This post was chosen as newsworthy at Sensus Divinitatis News….

I will have to read this several times to grasp what Luther is saying between the lines, but the points you make Michael do make a lot of sense. As one who has suffered great pain physically and emotionally I can say “Amen” to your saying that offering words of counsel and encouragement when someone is bleeding all over the place is about the worst thing one can do. Silence is golden in those moments and just being there for the sufferer is priceless. We want to re-arrange drapes, get a glass of water, get another pillow… do something to ease the pain. But we can’t and ought to recognize it. There is nothing more like finger nails on the chalkboard than someone who says “Praise God for it brother” to you when all you feel like doing is cursing God.

Death never was God’s design no doubt, even though he has chosen to reach in and redeem something so terrible in his good, and most often times I’d say, hidden ways.

So God is “glorified” in disasters when they are turned into occasions of preaching the Cross and hope for sinners.

“Joe held firm to the promises of his Savior to forgive his sins and lead him to eternal life. Christ has defeated death and the grave in His death and resurrection. Therefore we can be certain that today Joe is with Christ in heaven and will one day be bodily resurrected.”

I think it is interesting that Jesus wept with grief for Lazarus, even when He knew that Lazarus would be raised from the dead in a few minutes! Death is unnatural, the final product of our sinful lives. It destroys the relationships that sustain us as humans. Death deserves our sorrow and our rage.

But in Christ, death is swallowed up, abolished. Ultimately, our tears will be wiped away and turned to joy.

There it is. Comfort for those who grieve and the saving Gospel proclaimed for all in attendance, without coersion, threat, or heavy-handed proseletyzing. Of course, if you are called upon to perform a funeral for someone who was not a Christian, you would have to take a very different tack.

I do know the answer to that one. Because – like me – the dumb cat trips you, or because – again, like me – you’re too dumb to turn on the light in the middle of the might…