Text: Luke 2:
25-38 (Rev 21:1-7, 1 Cor 15:51-57)
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Dear Jerry, Tracy, Tammy, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: “Peace be with you.”
We gathered here in this very sanctuary ten years ago, and we celebrated Holy Communion with the same hymns that we will sing today, and two of the three same readings from Scripture. For we are confessing the same Good News that we celebrated when Mary’s beloved husband John was brought here after he was called home a decade ago. It seems strange to talk of “Good News” on such a sad day, but today is only sad for us, dear friends. It is not sad for Mary. It is not sad for John. And though we are grieved and truly mourn at losing Mary, we are filled with joy knowing that we will see her again, in the flesh, and we will be separated no more for all eternity.
So we join St. Paul in asking, with snark and sarcasm: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” We taunt death because Jesus died and rose again, promising eternal life to those who are baptized and who believe in Him, those who put their trust in His Word, in His promise. For indeed, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” And that victory is Mary’s victory, it is John’s victory, and it is our victory, dear brothers and sisters.
John and Mary were a unique couple. For decades, Mary followed Jesus, and John did not. I had the joy to baptize John when he was approaching seventy years of age. I also had the joy to visit him with Holy Communion when he would call me up and ask to receive the Sacrament. I also enjoyed friendship with John, and a few Coronas, or should I say, Coronitas? Many times we would enjoy dinner with the Ryans, and Mary joined us in the Coronitas, but she was more partial to Chardonnay. We thoroughly enjoyed our visits – and all the more because we would share another food and drink with John and Mary: the Lord’s body and blood. For the last years of John’s life, Mary was able to share in receiving Holy Communion with John in their home, even as Mary was able to attend church, while physical infirmity kept John away. He only made it into this sanctuary once, after he had been called to his heavenly home, when we sang about Holy Baptism, the joy of the blessed ones, the love of our King, and the mystery of the resurrection – just as we are doing today.
Once again, we reflect on the promises made to John and Mary at their baptisms, promises they affirmed every time they ate the body of Christ and drank the blood of Christ, every time they confessed their sins and received Holy Absolution, every time they heard the preaching of the Good News from Scripture that Jesus died on the cross so that we might live, that His blood atones for all of our sins, and we have the promise of everlasting life because of the gift He gives to us!
We hear the promise in Scripture of what John and Mary await together, and what we await as well where we are on this side of glory: the new heaven, the new earth, a resurrected body freed from age and aches and pains and mortality, a new existence in a perfect paradise, never more to be separated. For God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
This promise revealed by Jesus to the apostle John in the Revelation is shown to us in St. Paul’s first letter to the Christians in Corinth as well: “The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” And when this remarkable restoration happens, “when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying” that we considered earlier: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” The victory over death is Christ’s victory, dear friends, and that is why we mourn on Good Friday and we rejoice on Easter Sunday – and that victory has been given to John, to Mary, and to each one of us who have been baptized and believe on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Gospel reading that we heard is different than what we heard ten years ago. For the child Jesus being brought to the temple for His presentation is a feast that the church will celebrate in just a couple weeks. And today’s Gospel reading from St. Luke is that account. And in this narrative, we meet two elderly people: Simeon and Anna. And though Simeon was advanced in years, he was not yet ready to die – that is until he encountered Jesus. Then, he would be prepared to “depart in peace, according to [God’s] Word.” For his eyes finally saw salvation, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory for [God’s] people Israel.” Only when St. Simeon fulfilled his life’s greatest meaning in encountering the Christ and confessing him would the Lord see fit to call him home.
St. Simeon’s story is John Ryan’s story, dear friends. It is Mary’s story too. And it is our story. And every time Mary came to church for Divine Service, and every time I came to their house so that John could commune, we sang those very words after receiving the Lord’s body and blood – just as we will again today, dear friends: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to thy Word.” For our eyes have seen His salvation. This is the church’s song, dear friends – both our song in the Church Militant, and John and Mary’s song in the Church Triumphant.
Our Gospel reading also spoke of an elderly woman, a widow named Anna. She was a “prophetess,” which is to say, she was familiar with the Word of God. And she lived a long time with her husband before he preceded her in death. She was in her eighties. And as a widow, “she did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.” And she would tell everyone about her hope of “redemption” in Christ. And like Simeon, Anna had the joy of encountering Jesus in His very flesh and blood.
Mary is very much like Anna, today being with the Lord in heaven, having become a widow and being inseparable from worshiping her Lord in the sanctuary. This was certainly Mary, not only as a widow, but the entire time that I knew her. She not only regularly attended Divine Service, but also Bible class, and our Matins service before Bible class. She attended our Saturday Night classes when they were offered, and was always eager to learn God’s Word. She knew that none of this earned her salvation, because that is purely a gift of God.
And like St. Anna, Mary could articulate the Gospel of Jesus, putting her trust in Him alone for her life and salvation.
And so, dear friends, when we gather for the Sunday Mass, knowing that Jesus is with us, we know that John and Mary are together and they are also with Jesus. And because of that, they are with us every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. They pray with us, and they pray for us. And they, from their side of the veil, and we from our side, share in our life in Christ, looking forward to the day with there will be no more veil to separate us, for our Lord Jesus Christ, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, says: “Behold, I am making all things new.”
That is the peace that we speak of so often in the Divine Service, the peace that I greeted you with, the very first word Jesus spoke to His disciples after His resurrection: “Peace be with you.”
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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