30 March 2013 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: John 10:14-15, 27-30 (Rev 7:9-17, Rom 8:28-39)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Dear Claire, Amie, Jennifer,
Robert, Charles, Christa, Michael, family, friends, brothers and sisters in
Christ, and honored guests, peace be with you!
Today is Holy Saturday, a day
of “now” but “not yet.” For on this day,
Christians around the world are caught in the middle of two extremes of sadness
and joy. We have commemorated the Lord’s
crucifixion on Good Friday, in which our blessed Lord declared victory over
death and the grave by crying out: “It is finished!” – and yet, on the day
after Good Friday, He lies in a tomb awaiting His resurrection. The Creator who created the world in six days
takes His Sabbath rest in the tomb, and on the eighth day, the first week of
the new creation, will rise again in glory to claim His victory to the world.
This “now” but “not yet” is
where Robert is right now. For Robert
has borne his own share of crosses, of sorrows, of suffering in this fallen world.
And indeed, “now” he rests in peace,
taking His place as a baptized child of God called to his heavenly home, but “not
yet” being raised bodily from the dead.
Dear friends, we find
ourselves in this same Holy Saturday no-man’s land, caught between the “now” of
the cross, of our baptism, and of the promises of God in Christ, and the “not
yet” of our own “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” We also seem to be stuck between the “now” of
life in this fallen world – a vale of tears, a world of mourning and loss, of
pain, suffering, struggle, and yes, our own deaths – between this “now” and the
“not yet” of the promised world to come, in which we will surround the throne
of the Lamb rejoicing and “crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to
our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Our dear brother Robert has preceded us to
this heavenly banquet where, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore….
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne
will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and
God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” For Robert, this is an eternal “now,” even
though for us, it is a promised “not yet.”
Robert has this existence in
eternity not owing to his own goodness. For nobody is perfect. We are all poor, miserable sinners, none
righteous, no not one. We are all sheep
that have gone astray, all of us are condemned to death by virtue of our own
iniquities. For the wages of sin is
death. It was because of our iniquities
that our Lord was crucified and suffered death for us. And when, in His death, He was pierced for
our transgressions on Good Friday, water and blood flowed from the side of His sacrificial
body. Dear friends, Robert was washed in
that baptismal water, and partook of that saving blood, and lives forever in
the promise of one who has eaten the saving body of Christ, taking part in that
cosmic sacrifice of the Lamb who bears the guilt of our sins unto forgiveness
and eternal life.
And starting tonight,
Christians around the world will joyfully proclaim the resurrection of our Lord.
And because He lives, Robert lives! For just as I read to Robert only hours before
he left this side of the grave, it was our once-dead and now risen Lord Himself
who promised: “I am the Good Shepherd. I
know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the
Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 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 My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is
greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Dear brothers and sisters, no
one is able to snatch the Lord’s redeemed out of His nail-scarred hands that
have rescued us, that embrace us, and that protect us from the assaults of the
devil, the fallen world, and even our own flesh. Robert is one of the Lord’s sheep, marked with
the sign of the cross and forgiven of all his sins, all by the work of our Lord
on the cross, and given to him as a free gift through the Lord’s ministry of
Word and sacrament.
It was my great privilege to
give Robert this good news of Jesus Christ and to share with him the body and
blood of the Lord over the course of many years.
And this is how even in the
face of death, even in our sadness and mourning, even in our own mortality, we
can proclaim with St. Paul: “We know that for those who love God all things
work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”
And we are comforted by the
words of the holy apostle: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against?.... Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”
Paul answers his own
question: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who
loved us. For I am sure that neither
death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This promise is for Robert,
dear friends, and it is for all of us who likewise confess the faith once
delivered to the saints. For us, Holy
Saturday bridges the gap between Good Friday and the Easter that is sure to
follow. For in Christ, life is wrenched
from death, and death itself is swallowed up in victory: Christ’s victory,
Robert’s victory, and our victory!
We are indeed in that Holy
Saturday gap between the “now” and the “not yet.” But we have the promises of the Risen Christ,
dear friends, and we have the testimony of His empty tomb.
Tomorrow, we will rejoice in
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Robert’s Good Shepherd who promises
eternal life to Robert and all who believe. And let us join Robert and all the saints
gathered around the throne of the Lamb to sing their unending hymn: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.
The peace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all, now and forever.
Amen.
In the name of the
Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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