Here is t
he full manuscript for today’s sermon, which is the first in this series. The audio will be online, probably by Wednesday. Next Sunday, May 8, we will hear perspectives from our Associate Pastor (and former Congregational Care Minister), the Rev. Stephen Coleman.
Last Sunday night, I was answering questions posed to me by members of our Youth Group when I was asked this question: “Why are we having a sermon series on death anyway?” As it turns out, this series represents our return to the Revised Common Lectionary readings for a while, and these readings just happen to include passages from the Farewell Discourse of Jesus, found in the Gospel of John, chapters 14 through 17, wherein Jesus prepares his disciples for his impending death and resurrection.
I remember that it was a about fifteen years ago, that it was a Sunday, and we were in that short period of time between Sunday School and the 11:00 service when she told us. Her name was Edith Woods, a woman in her seventies, and on that particular Sunday, she was characteristically poised and elegant.
Adam Hamilton, author and founding pastor of the 20,000 member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas offers 
Sunday night, I was answering questions posed to me by members of our Youth Group when I was asked this question: “Why are we having a sermon series on death anyway?” It is a good and fair question that I have been waiting for someone to ask me. Here is why:
A little over twenty years ago, as I was preparing for my own ordination, I read somewhere that there are essentially five milestones in the Christian life. Some of us experience all of them, while others only experience a few. These milestones are birth, baptism, confirmation, marriage, and death.
Remember that time in January, 2016 when we cancelled worship because of a blizzard and I recorded a sermon on Christian unity and put it on YouTube? Me either! At any rate, here it is. If you look carefully, you can see that I am doing everything in my power to avoid moving because the chair I was sitting in was so squeaky. 
What follows are the words to a hymn I wrote years ago for a Virginia Conference United Methodist devotional guide called “A Summer Read.” We used it in worship on April 10, 2016 as part of our
Going on to Imperfection 