Alternative Funeral Service - Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru

O Lord, you have searched me out and known me:
you know my sitting down and my rising up, you discern my thoughts from afar.
You mark out my journeys and my resting place:
and are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue:
but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
You encompass me behind and before:
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me:
so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go then from your spirit:
or where can I flee from your presence?
If I climb up to heaven, you are there:
if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.
If I take the wings of the morning:
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there your hand shall lead me:
your right hand hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me:
and the light around me turn to night”,
Even darkness is no darkness with you, the night is as clear as the day:
darkness and light to you are both alike.
I thank you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are your works, my soul knows well.
Psalm 139.1-11, 13
Funeral Services
But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”
How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not
plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God
gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is
raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is
raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
I Corinthians 15.35-38, 42-44a
After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one
because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate
gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first
come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about
a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen
cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place
where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever
been laid.
And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid
Jesus there.
John 19.38-end
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