κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there is no tip-toeing around this: Death is our enemy. We don’t want it to be. We devise ways to deny it, to whitewash it, to wish it away. We create euphemisms to deal with it. We like to say our loved ones passed away or that they fought the good fight, anything to soften the reality of death.  We do that because death is our enemy.  It bothers us and chases us and harasses us. We can’t escape it.  It scares us and afflicts us and plagues us. It disrupts our lives. There is no stopping it, eluding it, or wishing it away. Death is our enemy. So today ... my dear brothers and sisters in Christ ... as we mourn the death of our beloved mother, and grandmother, great grandmother ... our sister and friend, Elizabeth June Barnett ... I want to draw your attention to our reading from Isaiah chapter 25, where we hear one of the great promises of the Lord God Almighty, the creator and redeemer and sanctifier of all things in heaven and on ...