[Sermon Archive]

This Week's Sermon FUNERAL SERMON FOR REBECCA FLYNN SNYDER 15 January 2010 "Backward, Then Forward!" Romans 6:1-11 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

This past Sunday the Church celebrated The Baptism of Our Lord. As John was in the wilderness calling people to repentance and baptizing them for the forgiveness of their sins Jesus approached John for baptism. It would be like Bill Gates standing with the destitute in a line at the local charity for a free meal on Thanksgiving Day. But here Jesus stood, having no sins, in the line for sinners. He does what sinners do-he gets baptized. Jesus is baptized,

"and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."" (Luke 3:22, ESV)

The next day John pointed to Jesus and exclaimed,

"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29, ESV)

Now Jesus really becomes the Christ, the Anointed Savior. Here he identifies completely with sinners, taking on their sins which will result in his death. The whole picture of salvation begins here. That is why we must go backward today before we can go forward. We must go backward to Jesus' Baptism because it is connected with his death. Here Jesus is made sin for us [2 Cor. 5.21]. This, then, is the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ: to carry our sins in his body to the cross where he made an end of them.

Jesus pleased his Father in heaven because of this. He became our Redeemer, the One who would buy us back for the Father by the payment of his innocent blood. It is a vicarious act. The sinless one dies for the sinful. It is what Jesus was sent by the Father to do. Jesus is the Servant in whom God himself delights because he redeems the world.

This is the heart of the Christian faith. The Christian faith is not about doing good in order to ingratiate one into God's favor. No human being can do that. No human being can earn enough good to make such a payment. All such attempts are already tainted beyond description. All our righteous attempts are like menstrual rags, says Isaiah. No one does good, no, not one, repeats the Apostle Paul [Romans 3.10-18].

So it is that eulogies are really pointless as far as offering anything up to God for the deceased. We shall not do that. Flynn was full of sins as are the rest of us. She could be stubborn to a fault, and often was. She frustrated those who wanted to help her. She insisted on doing things her way even if it wasn't good for her. She had some virtues, too, such as her faithfulness to Christ by prayer and her attendance at Divine Service. Sunday, 27 December was the last day she was here, but she was too ill to stay and had to be taken home. She knew she needed to be here but couldn't stay because of her intense pain. Her Treasury of Daily Prayer had the bookmark on that day, 27 December. It appears that this was the last day that she was well enough to complete her daily devotions. I shall miss Flynn being in her pew and always knowing the rubrics, that is, when to stand, sit, or kneel. She also was a good listener because she was always ready with the responses to the greetings, prayers, and the proper time to speak the Amen. Someone will need to take her place.

But we offer up none of this to God. Rather, we remember that Flynn was baptized. On 28 August 1977 she was baptized "In the Name of the Father and of the ( Son and of the Holy Spirit." On that day she was united with Christ in his Baptism. She was baptized into Christ's death and resurrection.

"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:3-4, ESV)

Here is where she got the whole death thing over with. Every Christian who is baptized into Christ receives the gifts of Christ. In Holy Baptism the Christian receives the righteousness of Christ. That righteousness covers us even though we still sin. Sin isn't excused, it has already been paid by Christ. For that reason the casket of a Christian is covered with a funeral pall as she is wheeled into the sanctuary. Look carefully at that pall. You see the resurrected Christ, victorious over sin, death, and hell embroidered on it. The field is pure white, symbolic of the sinlessness of Christ who covers all her sins. The paschal candle is lit in remembrance of Holy Baptism and all the blessings it brings, namely forgiveness of sins, and if one has forgiveness of sins, then one has eternal life with Christ. The angel bars the way to heaven no more. Heaven is open to those who are baptized into Christ just as the heavens opened when Jesus was baptized.

Paul makes an amazing claim in our Epistle:

"For one who has died has been set free from sin." (Romans 6:7, ESV)

Can there be any better news than that? "Set free from sin!" Satan can no longer accuse her. She is safe in Christ forever! Her sin is forgiven by Christ. She didn't earn it. It is a gift. And if sin is done and buried then only life is on the horizon.

