17 March 2017
Text: John 11:20-27 (Isa 46:3-4, 1 Cor 15:51-57)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Dear
family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests, peace be
with you.
Our
dear brother Henry lived an extraordinary life on this side of the grave:
nearly a century. He was born just after
the World War I veterans came home. He
lived through the Great Depression, and served honorably in World War II. In his lifetime, he saw both horses and
buggies, as well as rockets and satellites and the information superhighway.
Living
so long is a blessing, but it also has great challenges, like outliving most of
one’s immediate family and friends, and the physical aches and pains and
infirmities and limitations of old age.
For the elderly, it is often a return to childhood in a way, being
dependent for everything on loving family members. And Henry had no shortage of that kind of loving
family right up until the Lord called him home.
Something
else happened in Henry’s life, when he was twenty-one days old. On that day, baby Henry returned to his birth
in a way, being dependent on loving parents to bring him to a new birth, in the
words of Jesus, he was “born of water
and the Spirit,” according to the Lord’s words, “You must be born again.”
This
new birth happened at the church that I serve, Salem Lutheran Church, at the
hands of my beloved predecessor, Pastor Eugene Schmid – and in the very same
baptismal font that stands in our church to this day.
To
unbelievers, this is hardly an important event in the life of a man. But for us Christians, this is an eternal
milestone in our dear brother’s life.
For Jesus said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” And the Lord Jesus told us to baptize “in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” Pastor Schmidt applied water to the Lord’s
servant Henry with these very words 35,244 days ago.
The
Words and promises of Jesus have no expiration date. This same Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the
dead and spoke to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the
life. Whoever believes in Me, though he
die, yet shall he live.” Those words
were recorded in Scripture for us right here and right now, dear friends.
For
this is the very reason our Lord Jesus Christ was born into our fallen world,
where, because of our sins, we suffer, we age, and we die. This is true for every single one of us from
Adam right to the newborn babies born today.
Jesus came to us poor, miserable sinners, because He loves us, He
redeems us, He restores us to holiness, and He brings us to everlasting life –
not because we are worthy, but because He is worthy. And He is coming again to create a new heaven
and a new earth, to grant us “the resurrection of the body and the life
everlasting,” and a glorious reunion with our loved ones who have been baptized
into Christ’s death, for as St. Paul tells us by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, “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 promise likewise knows no expiration date.
This,
dear friends, is why we can be at peace even in our mourning. For the Lord’s servant Henry was set apart as
a child of God, and was given an inheritance of life through the cross of
Jesus, through His body and blood, through the promise of the Gospel. That promise is Henry’s, because our Lord
Jesus Christ said so. That makes it
true. It is not up for negotiation or
interpretation. The promise of the Lord
as spoken through the prophet Isaiah belongs to Henry as well: “even to your
old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you, I have made, and I will
bear; I will carry and will save.”
And
though this prophecy to the Lord’s people was made 700 years before Christ, the
Word of God has no expiration date. The
promise was given to Henry as well, upon his becoming one of the Lord’s own beloved,
chosen people.
One
of the most comforting passages in the Bible comes from St. Paul’s first letter
to the Church at Corinth. St. Paul
speaks of the victory of Christ over the grave – which is today Henry’s victory
as well. The apostle says: “For the
trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be
changed. For this perishable body must
put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable,
and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is
written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your
victory? O death, where is your
sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and
the power of sin is the law. But thanks be
to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And
so, we mourn the loss of our father, our grandfather, our relative, our friend,
a man whose life touched so many, whose love shaped generations of people for
the better. It is fitting that we
mourn. But we mourn in hope, dear
friends, and we are even so bold as to mourn with joy, an act of defiance
against sin, death, and the devil, all of whom were defeated by our Lord at the
cross, the same Lord whose words continue to be proclaimed by His people, the
same words that have no expiration date.
We
mourn in expectation of seeing him again, in expectation of our own triumph
over the grave in Christ Jesus. For
Jesus walked out of His own grave by His own power. We Christians are gearing up yet again to
celebrate this Easter victory, this promise made to Henry and to all who
believe and are baptized.
Dear
friends, take comfort in the words of Jesus when and where Jesus is proclaimed,
where His Word continues to go forth, where His body and blood are freely given
to you for the strengthening of your faith, where the Good News of our Lord’s
triumph over death continues to ring out, now, and even unto eternity. Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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