Graveside Service

In Jesus said,

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” And Then he said: “Do you believe this?”

It is the Christian’s belief in Christ as the Resurrection and the Life and its strong validation by Christ’s own death and resurrection from the grave that so encourages our hearts as we face the loss of our loved ones and face death ourselves.

I want to welcome you to the Graveside service for ________________.

My name is Ron Babel and I am the chaplain at Fernwood Place in Steinbach… ______________’s last residence here on earth. It is a great privilege to share this time with you, _____________’s family (and friends)…

We have gathered here to praise God and to witness to our faith as we celebrate the life of ________________. We come together in grief, acknowledging our human loss.

We are confident that ____________ is at this moment safe in the presence of God, forever free from pain, discomfort, anxieties, and alarms.

May God grant us grace, that in pain we may find comfort, in sorrow hope, in death resurrection.

Let us find strength and confidence knowing that __________________ is in the Lord’s care, freeing you, the family (and friends), to express both, your tears and your joy, as we share together in this special service.

Let us find strength and confidence knowing that __________________ is in the Lord’s care, freeing you, the family, to express both, your tears and your joy, as we share together in this special service, (as family and friends).

Let us find strength and confidence knowing that __________________ is in the Lord’s care, freeing you, the family (and friends), to express both, your tears and your joy, as we share together in this special service.

This is certainly an occasion for sorrow, but may it also be an occasion for thanksgiving because we are thankful for the gift of life and we are thankful that ____________ lived among us.

(I am sure the family is grateful you are here. Your presence is an encouragement… And encouragement and support will also be very important in the weeks and months to come.)

And encouragement and support will also be very important in the weeks and months to come.)

Let us recognize God’s presence among us as we pray…

Prayer:

O God, who gave us birth, you are ever more ready to hear than we are to pray…

I thank you for the time we had with __________. I thank you for her family (and friends) gathered here today and I ask that you allow my words to bring comfort, help, and peace here today!...

Give to us now your grace, that as we shrink before the mystery of death, we may see the light of eternity…

Help us to live as those who are prepared to die… And when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you. AMEN

And when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you. AMEN

Father God I thank you for the time we had with _________I thank you for her family, (and friends) gathered here today and I ask that You allow my words to bring Your comfort…help… and peace here today! …

I thank you God, Creator of life, that because of our Son Jesus we have a refuge. He is our strength. I thank You that Jesus will help us in times of trouble. We have only to ask and receive. Today we need that help and strength. It is from You we come, and unto You our spirits return. You are our dwelling place.

help us place our trust in You.

Lift our eyes from the sorrows of this earth and help us to see the lhopeof eternity in You today.

In Jesus Christ’ Name I pray, amen.

There is nothing more difficult than facing the death of a loved one. Even when it is a believer who has died, there is still great sadness…a sadness that is mixed with a sacred joy…

Whenever a death occurs, those of us who remain behind enter a space in time that is quite out of the ordinary…

Whenever a death occurs, those of us who remain behind enter a space in time that is quite out of the ordinary… Whether we recognize this or not, this is sacred time – a time that holds potential for healing and insight and understanding that does not come readily in ordinary time. With the death of someone we have known and loved, something in each one of us dies too…

this is sacred time – a time that holds potential for healing and insight and understanding that does not come readily in ordinary time. With the death of someone we have known and loved, something in each one of us dies too…

Whether we recognize this or not, this is sacred time – a time that holds potential for healing and insight and understanding that does not come readily in ordinary time…

With the death of someone we have known and loved, something in each one of us dies too…

We are reminded of the frailties and the gifts of our relationships. We become more aware that we live in fragile human bodies. We may come to know a heightened consciousness of what is precious and what is true. Indeed with the passing of a loved one, we encounter our own mortality.

We become more aware that we live in fragile human bodies… Indeed with the passing of a loved one, we encounter our own mortality.

