Funeral Sermon for Vera M. Staudenraus
We Started in a Hole in the Ground
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen. On the day she confessed and confirmed the Christian faith, Vera was
given this confirmation verse from St. John’s Gospel:
Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, “If you abide in My Word, you
are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free” (John 8:31-32).
Dear Christian friends,
1. “We started in hole in the ground.” As some of you know, Vera was a charter
member of this congregation, which formed on July 29, 1951. Not long after the
congregation received its charter, the good people of Grace Lutheran Church
began digging the foundation for this building. After the foundation was laid,
a temporary roof was built over the foundation—forming a temporary
sanctuary—while construction moved forward on the parsonage. While the
parsonage was being built, worship services were celebrated in the church
basement—or, as Vera chuckled about it, “We started in hole in the ground.”
Vera told me, “We started in a hole in the ground,” back in 2002. The day she
said it was the day I also knew how her funeral sermon would go. There are
hardly any better words to describe each Christian’s eternal life—yours, mine,
Vera’s—there are hardly any better words to describe the eternal life given to
us by our God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Like Grace Lutheran Church in
Versailles, MO, each of us—you, me, Vera—each of us likewise “started in a hole
in the ground.” Stated another way, and quoting the apostle Paul from Ephesians
2, “[We] were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
We were dead, but God in Baptism made us “alive together with Christ”
(Ephesians 2:5). Life for God’s Christians does not end with the arrival of
death. NO! Death for God’s Christians ends with the arrival of life—the life of
Christ, crucified and resurrected for your forgiveness; the life of the Holy
Spirit, who miraculously washed each of us with rebirth in our Baptisms (Titus
3:5-6); the life of God the Father, who exhales the very power of creation upon
us when He gives us baptismal “birth from above” (John 3:3). I say it again.
Life for God’s Christians does not end with the arrival of death. “We started
in hole in the ground,” but those days are over! Death ended with the arrival
of Christ’s life, miraculously given to us—to you, to me, to Vera!
2. Do not be fooled by what you see here. Vera only looks as though she has
died. That is only the appearance of things. Because God the Father has already
raised His servant from the death of her sins, Vera now lives a life that
cannot die. Because God the Son shed His precious blood for Vera’s forgiveness,
Vera now stands before her Christ in righteousness and purity. Because Holy
Spirit drew Vera into the truth, so that she may abide in the truth, Vera now
has been set free. Jesus’ promise—to you, to me, to Vera—Jesus’ promise in
Vera’s confirmation verse has been fulfilled for Vera: “the truth [HAS] set you
free”, Vera! (John 8:31)
3. In addition to telling me about the earliest days of our congregational
life, when “we started in hole in the ground,” Vera also once told me about her
younger years, living down by the lake. There were no full time pastors
available back in those days. Circuit-riding pastors would come around when
they were able, but it was not an every-Sunday schedule. When the preacher rode
in, someone would start ringing the church bell and the hills would echo with
its sound. “Whenever you hear the sound,” Vera told me, “you stop what you are
doing and go to church.”
This story about responding to the bell is a great part of Vera’s past, but it
also paints a good picture for Vera’s future! It won’t be a bell. It will be “a
cry of a command, with eh voice of an archangel, and the sound of the trumpet
of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Church bell or trumpet, the result is the one
and the same: “Whenever you hear the sound,” Vera told me, “you stop what you
are doing and go to church.” Vera’s sleep in the grave will only be temporary.
When she hears the sound, Vera will once again stop what she is doing—just like
she did in the old days! Vera will stop sleeping when she hears the sound, and
Vera will go to church! “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven… and the
dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
Do you know what this means for you and me and Vera? It means that “we will
always be with the Lord… [For now,] encourage one another with these Words” (1
Thessalonians 4:17-18).
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