This sermon for a memorial service for local family and friends after a
funeral and burial last week in the Longmont, CO, is entitled "Harriet's
Hope." I think it could easily be adapted to be "Everyman's Hope."
Rev. Kurt Hering, Pastor
Trinity Lutheran Church
Layton, Utah
Dear Arthur; Dear Nathan, Dear Lori; Dear People of God:
Welcome/welcome back to Trinity, your mother's church home and yours for so
many years. Here is where you mother, Harriet raised you in the faith that
kept her and keeps you with Christ. Here is where Harriet heard the living
Word of God that gave her hope even to the last day of her earthly life. So
you precious children of Harriet, you precious children of God,
TEXT: . . I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who
have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
1 Thessalonians 4: 13
We are not gathered here by the Holy Spirit today to remember Harriet's
flesh-her motherly touch, her friendship, her fun times, her failures. You
can do that anytime, anywhere. You have. You will. You should. But that is
not why we are gathered here by the Holy Spirit in this house of God today.
We are not gathered here so I can tell you sappy stories that soft-pedal sin
as mere mistakes or sugar-coat death as anything less than the result of God's
wrath. Woe to such a preacher whether he speaks such things in a Lutheran
lectern, a Presbyterian pulpit, or a Mormon meeting, for he does you no
favors no matter how good it might make you feel.
No, we are gathered here by the Holy Spirit in this house of God today to
remember Harriet's faith. For those whose hope and comfort lies in the works
of the flesh--no matter how many, how great, how beautiful they may be--
those whose hope and comfort lies in the works of the flesh have a dead
hope. All those things are done and gone as the urn so starkly reminds us.
Harriet's faith lives on, for her faith is Christ the Son of God, Who
together with His Father and the Holy Spirit is the God of the living and
not the dead. And so we have hope this day. Harriet's hope. For Harriet's
hope is hidden in Christ. Though her flesh is gone, her life remains hidden
in Christ just as He promised when she was baptized so many years ago.
The fact that we are gathered here today is witness to the hard and
inevitable truth that the flesh--including its senses, emotions, and even
the very heart-of even so innocent and gentle a soul as Harriet is nothing
to rely upon; nothing in which in which to find comfort; nothing on which to
rest our faith or pin our hope. God's wrath toward sin kills all that so He
can give something real and lasting to rely upon; something real and lasting
in which to find our comfort something real and lasting on which to rest our
faith; something real and lasting on which to pin our hope.
That's what happens in Baptism, the Baptism that you and I share with
Harriet-indeed all the saints. God kills the sinner by burying him into
Christ's death, hiding his life in the risen Christ though his sinful flesh
remains for a time.
That a life is hidden in Christ means that life is hidden in the Word, for
Jesus the Christ is the Word made flesh to dwell among us now and forever.
You are baptized into that Word with Harriet and that Word alone keeps you
with Christ, in faith, until the last.
Arthur, Nathan, Lori-what was it that gave your mother, your mother-in-law
comfort and hope in her last hours? Was it not the Word of God? When all
else was failing, she asked for the Word of God didn't she? Psalm 23. Psalm
46. Not only did she ask for the Word, for the Psalms, but when she was
barely responsive to anything else she even recited and confessed along with
you, didn't she?
+ "God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore
we will not fear."
+ "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. . . . Yea, though I walk
through the valley of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me."
Dear people of God, this is what you will remember and what will sustain you
in your day of trouble and the hour of your death as well. This is what you
need for yourself and should be passing on to your children and
grandchildren so they can share in Harriet's hope-and yours.
So as we prepare to depart in peace today, even as dear Harriet departed in
peace just a few short days ago, I urge you to remember Harriet's faith
today, for her faith is your faith; to remember Harriet's comfort, for her
comfort is your comfort; to remember Harriet's hope, for her hope is your
hope.
And finally, let me ask you:
What is going to sustain you in your time of greatest need and at the hour
of your death--your sinful, feinting heart or the sure and certain Word of
God?
What do you want to hold in your hand as your eyes grow dim and your
strength runs out-a photo-shopped image of an angelic cloud or the very body
and blood of Christ?
What would you like to be the last thing you hear as you breathe your last-a
story about someone finding God at McDonalds, or God's precious promise of
salvation-I forgive you all of your sins in the name of the Father and of
the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
____________________________________________________________
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