Death -
sharing prayers of
love
with those who are
bereaved
Read Romans 12:9-15
and John 11:1-37
weep with those who
weep
talk with those who
want to
listen with those
who don’t
Do you notice any things which accord
with your own experience of bereavement or with the experience others known to
you have had?
It happened
on a public holiday
a public death
on the cross-roads of life.
It happens to us all
at the moment
of our deepest loss
this grieving
the
nagging guilt
felt by those closest to him
Why did it have to happen
like this?
If only we’d not been cowards
If only we’d been stronger
and stayed with him
The
dull disbelief
as the reality sinks in
surely this cannot be happening to him of
all people
he does not deserve to die
Anger
at the waste of it all
he has done nothing wrong
he is a good man
he could so easily
have avoided it.
The
bargaining sets in
it should have been me
he still had so much to offer
not him
... it should have been me
and
then the remembering
do you remember
when he washed our feet?
do you remember
when he broke the bread?
do you remember
when he promised
another Friend,
a comforter to be with us forever, the
Spirit of Truth?
Slowly,
slowly...acceptance
look,
there’s no end to his loving
his words endure for ever
Peace,
trust, life, love
Jesus
for ever the same.
Read Psalm 23
as a prayer
