Vicars tend to see a lot of death; it is not too much of an exaggeration to say that we bury people for a living. And if you ply us with enough alcohol, we will usually admit we have only a limited number of funeral sermons; we (hopefully) personalise them, but the theme is usually drawn from the same small pool. However, a couple of weeks ago I read an obituary of the former Bishop of Birmingham, Mark Santer. He requested a quotation from St Augustine on death that I had not previously come across. I will now be adding it to my themes for funeral sermons.
“There we shall rest and we shall see; we shall see and we shall love; we shall love and we shall praise. That is what shall be in the end without end. For what is our end but to arrive at the kingdom which has no end?”
Rev David Poyner