The end of earthly life and funerals are not alien territory for the Christian.
These circumstance involve distinctive experiences of suffering, loss and separation, and Christian funerals acknowledge and minister to all of these.
However Christianity embraces a reality that we are all dying.
We have died and risen again in spiritual union with Jesus, and we will experience physical death and resurrection as we share eternal life with Jesus.
As well as ministry in grief, Christian funerals are own our affirmation of our own deaths
From Thomas G. Long’s Accompany Them With Singing – The Christian Funeral.
The Christian faith intends to blur the boundary between the dying and the living. From the vantage point of the gospel, we are all dying, and when we are in the presence of those whose days have grown short, we are not gazing in horror at those who reside in a strange and alien territory. Rather, we are viewing, with love and understanding, brothers and sisters with whom we share an experience.
Thomas G. Long, Accompany Them With Singing – The Christian Funeral, Westminster John Knox Press, 2013 paperback edition, originally published 2009, pg. 108.
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