This is also a sacred place… we are standing on sacred ground… the ground where we lay our loved ones to rest…

This cemetery has is a special place for the family… it used to be called the “Kliewer cemetery”… the family burial ground that goes back to the pioneer times, when the first families settled here in the area…

Elma grew up in this area and lived here till 1971… This was her home area… So we bring her back to the place where her life began some 85 years ago…

This cemetery has is a special place for the family… it used to be called the “Kliewer cemetery”… the family burial ground that goes back to the pioneer times, when the first families settled here in the area… Elma grew up in this area and lived here till 1971… This was her home area… So we bring her back to the place where her life began some 85 years ago… We are also standing in the presence of God as we are committing ____________’s body to this ground… He is the God, we look up to for peace and comfort…

We are also standing in the presence of God who gives life and to whom we return at our last breath…

Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV

7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Eccle

He is the God, we look up to for peace and comfort…

When we gather in (Christian) community, this sacred time is heightened by our affirmation that there is eternal life after death …

John 14:1–6 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:1–7 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Jesus spoke these words

John 14:1-2

In this conversation with his disciples, Jesus promised an eternal home with him in the house of the Heavenly father… It seems that He even assumes that the disciples know the way to where he is going…

So, let me share three brief things what death means to a Christian...

In this extra – ordinary and sacred time, what we encounter is the power of grief – – and the power of hope. It is here, together, where we may recognize the meaning of Paul’s words when he affirms that “Neither life nor death……can separate us from the love of God.”

It means a change of environment. Everything down here has been contaminated by sin. All around us we find dishonesty, of every kind, cruelty, sickness, sorrow, pain, poverty, and death.

But when God’s people die, they go to a place where these things can never touch them… There is for them a complete change of environment…

They go from earth’s discords to heaven’s harmonies, from all that is bad to all that is good, from all that hurts to all that brings happiness.

So, I invite you to pause, to let it settle in that a precious life has passed from among us. We can use the gift of our worship and our memories to bring comfort and peace and joy and laughter to one another as we remember _______________ and…..perhaps……we will enjoy a “trace” of ________________ presence as we share together.

But when God’s people die, they go to a place where these things can never touch them. There is for them a complete change of environment. They go from earth’s discords to heaven’s harmonies, from all that is bad to all that is good, from all that hurts to all that brings happiness.

It means a reunion with thier loved ones…

You may have sat by the bedside and watched ____________ die… You may have looked into her face for the last time and wept many tears, but she is not gone from you forever …

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes may not parish but have eternal life… - John 3:16

So, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you will have eternal life

Finally, it is our blessed hope that we, God’s people will see Jesus…

The apostle John said in “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

we will see Him and we will know him and we will fall at His feet and thank Him for saving us and bringing us safely home to see Him…

We will see Him and we will know him and we will fall at His feet and thank Him for saving us and bringing us safely home to see Him…

we will see Him and we will know him and we will fall at His feet and thank Him for saving us and bringing us safely home to see Him…

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), . we will see Him and we will know him and we will fall at His feet and thank Him for saving us and bringing us safely home to see Him…

Elma has run her race, she has won the crown of eternal glory… because she trusted in Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour…

That is why I could say in the beginning: We are confident that ______________ is at this moment safe in the presence of God, forever free from pain, discomfort, anxieties, and alarms.

So, I invite you to pause, to let it settle in that a precious life has passed from among us. We can use the gift of our worship and our memories to bring comfort and peace and joy and laughter to one another as we remember _______________ and…..perhaps……we will enjoy a “trace” of ________________ presence as we share together.

Words of Committal:

Forasmuch as it has pleased God to receive unto himself the soul of our departed (brother/ sister), we therefore tenderly commit his/her body to the ground… in the blessed hope that as (he/she) has born the image of the earthly so also, he/she shall bear the image of the heavenly. Amen

Benediction:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” ()

Graveside Service

Graveside Service:

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