encompassed by his steadfast love, faithfulness and care.
Without love, all things are meaningless, and while those we love may die, love itself does not die; no, love lasts for all time. We know this because you are here tonight to both celebrate and remember the love you had for a significant other, and that eternal connection we have to our loved ones in love finds its roots in the person of Jesus Christ.
It is love that brought the Christ to be born as a fully human being, in order to identify with us fully. That same love took Jesus to his death on the cross to pay the debt of all of humankind’s sin forevermore; that same love conquered death once and for all in his bodily resurrection; and through faith in Jesus Christ, that same love enables humankind to ascend to heaven after earthly death to be in the presence of God Almighty forevermore through the ascension of Jesus.
This is the hope Christians have shared for millenia, and it is this same hope I wish to share with you this evening. And this hope is found not in a concept or an idea, but firmly in a person – Jesus, in whom all of creation who profess his lordship will be gathered up at the last, to dwell in peace and where we will once again meet those who we have loved and lost.
These eternal gifts of love and hope are both located in Jesus Christ, and his invitation is both simple and extended to all people; to accept his invitation to take hold of the love and hope found in him, to share it with others and to allow his arms to enfold us as we take refuge in him during those times of sorrow, pain and grief that life can and does throw at us.
As we commend those we have lost to the mercy and protection of God in our ongoing prayers, we join them with all the prayers of those departed, those who have run the race before us, and those who will run after us. May we and the faithful departed find comfort and peace in the eternal love of God, draw strength from His love in our grief, and may we always attain our hope from God as we look toward the life of the world to come in Christ Jesus, where pain and sorrow will exist no more, only love. Amen.
