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| What Happened? (Romans 8:31-35, 37-39; John 10:27-28, Romans 8:1) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Grace, mercy and God’s comfort and peace be yours, this day and always. Amen. What Happened?? What went wrong? How could this be? It’s like a dream … it’s unreal … But it is… How do we get our arms around this reality that is so … abhorrent … so bad … so awful that we want to run away from it as fast as we can…? How do we get our arms around it? Only one way. We don’t try to get our arms around it. We let our Heavenly Father put His loving arms around each of us. And in His arms … it’s okay … if we just let down that guard of ours and let the tears flow. As we said at the outset, this is a celebration of the life and the love of God we knew in His child, Linda. Tears of grief are necessary, but for a celebration of life they seem to be out of place… they don’t seem to belong. But, we need to move through them … to get where God and Linda would want us to be …for our hearts to find healing. You see, the neat thing about God is that He not only puts his loving arms around us … but He also always knows the right things to say. Linda’s family was particularly keen about us sharing God’s Word that we heard from St. Paul from the Book of Romans … that nothing in life… nothing in all creation … can separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We’ll come back to that. There are a couple of other “words” that God also addresses to us … to help us better understand what it means to be wrapped up in His loving arms. First, there are these words St. Paul speaks at the beginning of the chapter from which those other words were spoken. There God through St. Paul declares, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And one more verse. We hear these words from the lips of Jesus Himself recorded in the Gospel of John, were He says… “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Why these words? Because these are the words that will bring us from tears to celebration this afternoon. Because, there is no question… Linda is one for whom all these words apply. Why? Because she was “in Christ Jesus”. And so, then, as good Lutherans … we need to ask the next question… “What Does This Mean?” What does it mean to be “In Christ Jesus?” It means to be a child of God through faith in the works and the merits of Jesus Christ. It means that such a person knows and trusts that Jesus died for their sins. It means that such a person knows and trusts that the Perfect life that Jesus led here on earth … is now credited to them… It means that God the Father, in Holy Baptism, has adopted them into His eternal family … and so, “In Christ Jesus” means that such a person has an inheritance in heaven … not because of their own good works nor because of their good intentions … but in Christ Jesus, all the rights, privileges and honors of being a true Child of God are theirs. And so … the Scriptures can boldly say of such a person, that nothing, not even life and death … not even angels or demons … nothing … can separate such a person from God and His love. And… that means … come the judgment … there is nothing on the books against that person. There no condemnation, as St. Paul says, for those in Christ Jesus by faith. Their slate has been washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb … by Jesus Himself. And that’s why those words from Jesus are so powerful and so comforting. No one, nothing, can snatch such a person out of His hand. We might argue that being held fast in Jesus’ hand is probably just about the safest place you can be in this universe. God not only gives us the gift of faith … He also continues to work in us, and through us, so that we will keep that faith … Why? Because, we human beings are sometimes inclined try to out-think faith. We “what-if” faith. Like… something like this: What-if I got mad at someone and had not forgiven them … and then went to sleep and Jesus came, or God took me home. Wouldn’t I be guilty of an unforgiven sin? One that I had not repented of? Well … are we saved by faith alone? Or are we saved by faith … and then also by … the necessity of our own perfect repentance for all the sins we committed or omitted up to the very moment of our passing? Are we saved by faith … Plus … the fact that we went to church every Sunday? Are we saved by faith … Plus … anything else? No. God alone saves us. If it were God PLUS something else additional WE had to do … how would we ever know if we’d done it all? Or turning it around and looking at it the other way … would it be true, then, that God saves us by faith … just as long as WE don’t do anything too bad. See? That’s why those words are so powerful … there is no condemnation for those of faith, for those who are in Christ Jesus. Here’s another way we mess that up. (Give us human beings something … and we’ll always find a way to mess it up.) There’s this old saw that says that the longest distance in our body is that 12’’or so that physically separates our hearts from our heads. It’s an old saw because so often we find that our hearts and our heads are not on the same page. In faith, our hearts are full of God’s love in Christ Jesus … You see, because faith itself, as much as we talk about it … is not really an intellectual thing. Faith, is more like a state of being … of having been adopted into God’s family. You’re either adopted or you’re not. So it makes no difference if you’re awake or you’re asleep … you’re still adopted. It makes no difference if you just fed the homeless, or you just called your brother a jerk … you’re still adopted. Okay? When Pastor Whittset ministers to those with mental impairments at Cedar Lake Lodge, those souls are still adopted… even though they might not be able to understand or even recite the Apostles Creed …But they are saved … by faith … because they also have been adopted, by God, into His family. So. A lot of times our minds are disparaging of what is sure and certain in our hearts. The fact of our Faith, and our Adoption. Why do we mess with that? Well, sorry… but our minds are the Devil’s playground. Fortunately, though, it’s much, much harder for the Devil to get at our hearts. That’s why we have that assurance that nothing in all creation, the Devil included, can separate anyone of faith from the Love that God has put in here. And so … those of us who knew Linda well … knew that she had days when that love of God in her heart was just overflowing in all directions… Those of you who worked with her at Talbots, or at Our Savior school … those of you who had the privilege of being one of her students … knew that love of God in her heart … Especially, you, her family. And yet, there were those days when she kept mostly to herself. Days when that distance between her head and her heart was … let’s say … it seemed to her a lot more than just 12 inches. Such a day was Tuesday of last week. Linda was listening to her head … and her head took the rest of her for the walk in the woods … But all of her was still adopted. And as such, no one, not even her own head, could snatch her out of her Savior’s hand. And so … this is what we celebrate: Linda is whole. Her head, purged of all that comes in this veil of tears … and her heart … have been permanently united Personally, I don’t know if I could take that much Linda. Which goes to show just how big her heart really is. We also celebrate today God’s faithfulness … to her … and to all of us. That we can be certain that because her Savior Lives, Linda now lives … and so shall all of us … who have been adopted into God’s family in Jesus Christ…. … and that nothing we encounter in this world… just as nothing Linda encountered … will ever be able to separate us from a God who is faithful. And so … in days ahead… perhaps some other words of God through St. Paul might be in order. Some words from God to help us, as HE knows our hearts are grieving … He says to us: “Finally brothers (and sisters) … whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds … in Christ Jesus.” In Him. Amen. |