Many said after her death that she was no longer in pain and suffering. That is true, but it sometimes sounds as though it is merely an escape from the human condition. It is true that we rejoice that her pain and suffering are over, but it is greater that we rejoice that her sin is now done for good. Christ has carried them away in his death. Holy Baptism snatches us from the jaws of eternal death and suffering. It is not a work that we do, but one that God the Holy Spirit does in us. He clothes us with the righteousness of Christ because we have been baptized into his death. In his death he carried away all her sins and our sins.

I truly grieve for people can only look backward at death. They most likely have precious memories and good times, fond relationships now ended by death, sometimes not. Sometimes grievances remain. It must be very hard to have everything in the past. But for those baptized into Christ's death and resurrection there is a glorious future. Hear these thrilling words of the Apostle:

"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:8-11, ESV)

Our Lord said to the Twelve on the night before he died,

"Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live." (John 14:19, ESV)

Dear friends, Jesus has indeed risen from the dead according to his flesh, just as he said more than three times. The physical resurrection of our Lord is the bedrock of the Christian faith. If Christ has not been raised, says Paul, then this is all for nothing and we are still left in the consequences of our sin. And that means death, eternal death, not life. But Christ has been raised by the glory of the Father. He lives just as he said!

Those who have been baptized are baptized also into his resurrection. This body which we lay to rest today will live again along with all of the other saints who have gone before her, including Richard and Willa Vee. In fact, Flynn will be laid next to them in death awaiting the glorious resurrection on the last day when Christ will bring all those who belong to him with him to the unbounded glory of heaven.

The body of the Christian is not unimportant. Every Sunday after the Sacrament Flynn heard these words just as you hear them:

"The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in body and soul to life everlasting. Depart + in peace."

And I can hear Flynn say her "Amen," "this is true, I believe it." God has preserved her until her end, and he will keep her safe until the day of the resurrection of all flesh. Then there shall be a glorious reunion of all the saints around the throne of the Lamb who was slain and who lives forever as the Victor over sin, death, and hell.

Oh, the glorious future of the Christian! The words of the hymnwriter are so appropriate again today as we lay Flynn's earthly remains to rest:

1 Thanks to Thee, O Christ, victorious!
Thanks to Thee, O Lord of Life!
Death hath now no power o'er us,
Thou hast conquered in the strife.
Thanks because Thou didst arise
And hast opened paradise!
None can fully sing the glory
Of the resurrection story.

2 Thou hast died for my transgression,
All my sins on Thee were laid;
Thou hast won for me salvation,
On the cross my debt was paid.
From the grave I shall arise
And shall meet Thee in the skies.
Death itself is transitory;
I shall lift my head in glory.

3 For the joy Thine advent gave me,
For Thy holy, precious Word;
For Thy Baptism, which doth save me,
For Thy blest Communion board;
For Thy death, the bitter scorn,
For Thy resurrection morn,
Lord, I thank Thee and extol Thee,
And in heav'n I shall behold Thee.

548 Thanks to Thee, O Christ, Victorious

Text (sts. 1-3) and Music: Public domain
Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

The Christian looks backward to the Baptism of Jesus so that she can look forward to her own resurrection from the dead. Flynn can say with Luther:

It is as Job says: "Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him" (cf. Job 13:15). If He should cast me into the depths of hell and place me in the midst of devils, I would still believe that I would be saved because I have been baptized, I have been absolved, I have received the pledge of my salvation, the body and blood of the Lord in the Supper, Therefore I want to see and hear nothing else, but I shall live and die in this faith, whether God or an angel or the devil says the contrary.¹

As Flynn would say, "Amen!"

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

¹Martin Luther, vol. 6, Luther's Works, Vol. 6 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 31-37, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 6:131 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1970).