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Text: Matt 6:25-34
(Job 19:23-27a, Rom 6:3-11)
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Dear Adrian, Roland, Corrin, Kyle, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: Peace be with you.
The hymn that we just sang was Cora’s favorite. It is a newer hymn, and it is based on the Gospel reading we heard from our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus says: “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Jesus then gives us an example: the birds. They don’t worry. God takes care of them.
The hymnwriter sums it up like this:
Consider
how the birds above
Feed
day by day with carefree ease –
Does
God not keep them in His love?
Are
we not worth much more than these.
It’s easy to say, “Don’t be anxious, God has everything under control” when we are healthy. But when people are diagnosed with cancer, it weighs on their minds and the minds of their families. And yet, Cora embraced this hymn. And though she wanted to be healed, she was aware that, barring a miracle, she was going to die of cancer. On one of my last visits, Cora, though weak in her body, was so strong in her spirit. She said that she was headed to paradise, that Jesus was going to take care of her. Dear friends, that kind of faith in the face of death is the work of the Holy Spirit. Cora died in the faith, and was confident, because of what Jesus did for her.
When a beloved wife, mother, sister, friend, co-worker, or parishioner dies, it is easy to forget what Scripture says: that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Even the very best of us are imperfect. And nothing reveals this like family life. Those closest to us have seen us at our very best and our very worst. God requires us to be perfect. He made us that way. But, as we confessed at the beginning of this service, we are all “poor, miserable sinners.” But we also heard the words of absolution spoken by Christ through His servant: “I forgive you all your sins.”
Our services always begin with the pastor and the people confessing their sins together, and hearing the reality that we are forgiven. And we continued to do this as I visited Cora in her last days on this side of glory. This confession of sins was her confession. But there is another kind of confession, dear friends: the confession of faith. We said it together in the Apostles Creed, including the conclusion: “I believe in… the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” That is also Cora’s confession!
This is the Christian life, dear friends, to confess our sins, to confess our faith, to confess our hope, to be forgiven, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to receive this gift and to repent, and to know that we will be raised from the dead. Cora received God’s promise at her baptism. For hear again what the Word of God says, dear friends: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For 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 the promise God made to Cora when she was baptized. This promise is sealed by the blood of Christ shed on the cross, and just as he died, He rose again. And that is what will happen to Cora and all believers on the last day. It was in this confession that we took the body and blood of our Lord together – even as she did with her family, again and again, year after year – in faith.
Right now, Cora is in the presence of Jesus in eternity, “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.” But that is not the end of the story. For once again, we believe in a physical resurrection. That means we will see Cora again in the flesh, to talk, to laugh, to eat, to embrace, to smile – to rejoice in the bodies that we will have after the resurrection, bodies that will never again suffer, and never again die.
This assurance of “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” is how Cora, even in her suffering, could direct us to our Lord’s assurance that we have nothing to worry about. “For the Gentiles seek after all these things,” says Jesus, “and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
God will take care of all of our needs – in this life and the next – even as he cares for the sparrows.
Cora had this faith because she confessed it. Her confession is also the same confession as Job’s, from the Old Testament. Job suffered much in this life, but he never turned against God. In fact, he remained faithful under the worst conditions, and God rewarded him for his faithfulness. For Job knew that God would save him. He had faith. He knew that God promised to send a Redeemer to the earth. Job says: “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.”
This is our faith, dear friends, Job’s faith, and Cora’s faith. It is the church’s faith, and it is faith in Christ, the Redeemer. He lives. He rose from death. And because He lives, we too shall live. And even as our bodies are destroyed in death, we know that in our flesh we shall see God, with our very own eyes.
This is the bodily resurrection that is promised, dear friends. This is why we can, as Jesus said, put away our anxieties and entrust ourselves into God’s care – even as the birds of the air.
Of course, those most close to Cora are suffering the most. We Christians indeed mourn, but we do so as those who have hope: hope of the resurrection, hope of a reunion, hope of everlasting life. And even in our mourning, we must remember Cora’s confession that God has it all under control, that Jesus’ promises are for us, that the Holy Spirit draws us to the comfort of God’s Word and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
What is left for us to do is to live the Christian life: confessing our sins, and confessing our faith, seeking first the kingdom and the righteousness that is a gift of Jesus given to those who believe and are baptized. For when you take Holy Communion, Cora is near. For she is with Jesus, and Jesus is with us!
And the hymnwriter speaks to us the conclusion that we all draw from our Lord’s comforting words:
Be
not afraid to suffer loss
Of
all the things for which you pray,
For
He who faced for you the cross
Will
give you strength to live each day.
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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