Funeral sermon for Gladys Bettin. From an outline I wrote in 1989, dusted
off, and personalized.
Pastor Michael Harman,
St. Peter LCMS - Newell, IA
vacancies at ...
Immanuel, Pomeroy
First Evangelical, Fonda
Heaven is that place where God promises the effects of sin are removed.
There are no more aches, no more pills, etc. Her vision is clear; her
hearing better than yours. In fact, the source that has caused pain has
been removed - there is NO sin in heaven (Revelation 7:16-17). In this, God's
House, we give praise and thanks, celebrating His victory for us in Christ
(Isaiah25:6-9). We fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our
faith; who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty (Hebrews 12:1-2).
We lift up our eyes to the hill called Calvary, from whence comes all our
help (Psalm 121). The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23, Jesus Christ, has called
one more of His sheep, Gladys Jeanette Bettin, home. She is "with angels
and archangels and all the company of heaven..."
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the same night in which He was betrayed, was
teaching His disciples. He kept pointing them to His work of bringing man
back to God by His life and death on the Cross. The time was short. He
told them "Let not your heart be troubled."
The disciples were troubled. Jesus was talking about His upcoming
death. Death makes us all sad. Gladys was in poor health these past few
years and a mere wisp of her former self the last couple of months. I told
her she was so thin that if she turned sideways she would disappear. But
even so, her parting makes us all sad and the world is a poorer place with
her passing. Some speak of death as welcomed, and even a friend. But every
Christian knows that death is always an enemy (1 Cor. 15:26). Death makes
us sad. It is not like sending someone on a bus or plane. They can't take
a return flight. Death is a permanent parting from this place. The Upper
Room Disciples thought Jesus was leaving - not to Return until the Last Day.
He will Return only once more as we say in the Apostles Creed: to
judge what we have done - or left undone. (2 Cor. 5:10). Yes, Jesus will
Return. No one knows when. (Hebrews 1:2; Revelation 22:20)
Jesus pointed them back to God's Word, His unbreakable promises. Jesus
says to His disciples, and you and me, "You believe in God." Not a
nebulous, postmodern nothingness conjured up by God-haters! Rather, a
personal God Who is concerned about His people as we confessed in Psalm 23.
The same Triune God Who loves you and has mercy and compassion for you
today! "You believe in God, believe also in Me." Trust Jesus. Trust His
words. Listen, and believe.
"In My Father's house are many rooms; if not, I would have told you."
Jesus did not say "there WILL BE," but that they already ARE there, waiting.
In the household of God, heaven, already waiting for believers, are many
rooms. When a believer like Gladys dies, God doesn't get Joseph the
carpenter busy or even call a bellhop to dust out a room. Heaven is there;
waiting. As Hebrews 9:27 reminds us, "It is appointed for men to die once
(even as this casket reminds us), immediately after this the judgment."
There is no intervening time. Gladys is home, at rest and peace. If there
were no heaven, surely the Son of God would have said so.
"I go to prepare a place for you." How did He do this? The Cross. It
was not fun. It hurt. Jesus was flesh and blood, and He was tempted in
every way that we are (Heb. 2:9-18) but He did not sin. The nails in His
hands hurt! I don't know how many times Gladys focused on those nails. But
the greatest agony was that the Father abandoned the Son (Matthew 27:46),
and that the wrath of God was poured out on Christ. Jesus did not go to the
Cross for fame and glory. He went to prepare a place for Gladys, and us, by
dying for all sins.
But, how can we go? What we earn for our sins, the wages of sin is
death. For Christ to prepare a place for us meant a Great Exchange of death
for life, sin for grace, the hell we deserved for the heaven we receive by
His grace alone. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."
Such is every Christian's confession in the Apostles Creed.
Thomas was a man of faith. Thomas was confused. He was in the dark.
WHERE are You going, Jesus? How can we already know the path to heaven?
Thomas did not doubt. His faith and knowledge of Jesus were just too small.
If we don't know where we are going, we certainly don't know which road is
the right one to be on!
Jesus said to him, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." The whole
ministry of Jesus and the Christian church is in this verse (Luke 24:46-47)!
By God's grace alone thru faith, we take part in the promise of heaven in
these simple words.
"I AM the Way!" Jesus does not merely show us one of many ways. He IS
the way. There is only One way to be right with God: Jesus is that way.
Jesus is that only way to eternal life with the Father, the only Name under
heaven given to us whereby we may be saved (Acts 4:12). No one can enter
heaven except thru Jesus.
'I AM the Truth!" One of the Names Jews used for God IS Truth. While
Jesus was "full of grace and truth" (John 1:17), here He claimed equality
with the Father by stating HE was Truth. We live in a time when many claim
there is no difference between religions. But Jesus claims exclusive
ownership of the truth. His teaching is above all others.
"I AM the Life." Moses gave manna in the desert only by God's hand. Here
is the Living Bread from heaven. Christ does not merely give us life, He IS
life! Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Eternal
life is ours NOW by faith in Christ. Gladys now sees Jesus face-to-face (1
Cor 13).
Gladys was a special lady, but she was not faultless in life. She went
thru difficult times, and made some mistakes. Gladys made no claim to be in
heaven: she confessed was a sinner and far from perfect every time I came
by with Holy Communion. By all rights, she should have been barred from
heaven. Though she worked hard to be a good wife and mother and wished she
had done more, but she knew she had no great deeds to impress God with.
Nor did she need them. She trusted in the Lord with all her heart and
she did not lean on her own understanding. In her life's ways, she
acknowledged Him and looked for His direction and guidance: in happy times
and hard times. Gladys confessed with Saint Paul that the sufferings of
this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be
revealed in us. And nothing in all creation could separate her from the
love of God in Christ Jesus. Not even death.
I am told that Gladys loved chocolate cake. While others might take a
piece and down it with a cup of coffee, Gladys would take a sliver. And
another sliver. And another. Until the chocolate cake was gone. Our
enemy, Satan, did much the same to Gladys. (1 Peter 5:8-10) He took her
sliver by sliver, until that Old Liar consumed her.
But Gladys had the last laugh. Gladys loved her church, she loved her
Lord Jesus; but more importantly she knew that Christ Jesus loved her: so
she walked thru the valley of the shadow of death into the eternal, loving
arms of Jesus. I don't know what they eat or if they have chocolate cake
there, but if they do I know she will never finish it all.
Let not your heart be troubled. Christ Jesus is the Way, the Truth,
and the Life. Because He died for all our sins and rose for all our
tomorrows, we can rejoice in the certainty we will see this beloved child of
God again.
And the peace of God which is far beyond understanding will continue to
guard your heart, mind, and life, now and forever in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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