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How this collection was chosen

Read with care

We chose passages that can be read aloud as coherent units and that approach loss from different directions. Some explicitly teach resurrection; others simply show people mourning together. They should not be combined into a claim about any particular person’s final state.

Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 15 make claims within larger arguments. Read those chapters before choosing a line for a service. Avoid using a verse to explain why someone died or to tell mourners how quickly they should feel better.

How to use these passages

Read a candidate aloud and consult the family and officiant on length and translation. A psalm or Gospel narrative may suit a gathering differently from a letter. Leave room for silence and personal remembrance alongside the reading.

Nine places to begin

Passages from this collection

This editorial collection contains 40 distinct passages. Read these examples in context, or use the generator to discover more.

Psalm 23:1-6

A Psalm by David. Yahweh is my shepherd; I shall lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in Yahweh’s house forever.

Read Psalm 23 →
Psalm 90:12

So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Read Psalm 90 →
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Read Ecclesiastes 3 →
Isaiah 25:8

He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.

Read Isaiah 25 →
John 11:32-36

Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!”

Read John 11 →
1 Corinthians 15:20-22

But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep. For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

Read 1 Corinthians 15 →
Revelation 21:1-4

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people; and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.”

Read Revelation 21 →
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