Sermon: Funeral of Carolyn Wolfram

26 September 2018

Text: John 11:20-27 (Isa 25:6-9, 2 Cor 4:7-18)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen. 

Dear Michael and Randy; Beverly, Merlin, and Tommy; family and friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: peace be with you.

Although Carolyn had been battling cancer, this was unexpected, and so sudden.  She had received good news and we were assured by doctors that she was doing well.  But of course, there are no guarantees.  We are saddened.  We mourn Carolyn, and all of our loved ones.  Death is certainly not our friend.  In fact, death is our bitter enemy.

When she was just a year old, Pastor Eugene Schmid baptized Carolyn in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in accordance with the command and promise of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Pastor Schmid also instructed Carolyn in the Christian faith that she knew so well, and she was confirmed at the age of 13.  Her confirmation verse was Jesus saying, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  All throughout her life, Carolyn heard the Good News that Jesus conquered death, the truth that sets us free.

Carolyn understood what death was and is: a consequence for sin, as Adam and Eve obeyed the voice of the serpent instead of God’s command.  God told Adam that “you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  God told Eve that motherhood would now be painful.  God told the Serpent that the “Seed of the Woman” will destroy you.  Our world has been disordered ever since.

Carolyn was my parishioner and a faithful attendee of our Wednesday evening services.  One Wednesday every year was different for Carolyn.  On the day after Mardi Gras, I would take ashes and place them on Carolyn’s forehead – along with everyone else.  I remind all of us of the words God spoke to Adam: “Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  I would do this, and say this, to infants and the elderly, wealthy and poor, men and women, people of every race and ethnicity, those whom we consider good and those whom we consider not so good: “Remember, O man…”  And then, from the pulpit and from the altar, I see what you do not see: faces of people all marked for death.  I know that some of those with the ashen forehead, I will bury.  It is a reminder of something we live our lives trying not to think about.

But even on those somber Ash Wednesdays, there is cause for rejoicing.  For God told the serpent that the Seed of the Woman would come and redeem mankind, that He would be our champion and savior, and that death would be destroyed forever.  That Seed of the Woman is Jesus, who died to pay for the sins of Adam and Eve, of Carolyn, and of you and me.  And so those ashes are placed on the foreheads of the redeemed people of God in the shape of a cross.  

For at Carolyn’s baptism, Pastor Schmid traced a cross on Carolyn’s forehead and over her heart.  This is why many Christians have the custom of signing themselves with the cross: it is a reminder of baptism and its promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation!  

For Jesus, like Carolyn, died suddenly.  And Carolyn, like Jesus, will rise bodily just as suddenly.  Death could not hold Jesus in the tomb, and death will not hold Carolyn in the tomb!  The prophet Isaiah, whom we heard anew, speaks of a feast of “rich food” and “well-aged wine” after death has been swallowed up.  Death is like a veil, as it hides our loved ones from us.  But it is temporary, dear friends, for God “will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.”  And even in the face of loss and death, even as we mourn, even through our tears that God promises to take away from us, we can say, “let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

St. Paul reminded us that life is a “treasure” – but it is contained in “jars of clay.”  The glory is God’s, not ours.  And “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”  St. Paul speaks the promise of God: “We also believe, and so we speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus.”

The Word of Jesus is the Word of life.  And God works through His Word.  He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  And He commanded Lazarus in His tomb: “Lazarus, come out!” and Lazarus came out of the tomb.  

Just before raising Lazarus, Jesus met Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, at the funeral.  Jesus told Martha: “Your brother will rise again.”  Martha had faith in the words of Jesus, and she said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”  And “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in Me, though He die, yet shall he live.”

Some people may think that Jesus is just a wise sage from ancient times whose message consisted of telling us to be good and nice.  Some people may think Christianity is just a system of ethics and rules for living.  Carolyn did not believe this.  She knew better.  She knew, and she knows, who Jesus is.  When asked “Do you believe this?” – that Jesus is the resurrection and the life – Carolyn’s answer was, like Martha's: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Dear friends, Carolyn was taken from us suddenly.  We cannot explain it.  God did not tell us why.  But what He did tell us, and what He does tell us, is that He conquered death by dying on the cross, and by rising again from the dead: promising the same bodily resurrection of those who are baptized and believe.  This was, and is, Carolyn’s confession.  And just as suddenly as we experienced her departure, we will experience a glorious reunion with her and with all who believe.  

Think of this every time it rains, knowing that God provides the water and that God promises new life through water and His Word in Holy Baptism.  Think of this every time you visit a cemetery, knowing that death is only temporary.  It has been conquered, and it doesn’t have the final say.  Think of this every time you see a picture of Carolyn, knowing that God created her, and God redeemed her in Jesus Christ, and that you will see her again!

Let us remember that “God will wipe away tears from all faces” and we can indeed, even here and now, be so bold to say: “let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”  

Peace be with you.  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.