Hallowed Ground
Sermon
The Word Is Life
An Anthology Of Funeral Meditations
This is hallowed ground
Created from nothing
But the thought of God
Who became Creator
In the making of it.
This is a hallowed place
Made sacred by the Divine One,
Who called good
All living things
That move
In and on
Under and over
Through and around
This good earth.
This is hallowed ground
To which we return
The common elements
Made uncommon by love.
This is hallowed earth
For to it we return
The elemental remains
of ____________.
This is holy ground
Now containing
What is no longer animated
By the breath of God.
This plot of ground
is hallowed by love:
Parental love -
The divine One
Who creating
Male and female
In the divine likeness
Became the first parent.
This plot is hallowed
by the married love
of ____________ and ____________
who fathered and mothered
begot and conceived
birthed and cared for children.
This plot of earth
Is hallowed by family love
Of children and grandchildren
In unbroken chain
Of human life,
Ancestral ties
To the one who parents us still.
This is holy ground
Made sacred
By the faith
of the church
of Jesus Christ
Who was no less than God
Born of Mary,
Taught by his parents,
Living for others,
Teaching us,
Praying for us,
Dying for us,
Rising from death before us
To that most holy place
Where he with ____________
Waits for us.
This we sincerely believe
in the name of God,
who is fatherly, brotherly, motherly,
Our God, one God,
forever.
Amen.
(Pastor spreads a handful of earth as may others.)
Created from nothing
But the thought of God
Who became Creator
In the making of it.
This is a hallowed place
Made sacred by the Divine One,
Who called good
All living things
That move
In and on
Under and over
Through and around
This good earth.
This is hallowed ground
To which we return
The common elements
Made uncommon by love.
This is hallowed earth
For to it we return
The elemental remains
of ____________.
This is holy ground
Now containing
What is no longer animated
By the breath of God.
This plot of ground
is hallowed by love:
Parental love -
The divine One
Who creating
Male and female
In the divine likeness
Became the first parent.
This plot is hallowed
by the married love
of ____________ and ____________
who fathered and mothered
begot and conceived
birthed and cared for children.
This plot of earth
Is hallowed by family love
Of children and grandchildren
In unbroken chain
Of human life,
Ancestral ties
To the one who parents us still.
This is holy ground
Made sacred
By the faith
of the church
of Jesus Christ
Who was no less than God
Born of Mary,
Taught by his parents,
Living for others,
Teaching us,
Praying for us,
Dying for us,
Rising from death before us
To that most holy place
Where he with ____________
Waits for us.
This we sincerely believe
in the name of God,
who is fatherly, brotherly, motherly,
Our God, one God,
forever.
Amen.
(Pastor spreads a handful of earth as may others.)
