Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
In
the midst of life, we are in death;
from
whom can we seek help?
From
You alone, O Lord,
who
by our sins are justly angered.
Holy
God, holy and mighty, holy and merciful Savior,
deliver
us not into the bitterness of eternal death.
We
stand here, alive and well today, yet surrounded by death. A cemetery
is a great reminder of the fact of our own mortality. The grass grows
green and the trees sway, and on a quiet day you can hear the birds
and animals from the woods nearby. And yet here we are surrounded by
death. Death stares us in the face. In the midst of life, we are in
death. Who will save us from this?
