Sermon: Funeral of Gay Dingler

11 March 2020

Text: John 14:1-6 (Isa 25:6-9, 1 Cor 13:1-13)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Dear Joe, Michael, Michelle, Mark, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: Peace be with you!

For some of you, today will rank among the most difficult days that you have had to experience, as the burden of losing a loved one, a dear one, a beloved one such as Gay, presses hard upon us.  And yet, there is indeed comfort in the love of family and friends who draw together, grieving together, remembering together, crying together, and even laughing together.

And especially you, Joe, you are blessed to have such loving, devoted children and a family that you and Gay brought into the world to bring you comfort even in a time such as this.

And the greatest comfort is found in the Word of God.  For there is Good News there.  The Scriptures testify of our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered and died to pay for our sins, and who rose again to destroy death, and to turn the grave into something temporary.

We Christians mourn the loss of our loved ones.  We sure do.  But as St. Paul says, we don’t mourn as unbelievers do, for we have hope: hope of the resurrection according to the Lord’s promise.  And keep in mind what “resurrection” means: it means to be raised again in the body.  We Christians don’t believe that we die and live as spirits forever in heaven, playing a harp in the clouds.  We Christians do not believe that our loved ones become angels.  Angels don’t have bodies.  They are spirits.  They cannot eat.  They cannot embrace loved ones.  They cannot marry or have children or grandchildren.  Angels cannot participate in Taco Tuesday.  No indeed, becoming an angel is not what our Lord has in store for our dear sister in Christ, Gay Elizabeth Hamilton Dingler.  Instead, the Lord promises to raise her, bodily, from the dead.

All of the precious memories that I have heard from Gay’s family involve joys of the body: the look on her face as loved ones came to visit, her tears of joy upon being with grandchildren, and yes, Taco Tuesdays and cookouts.  Gay is not an angel, she is a human being created in the image of God!  She is a bodily person unique in the history of humanity.  And because of sin, because our world is fallen, because our ancestors fell into sin, because we too sin – we are mortal.  We die.  But thanks be to God that Jesus says He has gone to “prepare a place for” Gay and for us.  Angels don’t need a “place.”  But we, who live in bodies, do!  Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many rooms.”  He has prepared a room for Gay, so that her face can again light up when loved ones visit.  Scripture speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, and the restoration of our bodies – without age, without sickness, without wearing out. 

When Gay was bodily baptized into Christ, she received the promise of the “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  And when I would bring her the body and blood of Christ – as her health often made it difficult for her to come forward – she received her Lord bodily from my hand.  She needed Christ brought to her, because she recognized her need and knew just what He promised her!  She was overjoyed when Joe was baptized and was unquestionably brought into the promise with her.  At every service, Gay confessed her own sinfulness, and she confessed Jesus as her Savior.  And what this means, dear friends, is that our mourning is temporary.  For we all await the resurrection and our eternal reunion in the flesh, in our bodies, where we will once more eat and drink and embrace and look one another in the eyes – never again to be separated, and never again to endure age and suffering.  Never again, dear brothers and sisters!  This is not my promise, it is Christ’s promise!  It is why He came into our world.  It is why Gay was baptized.

For listen again to what eternity is like from the prophet Isaiah; “On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.”  Again, this is not the life of angels, but of human beings created bodily in God’s image, made perfect through our Lord Jesus Christ.  “He will swallow up death forever,” says the Lord.  “The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.”  “Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

Many of Gay’s beloved friends know her from her tireless work as a nurse: ministering to the needs of the body.  And this is a holy vocation of compassion, a work of love for people who are suffering in their bodies.  Again, this is not something the angels can relate to: only fleshly human beings.  Love is not a feeling or emotion; love is action based on self-denial and thinking of others.  Gay’s service as a nurse was a reflection of the love of Christ for all of us.  He worked through her.  Her vocation is a mirror of the Lord’s mercy that expressed itself in His healing of the sick.  The nurse’s work is at times hard and unpleasant, but it is an offering of love.

And we are called to emulate the virtues of the saints, to see how they loved others, and we, looking to Christ, conform our lives into this pattern of love.  And though in this life, we are imperfect, we recognize love: It is patient and kind, it doesn’t envy or boast, it isn’t arrogant or rude, it isn’t self-directed or mean-spirited or filled with resentment.  Rather love “rejoices with the truth.  It “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  And as St. Paul teaches us in the Holy Scriptures, “the greatest of these [virtues] is love.” 

Christ loves Gay.  He placed His own name on her in Holy Baptism.  He fed her with His body and blood.  He strengthened her faith.  He worked through her own love and compassion and calling to serve her husband, her children, her grandchildren, and many, many of her friends in this life – even total strangers!  And Jesus has now called her home to be with Him.  Jesus has prepared a place for Gay, and He will raise her in the body on the last day.

There will be more Taco Tuesdays and opportunities to share a joyful meal together.  There will be tears of reunion, and hugs, and the joy of being together in bodies restored to perfection.  We will see her again, and we will rejoice.  We will be in the presence of Jesus, and we will be the people that we were created to be all along.  God will “wipe away tears from all faces.”  And we indeed have a place prepared by our Lord Jesus Christ, a place of many rooms in our Father’s house. 

And again, as difficult as it is to say goodbye for the time being, we will once more greet one another in eternity.  And this, dear friends, is what St. Paul means by “hope.”  We have “hope” because we have the promise.  Yes, we mourn, but we mourn in the joyful expectation of eternity: an eternity of life in bodies that will never again be parted from one another.  And this is how it is that our Lord invites us right here and right now, through our tears, and in the midst of sorrow, to laugh defiantly at the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh.  For the Lord’s promise is for Gay, for you, for me, and for all who believe.  We are being prepared day by day to be reunited.  And we look forward to it!

Peace be with you!  Amen.

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