I'd appreciate any feedback you can give me, please. The funeral is
tomorrow, and I'm a little too close to this one. (And yes, Dean, I
know I use "I" and "me" in this sermon.)
AjK
_____
Sermon—The Funeral of Karen Deppe
April 23, 2012
Grace in Affliction
John 14:1-6
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
There is no kind or gentle way to say this: Karen Deppe was a sinner.
Don’t get me wrong—Karen was one of the sweetest ladies it was ever my
privilege to serve. She loved her family. When my family moved here
two years ago, Karen pretty much adopted my children as her
grandchildren. There was no event at church for which Karen was
unavailable, no person in need for whom she wouldn’t cross heaven and
earth to help, no neighbor for whom she failed to muster a smile and a
kind word. In the eyes of the world, Karen Deppe was everything you
would want a woman to be: beautiful, intelligent, kind, compassionate,
and generous with her time and talents and treasures. But in the eyes
of God, Karen Deppe was a poor, miserable sinner.
According to human wisdom, God is cruel and uncaring. Human wisdom
says that no one should ever have to struggle with a horrible disease.
Human wisdom says that no one should ever have to stand by and watch a
loved one die. “If God really is the loving God the Bible leads people
to believe, why would He put His children through something as awful
as cancer?” “If Jesus is truly all-powerful, why would He not heal the
sick the way He did in the Gospels?” It’s so easy to criticize God for
His seeming indifference to His children.
We think the problem is that God doesn’t work the way He should. But
the real problem is that you don’t work the way God created you to
work. You were created in the image of God. That means you were not
created to sin. That means you were not created to die. When Adam and
Eve decided in the Garden to try to become like God, they did the
exact opposite: the distorted the image of God within them. The spirit
that had been once been pure was now tainted by sin. The flesh that
had been meant to live forever was now corrupted, diseased by sin, and
became subject to death. St. Paul wrote, “The wages of sin is death.”
And the ugly truth is, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.” You are a sinful human being. You sin constantly in thought,
word and deed. Hour after hour, week after week, year after year the
burden of sin builds, and even a horrible disease like cancer is less
than we deserve from the God of righteousness. You see the wages of
sin in the hundreds of little pains you experience in the flesh. You
see the wages of sin the emotional turmoil of your daily life. And as
you have seen all too clearly in the life of our beloved sister in
Christ, you see those wages of sin in death—death for yourselves,
death for your loved ones, death for all living things.
If the Lord left it there, the death of your body would be the end.
Your dead body would be a foretaste of the eternal torment that your
sin had earned for you. Your dead body would be evidence that you
would be eternally separated from the love of God. But the Lord
doesn’t leave it there. Karen’s confirmation verse comes from the
Gospel of St. John. You just heard these words, but listen again:
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me.” And even those words would be a burden
which the sinner could not bear on his own. The sinner has no
authority to approach the Father. Sinners don’t even have the right to
approach Jesus to ask Him to intercede before the Father. But St. Paul
wrote, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us.” He knew that the wages of sin were
more than you could bear. He knew that sinners had no way to redeem
themselves. He knew that Satan prowls around like a lion, waiting to
devour sinners. And so He gave Himself instead. He gave Satan a
temporary victory in His own death, so that when He rose again on the
third day, the devil’s teeth would be pulled, and Satan would have
nothing left with which to devour you.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “By grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest
anyone should boast.” I have no doubt this day that Karen Deppe is
resting in the arms of her Lord Jesus Christ—not because of her love
for Steve or her parents or the rest of her family and friends; not
because of her kindness and many years of service and generosity to
her neighbors; and not because of the fortitude and patience with
which she accepted and endured her suffering or that of her parents.
She rests in the arms of her Savior because her Savior died bearing
her sins. She rests in the arms of her Savior because He rose again,
destroying the power of death. And most of all, she rests in the arms
of her Savior because, through the waters of Holy Baptism, the death
and resurrection of Jesus became her death and resurrection. The Holy
Spirit gave faith to Karen so that she could confess her own sins and
her very nature as a sinner; and the Spirit gave Karen faith to
confess that Jesus Christ was her Lord and Savior. He did this for
her; and He does the same for you. Your body will die; but that will
not be the end. Because Jesus died and rose again, your body which has
died because of sin will be raised and made perfect. You will no
longer surrender to sin. You will no longer be prone to disease. Death
has no power over you. You will be incorruptible in body and soul,
reunited with those you love who have gone before you in the faith,
free eternally to praise God for His goodness.
One last thing: sometimes God allows His children to suffer terrible
afflictions. It is not because God is cruel or uncaring. The sad
reality is that sin has made you vulnerable to illness and suffering.
But even in the midst of such suffering, He does not leave you alone.
Whether you yourself are sick or you are sitting at the bedside of a
loved one, your heavenly Father does not leave you to bear your
afflictions alone. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except
through me.” But He comes to you in the midst of your suffering. He
knows your torment because He experienced all the torments of sin and
death Himself. He sustains you in the midst of your suffering. And
then, in His great mercy, He calls you out of that suffering to rest
from your labors. Karen is no longer in pain, no longer tormented by
the ravages of sin. Thanks be to God! And in His great mercy, your
heavenly Father will bring an end to your grief and suffering, too. In
the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
--
--
Rev. Alan Kornacki, Jr.
Pastor, St. Peter Lutheran Church, Campbell Hill, IL
[email protected]
http://pastoralkorn.blogspot.com
_______________________________________________
Sermons mailing list
[email protected]
http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
