Sermon: Funeral of Joy Selby

13 April 2021

Text: John 10:10b-15, 27-30 (Job 19:23-27, Rom 6:3-11)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Dear Ron, Daniel, Ben, Mike, Mark, and Jon; family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: peace be with you.

Traditionally, one’s first name is called one’s “Christian name.”  This is because the first name is typically given to a child at Holy Baptism.  And one’s Christian name is traditionally that of a biblical figure or a saint.  In the case of our dear sister in Christ, Joy, her name is the quintessentially biblical name, for the word “joy” appears in the Bible some 180 times. 

Most people probably think that the word “joy” just means “happy.”  But it is so much more than that.  For happiness is just an emotion.  Sometimes we are happy, and sometimes we aren’t – but in our Christian faith, we are joyful because even though we live in the fallen world, even though we suffer pain and sickness and death, even though we mourn and experience sadness – our joy is undiminished.  For we Christians are joyful even when we are unhappy, for we have received the promise of God that we have been forgiven our sins, we have been given the promise of everlasting life, and we have the promise that we will rise again in the flesh.

This joyful promise was given to Joy at her Holy Baptism.  And that is why some Christian parents choose to name their beloved daughters “Joy.” 

For all parents know that life has its ups and downs, its happiness and sadness, its successes and its failures – and thanks to sin: both our own and that sinful nature that we have inherited from our ancestors all the way back to Adam and Eve – death itself is part of life in this fallen world.

But as Christians, dear friends, even though we mourn, even though we suffer, even though we experience grief – we still have our joy in the promises of God given to us at Baptism, that joy which we confess in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The ancient writer Job suffered unbelievable hardships – and in his suffering and mourning, even his wife and closest friends added to his misery.  But in spite of his seemingly never-ending pain, Job held on to the promise of God.  In that, he expressed joy even in intense suffering.  “For I know,” said Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”

Job confessed, just as we did, that we “look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”  Job was sustained through his hardships by his faith, his belief in the promise of the resurrection to come.

Not long ago, dear friends, we went through yet another Good Friday and we celebrated Easter Sunday: calling to mind, and mourning, our Lord’s death, but also rejoicing in His victory over the grave.  And St. Paul explained to us yet again that “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death,” and “if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”

That is why we draped Joy’s casket with the white pall, dear brothers and sisters.  It is a symbol of the white robe of righteousness given to Joy that covers all her sin.  It is the gift and the promise that because our Lord Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, Joy too will rise again.

This ironclad promise and reality is the source of our joy even in the midst of death, dear friends.  We hold on to this promise of God, sealed upon us at Holy Baptism, knowing that God keeps His Word.  And though we mourn, we do not mourn without hope.  We are bold as to express defiant joy even in our sorrow.  For we hold God to His promises.

This is because Jesus “came that [we] may have life and have it abundantly.”  He came to conquer death and give us life.  He “lays down His life for the sheep,” for He is the Good Shepherd.  He doesn’t run away like a hired hand, but fights for us, even to the point of dying on the cross to save us.  And we “hear [His] voice,” for He knows us and we follow Him.  This was Joy’s confession as a baptized child of God, who took the Holy Sacrament year after year, who believed the promise, in good times and bad – even as she suffered with declining health.  Listen to the promise of Jesus, dear friends: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

Jesus is indeed the Good Shepherd who leads us to green pastures and still waters.  Though we walk through death’s valley, we fear no evil.  Even in the face of death, we have the joy of the comfort that the Lord is with us, and we will rise again, in the flesh, to be reunited with our loved ones, to live eternally in a restored body that will not suffer and will not die, and we will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Our Lord Himself said to His disciples: “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

Dear friends, it is fitting to for us to mourn, being separated for a time from our beloved ones.  It is painful, and nothing minimizes the hurt of this loss.  But in spite of it all, let us not forget that Joy’s parents gave her the Christian name “Joy,” which is a reminder that through it all, we confess the joy set before us in the promises of God, given to us as a free gift in Christ Jesus our Lord.  So let us mourn, but let us mourn as those who have hope, who know that our Redeemer lives, who confess that those who are baptized and who believe have salvation in Christ Jesus, our Good Shepherd from whose hand no one can snatch us.

Let us take to heart our Lord’s promise that even in the our sorrow, “No one will take your joy from you.”

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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