29 September 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: John 10:10b-15, 27-30 (Ps 123, 1 Cor 15:51-57)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Dear Calvin and Zoe, family
members, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests, “Peace be
with you!”
Today is indeed a bittersweet
day, a day in which we feel the sting of death, a day of mourning and of loss. But it I also a day of victory over death, of
happy memories, of the triumph of the entry of one of the Lord’s beloved saints
into eternal rest. It is a day of two
opposite extremes.
For even as we mourn, Elodie
enjoys the eternal reward won for all of the Lord’s redeemed by our Lord
Himself at the cross. For Elodie, like
all of us in this fallen world, knew the sting of battle. But in eternity, she knows perfect and
genuine peace.
This is the paradox of the
Christian life.
We live in a world of evil,
of sadness and sickness and death. We
live in a world of disease and pain and the struggles of old age. We live in a world of conflict and bullying
and aggression. We live in the world we
have degraded by our sinfulness and lovelessness.
The Psalmist knew of the
brutality of the human condition in this corrupted world. He prayed: “Have mercy upon us, for we have
had more than enough of contempt. Our
soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the
contempt of the proud.”
This broken, fallen,
corrupted world is why we have lawyers (to protect victims) and pastors (to forgive
the penitent). In this world, pastors
need lawyers and lawyers need pastors.
In eternity, there will be no need for either. But thanks be to God that we limp along
together in this life, plying our vocations to take care of one another out of
love – love for one another, love for God, and love for that which is just and
right and holy.
Like all of us, our dear
sister in Christ Elodie knew about contempt, about jealousy, about
treachery. She excelled in her studies
and advanced to great heights in the academy and in the field of Chemistry –
and did so in a day and age when this was rare for a woman. She suffered the sting of death upon the loss
of her dear husband. Even late in life,
Elodie was not exempt from grievous heartache and unspeakable suffering.
And at the end of her life,
she was rendered weak and frail, bereft of the vivaciousness and vigor that
characterized her long life. Such are
the ravages of this fallen existence.
In her weakness, I prayed
with Elodie: “Lord, let at last thine angels come, to Abram’s bosom, bear me
home, that I may die unfearing.” And on
this day, we pray not for Elodie, but with her.
Today is the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel and all angels. And far from the chubby children and
effeminate creatures depicted in a lot of art, the angels described in the
Bible are fierce warriors, soldiers bearing the sword of the Lord, avenging
evil and defending us from harm – physical and spiritual. St. Michael is often portrayed with a
breastplate and broadsword, slaying the “old evil foe” who “now means deadly
woe.” These heavily armed angelic “watchers”
and “holy ones” do the Lord’s work, and they indeed did their work to bear
Elodie home to her Lord, to her Savior, to her Redeemer, to her God.
And though I am no fierce
archangel, I too had the privilege to bear the sword in defense of Elodie – the
sword of the Word of God, to be an instrument to protect this blessed lady in
her time of weakness and frailty.
Indeed, as St. Paul teaches us, when we are weak, we are strong – for
when we are weak, we do not depend on ourselves, but rather on Him who
strengthens us!
For pastors and angels and
archangels only serve the Lord, whereas the Lord Jesus is God in the
flesh. He is the Good Shepherd who “lays
down His life for the sheep.” He is no
hired hand who flees during times of trouble, but is rather the “Good Shepherd”
who stays and fights and proclaims: “I know My own and My own know Me.” I read this passage to Elodie in her
suffering. For He who suffered for us
strengthens us by His Word, His promise, His very presence.
He says: “My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will
snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
This is the victory that we
have – even in death, dear friends! Even
in death! For Elodie has fought the good
fight and finished the race. She was given the victor’s crown. Early in her life, a pastor placed the sign
of the cross on her forehead in remembrance of the baptism that saved her,
through which the Lord Jesus credited her with His work on the cross. And very late in her life, I repeated this
action, the sign of the cross on her forehead in remembrance of the baptism
that saved her, through which the Lord Jesus reminds all of us that He has claimed
us, branded us as His sheep, marked us with the holy cross, fed us by the word
and watered us by the sacraments. Our Good
Shepherd has defeated the wolf who attacks, and our Good Shepherd leads us
safely to green pastures and still waters.
The Lord still provides His
angels – as well as human helpers – like lawyers and pastors – to guide and
protect His people from evil.
For we are not immune from
evil. We sin much daily in thought,
word, and deed. Elodie was a sinner, as
is everyone here today, as is everyone on the planet. We need God’s forgiveness and His grace. This is why the Psalmist prays “Have mercy
upon us, O Lord.” This is why our Lord
went to the cross. This is why we are
baptized, why we confess our sins, why we receive the Holy Sacraments, and why we
rejoice to hear the words of the Gospel.
And when our day of death comes, in Christ we can rejoice with St. Paul,
saying: “Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory? O
death, where is your sting.”
“For this perishable body”
says St. Paul in the Holy Scriptures, “must put on the imperishable, and this
mortal body must put on immortality.”
Dear friends, this is the
central mystery of the Christian faith.
For “the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Today is indeed a bittersweet
day – bitter for us as we must endure (at least for a time) the sting of
death. But it is a sweet day, a day in
which death has been defeated: at the cross, at the baptismal font, at the
communion rail, and in the Word of God.
Elodie has conquered death because Christ has conquered death!
This is why the angels, the
“watchers” and “holy ones… raise the glad strain: ‘Alleluia!’” This is why the “bearer of the eternal Word most
gracious” magnifies the Lord. This is
why the “souls in endless rest” join with the Twelve, the martyrs, and all the
saints triumphant – including Blessed Elodie – to sing the heavenly “Alleluia!”
Oh, what their joy and their glory must be,
Those endless Sabbaths the blessed ones see!
Crowns for the valiant, to weary ones rest;
God shall be all, and in all ever blest.
In New Jerusalem joy shall be found,
Blessings of peace shall forever abound;
Wish and fulfillment are not severed there,
Nor the things prayed for come short of the prayer.
Peace be with you! Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment