Ship of Fools: Reading suggestions

Thread: Reading suggestions Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Sarah G (# 11669) on :

I've been asked to come up with a Bible reading (or other reading) for a funeral. There's nothing that leaps obviously to mind from the deceased's life. Has anyone any useful suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any help given.

Posted by TomM (# 4618) on :

The Church of England's official book offers this long list of suggestions: Here

However, if you give some indications of things you've considered and why they don't work, someone might be able to help narrow it down a bit.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

If the deceased was very old, the Nunc Dimittis would be appropriate.

Was the deceased a practicing believer and if so what sort?

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Depends on the gender of the deceased.

If female and devoted to the home there is the rather good reading from Proverbs (chapter 31, vv 10 to the end) about the price of a good woman being above rubies.

I went to a good funeral a few years ago of a woman who'd been very involved in the fight for women's rights and they had a reading about Deborah - that might be appropriate for someone more, shall we say, feisty!

Generally I find the reading from Revelation (chapter 21, vv 1-7) often hits a chord.

Posted by Adam. (# 4991) on :

I almost always use John 14:1-6, sometimes Isa 25:6-9 too.

[ 14. April 2016, 13:17: Message edited by: Adam. ]

Posted by Sarah G (# 11669) on :

Thanks for the replies so far- some excellent ideas I'll pass on.

The deceased wasn't particularly religious, although he was certainly not anti-church.

I wouldn't say things had been rejected previously- it's more a case of not inspired to use. I'm hoping something in this thread will be the thing for the planners.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

I'd want Lamentations 3.22 at my requiem: "God's mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning". But that hope is not trite because it comes in a context of lamentation.

How much of the lamentation you include is a matter of judgement.

But it might not be helpful. I find it so myself.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

Is this a CofE funeral where the tribute is separate from the sermon? If so, and if it seems the family haven't got a favourite passage they would really like to have read, one option is to ask whoever will be giving the sermon what he or she would like to speak from.

Alternatively, although Jn 14:1-6 is often read at funerals, it is not obligatory. How about Jn 11:7-27, Jesus stretching Martha to believe, Lk 12: 16-32, the rich man building barns, Jn 10:11-18, I am the Good Shepherd, anything from 1 Cor 15 on the resurrection body or Rev 21: 1-7, the New Jerusalem.

Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on :

John 14:1 is one of the lessons in the Prayer Book. The others are I Cor. 15:20 and Romans 8:14. Mt 18:1 is given as an option at the burial of a child.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Fr Weber:
John 14:1 is one of the lessons in the Prayer Book. The others are I Cor. 15:20 and Romans 8:14. Mt 18:1 is given as an option at the burial of a child.

Which Prayer Book? This is going to depend on which denomination and which country Sarah G is in? Can't we assume from the very fact that she is asking the question, that she is in a setting where relevant service books are not that rigidly prescriptive?

TomM, Venbede, L'Organist and I are all answering from a church culture which, whatever the answer to a lot of other questions a person might ask, happens to give a lot of flexibility on the answer to this particular question.

Posted by Sarah G (# 11669) on :

Thanks one last time for all the suggestions. We've decided to go with John 14:1-7.

Interestingly, we're going to use the NKJV version, on the grounds that it does contain the phrase "In My Father’s house are many mansions" without having "ye", "goest" "saith" etc.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

I hope all goes well. Funerals almost always are curiously carthatic irrespective of religious belief, in my experience.

Curiously we just had a discussion in this house about how a mansion in modern usage is grander than a house, so the NRSV "dwelling places" makes more sense.

But "mansions" is the well known term, at least with older people.

Posted by The Scrumpmeister (# 5638) on :

Wisdom 3:1-9 has long struck a chord with me.

Posted by Tibi Omnes (# 18608) on :

I was once called upon to come up with a passage for the gravestone-placement of a Jew who had converted to Buddhism. The placement of the tombstone is traditionally a year after the burial.

The funeral had been several hours of groaning in Tibetan, so everyone was off the hook. The gravestone ceremony was a nod to the still Jewish relatives. I was pressed into the service to come up with a reading in English. I finally hit upon a passage from Ecclesiastes, which was suitably Jewish, unquestionably elegiac, and mentioned "emptiness" often enough to satisfy the Buddhists.

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