This weekend Peace will host Memorial Services for Peace members Susan DeHaven and Erin Messner on Saturday. We will also have a special Memorial Prayer and fellowship for Sophia Katamba’s father, who passed away in Tanzania on January 18th. It’s a time of grief as well as a time to thank God for the amazing people that have been “companions in our pilgrimage on earth.”
Hard times often lead people to ask big questions of God. Why do good people suffer? Why does the world seem so unfair? What happens after death?
The gospel lesson we’ll read on Sunday has the disciples asking big questions of Jesus and, perhaps disappointingly, Jesus doesn’t give clear answers. But he does focus our attention on the possibilities for our lives while we are alive. He offers encouragement to make changes that lead to fruitful life while we are still in the land of the living.
For Christians, death is never the end. That doesn’t mean it isn’t terribly sad. The grief of death can be achingly real. But we gather this weekend, as we do every Sunday, trusting God’s promise of eternal life and renewing our hope that love never ends.
