In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Death inherently involves separation. For the one who dies,
death is the separation of body and soul. For those left behind, it is the
separation from an uncle, a dad, a brother, or a friend. Death often leaves a
sense of isolation in the wake of this separation. Being forcefully separated
from the ones you love always causes you to desire nothing more than to be with
them. Because you can’t do anything to be with them right now, you feel
isolated, alone.
This is not the way God created man. Man is created to live
in community—first with God and then with fellow man. Creation was not called
very good until Eve was created, a suitable helpmeet for Adam.[1]
Even then, God commanded Adam and Eve to multiply, fill the earth, and subdue
it.[2]
Through these our first parents, God commanded man to fill the earth with
relatives to love and to be loved by.
What’s more, God, Himself, walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden
of Eden. He came to them and walked in the cool of the day. He talked to them.
He communed with them. God created man to be in communion with Him.
But when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the knowledge of
Good and Evil, they broke the commandment of God.[3]
They separated themselves from the Love of God by sundering their relationship
to Him. They had betrayed their Creator. The wages of sin is death because sin
separates us from God and death is separation.[4]
What’s worse is that separation from God does not simply
leave man alone. Man is not cast out of the Garden to fend for himself out of
the sight of God. God is not a spiteful father kicking his bum of a son out of
the basement. Man’s sin cuts directly at the heart of God because it is a
denial of Who God is. Man’s sin invokes the wrath of God.
Because of the severity of this separation between God and
man, the punishment for sin does not end with temporal death. The punishment
for sin begins with suffering in life, continues in physical death, then lasts
forever in the torture of hell. This is the just and rightful fate of all men
who sin against God. Satan and his wicked angels have been condemned to this
torment and would love nothing more than drag, tempt, and coerce every man into
hell to join them.[5]
“I walk in danger all the way. The thought shall never leave me, that Satan, who has marked his prey, is plotting to deceive me. This foe with hidden snares may seize me unawares if I should fail to watch and pray. I walk in danger all the way.”[6]
What shall we say then? Is God wicked and spiteful? By no
means. At the same time, He cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden, He sacrificed
an animal for them and made clothes from its skin.[7]
He promised that the Seed of the woman would crush the head of Satan and atone
for the sin of man.[8]
This promised Seed is God Himself.[9]
The Seed is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of the Father, Jesus
Christ.
The Son came down to man, just as He did when He walked in
the Garden with Adam and Eve. He took on our flesh because we had severed the
relationship between God and man and man is incapable of healing such a cosmic
wound. God became man to die. God became man to die the death that you and I
deserve.
But death did not have a claim to the Son of God.[10]
He was born without sin. He committed no sin. Jesus Christ was tortured and
executed for your sin because He didn’t have any. Not having sin, death could
not hold Him. He had not earned a wage of death. Instead, He was laid in a
virgin grave to rest for three days.
When Jesus spoke of the food which endures to everlasting
life, the crowds immediately asked, “What shall we do, that we may work the
works of God?” Jesus responded, “This is the work of God, that you believe in
Him whom He sent.”[11]
To believe in the Son of God is to realize the severity of your situation, the
depth of your sin, and your inability to make things right with God. To believe
in the Son of God is to look at your own sins with hatred because your sin is
what separates you from God and earns death. To believe in the Son of God is to
confess your sins and trust that Christ has died to destroy them; to trust that
Christ has died for you.
In 1956, when Norm was baptized, he died. He was drowned in
those waters because he was born a creature of this world. He was buried in
those waters, but he was not buried alone. He was buried into Christ Jesus, and
if he was buried into Christ Jesus then he was buried into Christ’s death. If
then, Norm was baptized into the death of Jesus, then he will certainly be
raised in a resurrection like Christ’s. His old man, the sinful nature with
which Norm was born, was crucified with Christ, and buried in the grave.
This happened so that when Norm arose from the waters of
Holy Baptism, he would arise a new creation. He had become a new creation in
Christ. As such, death no longer has dominion over Norm, just as it has no
authority over Christ.
“I walk with Jesus all the way, His guidance never fails me;
within His wounds I find a stay when Satan’s power assails me; and by His
footsteps led, my path I safely tred. No evil leads my soul astray; I walk with
Jesus all the way.”[12]
Why then are we gathered here today? We are gathered because
the last remnants of sin which cling to Norm’s flesh must also be buried. They
too must be buried in the ground and return to the dust from whence they came.
This is true for all mortal men.
For the Christian, for the Baptized children of God, while his
body returns to dust, his soul is with Christ.[13]
Right now, Norm has joined the choir immortal, singing with the angels and
archangels, and all the company of heaven. He is reunited with Della and
together they are worshiping Christ day and night.[14]
We are gathered here today to mourn the separation we now
experience from our beloved Norm.[15]
We do not get to play cards with him, talk baseball, or watch him patiently and
lovingly play with children. We do not get to hear his voice, and no matter how
hard he might try, he does not get to entertain each of you when you stop by.
These are beautiful memories of a beloved uncle, dad,
brother, and friend, yet they are also the bread of earth. Man needs the bread
of earth. We need each other. But we ultimately need the bread come down from
heaven. We need to receive the Bread broken and given for you. We need to
receive the Blood, given and shed for you. Jesus calls Himself the Bread from
heaven, the Bread of life. All who come to Him shall never hunger nor thirst.[16]
We are gathered here today to give thanks, to worship, and
to praise the Triune God. It is through the heavenly bread of Jesus’ Body and
the heavenly drink of His Blood that we will be reunited with Norm, Della, and
all the saints in heaven for eternity. In the sacred wounds of Jesus, we too
will have eternal life.
Then will come the last day, the resurrection of all flesh.
The Baptized, who were buried in a death like His will be raised to a new life
like His. This body we lay in the grave today will be reunited with the soul
that is already enjoying the presence of Christ. On that day, and for all
eternity, Norm will enjoy the company of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit,
and all Christians in our flesh. With these eyes, Norm will see you.[17]
He will know you. He will rejoice to see you and proclaim, “Glad you got to see
me!”
All mankind will be raised on that last day but not all will
join the company of heaven. Those who do not believe, those who reject the
Bread of Heaven will join Satan and his wicked angels in torment. There will be
a great chasm set between those above and those below, such that none may cross
over. These are the stakes of eternity.
Norm and all who die in Christ eagerly await the
resurrection of all flesh because the resurrection means unity. It means body
and soul being reunited. It means brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters,
husbands and wives, dear friends and beloved uncles will be reunited in the
flesh for all eternity.
“My walk is heavenward all the way; await, my soul, the
morrow, when God’s good healing shall allay all suffering, sin, and sorrow.
Then, worldly pomp, begone! To heaven I now press on. For all the world I would
not stay; my walk is heavenward all the way.”[18]
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
[1]
Genesis 2:15-25.
[2]
Genesis 1:28.
[3]
Genesis 1:29-30; 2:15-17; 3:19.
[4]
Romans 6:23.
[5]
1 Peter 5:8.
[6]
Hans Adolf Brorson, I Walk in Danger All the Way, stanza 1.
[7]
Genesis 3:21.
[8]
Genesis 3:15.
[9]
Romans 1:3-4.
[10]
1 Corinthians 15:20; Romans 6:8-11.
[11]
St. John 6:28-29.
[12]
Brorson, I Walk in Danger All the Way, stanza 5.
[13]
St. Luke 23:43.
[14]
Revelation 7:9-12.
[15]
St. John 11:35.
[16]
St. John 6:35.
[17]
Job 19:26-27; St. Luke 16:22; Revelation 7:9.
[18]
Brorson, I Walk in Danger All the Way, stanza 6.
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