This sermon invites you to imagine that all of life is a great drama (a piece of theater, if you will) and that a funeral is a character in the drama.  Funerals are on my mind because we begin a class on Christian Burial in the Episcopal tradition in Sunday school this morning, and because the Gospel for today is commonly read at funerals.  John 14:1-14.  Feel free to open your Prayer Books to page 491 to follow along.

          Funerals are important. 

          There is so much mystery around death, and a well done funeral can be like a pastoral detective that comes on the scene and looks for clues.

          A funeral plays a clever foil, a Sherlock Holmes type if you will, to the sinister character death, which seeks to leave the friends and family of the deceased alone and in the dark.    Without a funeral, our dead are simply here with us one day and then they are gone, as if vanished, the next.  But funerals come on the death scene bearing the twin flashlights of prayer and scripture, and they poke around asking questions so that we might have some sense of what has happened and where our dead have gone.  The funeral is an important character in the drama of our liturgical life.

          An Episcopal funeral comes crashing in on a death scene shouting.  The first words of the Burial of the Dead in our BCP are boisterous and self assured.

          You know the scene. 

          Everyone gathers in the church.  People get here early so they can find a good seat.  And then they wait quietly for the funeral to arrive.  They are somber and they are serious.  Some of us cry quietly while we wait. 

          As the ministers and the family enter the worship space, the congregation stands and the funeral sneaks into the back of the room and starts shouting, I am Resurrection and I am Life, says the Lord.  Whoever has faith in me shall have life, even though he die.  And everyone who has life, and has committed himself to me in faith shall not die for ever.

          In essence, the funeral arrives and says, Turn on the lights!      Someone has died here, and that means we get to talk about Resurrection!

          After this excited first bit the funeral slows down, and in its opening prayers, the funeral acknowledges the heavy weight of grief and asks God to, Deal graciously with us in our grief, surrounding us with love, that we may not be overwhelmed by our loss.  Then, the funeral asks the friends and family to sit down so the funeral can look around and try to figure out what’s happened. 

          The funeral, like a careful investigator, starts by poking around in the Bible for witnesses. 

The funeral calls Isaiah, the apostle Paul, and the gospel writer John. 

          Isaiah takes the stand first.  The funeral swears the old prophet in, and asks Isaiah what God intends to do with the mourners gathered here today all dressed up in their funeral clothes.

          Isaiah takes out his scroll and reads from his 25^th chapter.  God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all the peoples,…he will swallow up death forever. Then, says Isaiah, the Lord God intends to wipe away the tears from all faces. 

          The funeral and the gathered congregation think that sounds like a pretty good deal and everyone relaxes just a little.  The funeral wants to reinforce Isaiah’s assurance with the people so he has them recite together a summary of Isaiah’s testimony.

          Everyone says together, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff; they comfort me.

          The friends and family of the deceased are beginning to feel like they might live through the grief, but the funeral wants another witness to talk about -where the dead have gone.

          The funeral calls the apostle Paul to the stand and the people shift and wiggle like restless children in their seats.  Everyone is a bit on edge as Paul makes his way to the lectern because who wants to hear from Paul at a funeral?  He’ll probably scold them with some list of what to do and what not to do.  Maybe he’ll get on this Episcopal crowd about having a drink, and in truth everyone at this funeral just wants to have a drink.

          But Paul surprises everybody at the funeral.  He comes at them with a list, but it’s a different sort of list than they are used to from the pestering apostle.  He has a commanding presence and a sure voice that plays well in the big room.  He starts off speaking low and slowly and builds to an elegant crescendo.

          I am persuaded, says Paul that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

          The funeral stops him and says, “Now, Paul let me get this straight, are you telling this gathered crowd that nothing, not even death, can separate any of us from the love of God?”

          Pauls says, That’s right.

          “So”, says the funeral, “it stands to reason then by your testimony that our beloved dead wherever they are, they are with God?”

          Paul is impatient and short.  He says, “Not even death can separate us.”  And he sits down.

          The funeral calls John to the stand.  “John, what did you hear Jesus say, and try to say it plain.  None of that word was made flesh stuff, speak so we can understand you.”

          John tells the people what he heard.  Jesus said, Do not let your hearts be troubled, that is, don’t let yourselves be ruled by fear of death.  Believe in God and believe in me.  In God’s house there is room for all of the world.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

          “John, it sounds like you and Paul have the same angle on this death mystery,” says the funeral.  “You are testifying that you don’t know exactly where our dead have gone, but it sounds like you think they are with Jesus?”

  With uncharacteristic simplicity John responded saying, You got it!

          The funeral doesn’t call anymore witnesses.

          Now, it’s time to talk to God.  The crowd stands up and the funeral tries to reason with Jesus Christ praying like a child who bargains with a parent, arguing according to past precedent.

          You wept at the grave of Lazarus, your friend, won’t you comfort us in our sorrow.  You raised the dead to life; won’t you give our beloved dead eternal life too.

          And this is my favorite and the most compelling, You promised paradise to the thief who repented; bring our dead to the joys of heaven too.

          After these prayers everyone is tired from all the testimony and the tears, so the funeral breaks out the bread and wine and everyone shares a communion meal.

          After communion, the funeral has just about finished with everything it came to do.  All that’s left is to give the body to the ground and offer our hope that indeed our dead are given over to God, wherever they are.

          Into your hands, O merciful Savior we commend our beloved dead.  Acknowledge a lamb of your own flock, a sheep of your own fold…Receive our beloved in the arms of your mercy, and in peace into the glorious company of the saints in light…

          There are a few more prayers as the dirt covers over the coffin, then funeral sends the congregation out of the graveyard and into the world saying, Alleluia, Christ is Risen!  The congregation says, the Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

          Funerals are important.

Funerals are important because they render testimony that says that death and the grave are but passageways through which we move into a deeper presence of God.

          Funerals do not claim to have particular facts that give us details like why, how, and where.  Rather, funerals state clearly the fundamental truth that the entire Christian way is a journey into a deeper presence of God.

          The gospel for this morning finds Jesus assuring us that he is seeking after us, he wants to bring us, whether living or dying, into the cavernous house of God where love binds and the light of Christ shines, and nothing separates, not even the darker parts of death.