Hope On The Day Of Judgment
Sermons on the Second Readings
Standing in the parlor at church that day was not unlike the many other occasions when I had attended a family upon the death of one they had loved. Moving from person to person, group to group, I greeted each with words of comfort, consolation, and hope. I was a pastor going about my normal pastoral work, preparing to begin the funeral rite for yet another saint of the church. Amid the whispers, the tears, the hugs, and even the laughter at memories shared, a pastor also hears many other things spoken in death that perhaps would never be spoken in life.