by Bishop Charles Sommer

Today we are gathered here to pay tribute to the joy the ___________________ brought into the world during his/her ______years and to release form our heart and minds his/her spirit to move on in the next dimension of expression. We are all born of God…an Everlasting God, and our lives are the life of God forever and ever expanding. We know that ______________is a child of God and that his/her spirit has moved on to do the work of his/her loving Creator.

As mortal expression of the Spirit of Life, we often identify more with the flesh than with the spirit. The flesh seems more real than the spirit. That which is immortal know the Truth, the flesh is nothing without the Spirit.

It seems that the Spirit that we call ________________donned the robe of flesh for ________ good years. _____________purpose for expressing in this outer garment is over. Life is for living and be certain that _____________is living in another dimension of God. It is through the eternal loving kindness of the Father of Creation that we are able to discard the robes of flesh that are diseased, that have deteriorated that are damaged, are obsolete. Each of us, in the harmony and order of the Universe, are moving into a greater awareness; that life is eternal: that life is Good: that there is only One Life, the Life of God and it is being perfected through each of us.

We are all aware that cancer (or any other dis-ease) entered into the outer garment of ___________ and appeared to take his/her life. This is the opportunity for us to become aware of the law of Spirit. Dr. Ernest Holmes has said: “The law of Spirit is elimination and obliteration of anything unlike Itself.” Cancer only appears to be ungodly, unjust and like a soiled garment, it is taken off by a loving hand. _____________ life is the life of God and can neither be created nor destroyed. _____________is serving the divine plan of the Father in removing his/her soiled garment and the garment that ______________is now wearing is not discernable to most of us on this level of expression.

In a letter by St. Paul to the Colossians 3:2 he says: “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” We have been told to separate the wheat from the chaff. In the Bible the psalms tell us that “the ungodly are not so”, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Cancer appears like the chaff. Sometimes the cancer is washed out of the garment and sometimes the garment is removed. Let us be assured there is Divine Guidance to all forms of expression and we are most thankful that _____________was able to take off the soiled outer garment.

In the book of Psalms one of God’s children wrote: “How excellent is the loving kindness, Oh God! Therefore the children of men and women let us put our trust under the shadow of thy wing”. Put our trust in the eternal Spirit which is our life, the Life of God.

One of the most beautiful inspired poems ever written and put into the Bible is the 23rd Psalm. This Psalm is so practical. The author of life must have written it. It tells us life is abundant, “I shall not want”. Life is not the struggle we make of it. When we get into the flow, we have discovered the still waters that restoreth the soul. When we follow the path of right thinking, we will fear no evil because we are centered in the Principle of Peace an attribute of the Absolute Beingness of God. An attribute that is always Present despite the appearance of illness. We are all children of God, anointed to live in His/Her Presence forever. No matter what we call God: He/She/It we are reminded by the 23rd Palms that “Thou prepared a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” That is a beautiful metaphor: the table represents the place (state of consciousness) were spiritual principles are eaten (realized). Eternal Peace is real as we enter the unadulterated Mind of God. The enemy which we call cancer is made up of confused cells. The malignancy is often a call to Love. Love is the essential ingredient that heals all wounds, even the wounds of grief. Let us now enter into the Peace that passeth ordinary understanding. As we do this we are eating the fruits of the kingdom, we have been anointed with expanded awareness and our cup runneth over with Love. Our Love for ___________ does runneth over.

Amen!