Grief and Hope
Despite the strength and comfort we may derive from the all-loving
embrace of those around us, we must go alone to the darkness of
missing our loved one. We must cry and talk to God as we slowly
let the reality of it sink in. Nobody can do that for us or even
with us. Nobody, that is, except God. And God can't help until we
let him.

Death is where the rubber hits the road. Christianity is all about
surviving death. Christianity hinges on the promise of eternal life.
The main product of our faith is the promise and the hope that
death is not the end of things. The promise of eternal life is,
you might say, the main stock in trade of Christianity. We are
promised that if we are part of the body of Christ, our membership
assures us that we will survive death; our spirit will live on and
someday our body will be resurrected. That's the promise.

--From the sermon "Grief and Hope"
by The Rev. William A. Kolb

Read the sermon in its entirety.