XX – Judgement

Let me tell you a joke. The quickest and cruelest of all. It goes like this; everybody dies.
And afterwards?
Well, I don’t know.
Judgement is not the business of the living.

We didn't bring anything into this world; we definitely won't take anything with us. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Praise God.
Those born of women don’t live very long and are not very happy. We grow and are cut down like flowers; we flee like shadows and don’t stay.
In the middle of life we are in death; who can we go to for aid but you, Lord, who are right to be angry that we have done wrong?
Yet, holy Lord, all-powerful God, kind and holy Saviour, don’t give us the bitter pain of eternal death.
You know, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; don’t close your kind ears to our prayers, but spare us, holy Lord, all-powerful God, kind and holy Saviour, good judge forever; don’t let us, in our last hour, turn away from you.

Κύριε ἐλέησον
Χριστὲ ἐλέησον
Κύριε ἐλέησον

As God in his great kindness has been happy to take the souls of our dear dead brothers and sisters, we give their bodies to the ground. Earth turns to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Yet I will show you something strange. We will not sleep, but we will all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the last trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised free from sin and decay. For this rotten body must become the body which cannot be harmed. Then this saying will have come true; Death is defeated. Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? Praise God, who has given us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.