Second Readings Suggestions for Funerals

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans 8:14-23

What we suﬀer in this life can never compare to the glory which is waiting for us.

Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God.

The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves

bringing fear into our lives again;

it is the spirit of sons,

and it makes us cry out Abba, Father!

The spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness

that we are children of God

and if we are children, we are heirs as well:

heirs of God and coheirs with Christ,

sharing his suerings so as to share his glory.

I think that what we suer in this life

can never be compared to the glory, as yet unrevealed,

which is waiting for us.

The word of the Lord.

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans 8:31-35. 37-39

Death cannot come between us and the love of Christ

With God on our side who can be against us?

Since God did not spare his own Son,

but gave him up to benet us all,

we may be certain after such a gift,

that he will not refuse anything he can give.

Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen?

When God acquits, could anyone condemn?

Could Christ Jesus? No!

He not only died for us – he rose from the dead,

and there at God’s right hand he stands and pleads for us.

Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ,

even if we are troubled or worried,

or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes,

or being threatened or even attacked.

These are the trials through which we triumph,

by the power of him who loved us.

For I am certain of this:

neither death nor life, no angel, no prince,

nothing that exist, nothing still to come,

not any power, or height or depth, not any created thing,

can ever come between us and the love of God

made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The word of the Lord.

A reading from the rst letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 13:1-13

Love does not come to an end.

If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love,

I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.

If I have the gift of prophecy,

Understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything,

and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love,

then I am nothing at all.

If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece,

and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love,

it will do me no good whatever.

Love is always patient and kind;

it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited;

it is never rude or selsh; it does not take oence, and is not resentful.

Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth;

it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

Love does not come to an end.

In short, there are three things that last:

faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.

The word of the Lord.

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Philippians 3:20-21

Our homeland is in heaven.

For us, our homeland is in heaven,

and from heaven comes the saviour we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ,

and he will transgure these bodies of ours

into copies of his glorious body.

He will do that by the same power

with which he can subdue the whole universe.

The word of the Lord.

A reading from the rst letter of St Paul to the Thessalonians 4:13-18

We shall stay with the Lord for ever.

We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have died,

to make sure that you do not grieve about them,

like the other people who have no hope.

We believe that Jesus died and rose again,

and that it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus:

God will bring them with him.

We can tell you this from the Lord’s own teaching,

that any of us who are left alive until the Lord’s coming

will not have any advantage over those who have died.

At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command

and the Lord himself will come down from heaven;

those who have died in Christ will be the rst to rise,

and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds,

together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.

So we shall stay with the Lord forever.

With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another.

The word of the Lord.

A reading from the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy 4:5-8

I have fought the good ﬁght to the end, I have run the race to the ﬁnish.

Be careful always to choose the right course; be brave under trials;

make the preaching of the Good News your life’s work, in thoroughgoing service.

As for me, my life is already being poured away as a libation,

and the time has come for me to be gone.

I have fought the good ght to the end;

I have run the race to the nish; I have kept the faith;

all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me,

which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day;

and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his Appearing.

The word of the Lord.

A reading from the rst letter of St. Peter 1:3-9

We have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never fade away

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who in his great mercy has given us a new birth as his sons,

by raising Jesus Christ from the dead,

so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance

that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away,

because it is being kept for you in the heavens.

Through your faith, God’s power will guard you

until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end of time.

This is a cause of great joy for you, even though you may for a short time

have to bear being plagued by all sorts of trials;

so that, when Jesus Christ is revealed, your faith will have been tested and proved like gold

– only it is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even though it bears testing by re – and then you

will have praise and glory and honour.

You did not see him, yet you love him;

and still without seeing him,

you are already lled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described,

because you believe; and you are sure of the end to which your faith looks forward,

that is, the salvation of your souls.

The word of the Lord.

A reading from the rst letter of St John 3:1-2

We shall see him as he really is.

Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us,

by letting us be called Gods children;

and that is what we are.

Because the world refused to acknowledge him,

therefore it does not acknowledge us.

My dear people, we are already the children of God

but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed;

all we know is, that when it is revealed

we shall be like him

because we shall see him as he really is.

The word of the Lord.