28 December 2017
Text: John 14:1-6 (Isa 25:6-9, 2 Cor 4:7-18)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Dear
family and friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: peace
be with you!
This
is a time of year when families get together, when old memories are rekindled,
when we trade the cares and worries of this world for a few days of cheer – and
when we look to a brighter future in the next year.
To
lose someone at this time of year is painful.
I speak from experience. It is
made even more of a cross to bear because Miss Dottie’s love and joy and desire
to be with her family and friends radiated from her year round. Christmas will be different from this time
forth. Don’t worry. It won’t be ruined, but it will be
different. Each passing year of life is
different. There will be bittersweetness
in future Christmasses, but there will also be a profound Christian joy in
knowing that Dottie’s passing is closely tied to the birth of Jesus. For Jesus did not remain the baby in the
manger. In time, He bore His own cross
and died His own death on His own cross; He died in order to give us His own life
as a gift to save us. He rose from the
grave on Easter in order to give us resurrection and eternal life as a gift as
well.
We
heard His comforting promise in His own words in our Gospel reading: “Let not
your hearts be troubled…. I go and
prepare a place for you” and “I will come again and will take you to
Myself.” For “in My Father’s house are
many rooms.” Jesus has prepared a place
for Dottie and for all who are baptized and believe in Him, who trust in His
grace and mercy.
There
is a connection between the life, death, and resurrection of Dorothy Grimes,
and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so not only will Christmas bear a sense
of separation from her, but Christmas will always remind you that Jesus, whose
birth we celebrate, came to conquer death, to take us to Himself, and to
promise us a glorious reunion in the flesh with those we love. Scripture puts this separation into
perspective, calling it a “slight momentary affliction.”
This
sense of connection is also illustrated by what the church calls Dottie’s
“heavenly birthday,” the 23rd of December – which was also the
anniversary of her wedding to her beloved George. Now, they are no longer separated, and no
longer suffer the pain of being apart, nor the pain of the mortal body, nor of
the pain that is our legacy of sin in this fallen world. All of that is gone, dear friends! The grief we experience – which is a natural
thing because we are temporarily separated from our loved ones – is not
experienced by George and Dorothy in eternity!
Knowing this brings us joy. And
indeed, we await the promised resurrection in Christ, when we will have renewed
bodies and a new physical home in a perfectly restored world. That is why Jesus
came. That is the ultimate meaning
behind Christmas!
This
is not some pie-in-the-sky mythology, dear friends, this is a promise rooted in
historical reality. For just as there is
a little village to this very day called Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, there
is also a tomb in what is today part of Jerusalem, a tomb unlike any other on
the planet: the tomb whose occupant walked out of under His own power. That tomb where the body of Jesus lay is
today a church, and from the pulpit of that glorious empty grave, the same Word
of God that we heard today, the same Gospel, the same unchanging historical Good
News of Jesus Christ, is proclaimed.
And
listen, dear friends, to the Word of God from Isaiah: “The Lord of Hosts will
make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine…. He will swallow up death forever; and the
Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces… for the Lord has spoken.”
This
is God’s promise to you, just as He spoke through St. Paul in our epistle
reading to the church in Corinth: “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to
show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” In His infinite wisdom and plan, God created
Dottie and breathed life into her seventy five years ago. He saw to it that she was baptized. Through her life, many of you came into
existence, also according to the Lord’s plan.
He had a reason to create her, and He has a reason and a plan for all of
you as well! And we know that this plan
transcends the grave: “knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us
also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence.”
Although
we don’t see this with our eyes, we take the Lord’s promise on faith: “We look
not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient,
but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Eternal,
dear friends. What comfort there is in
that word! It means life that never
ends, a life without pain, sorrow, suffering, separation, mourning, and without
death! God has brought you here on this
day to hear these words and these promises of His. He has brought you here to tell you that He
has prepared a place for Dottie, and that He came into our world to free us
from sin and death, to being us life and joy – not just a temporary season of
joy, but eternal joy in Christ Jesus.
And
this is why I greeted you the way Jesus greeted His disciples after His
resurrection, the way we Christians have greeted one another for two thousand
years – a greeting that is not just a wish, but a promise from the same Jesus
who has prepared a place for His servant Dorothy: “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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