Isaiah 25:6-9; Romans 8:31-39; St Matthew 11:25-30
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
In 165 AD an epidemic from China swept through the Roman Empire. Over the next fifteen years the disease took the lives of nearly 5 million people. At its height there were an estimated 2,000 deaths a day in Rome. By 189 AD the disease, which became known as the Antonine Plague, decimated as much as one third of the population and devastated the Roman army.
The Caesar at the time, Marcus Aurelius Antonius, whose family name became associated with the pandemic, laid the blame for the unusual and fatal disease squarely on the Christians. Their refusal to acquiesce to the sacrifices to the pagan gods, to bend the knee to the deity of Caesar, to participate in the rampant immortality of the day, made them common targets. Hostility, persecution, and martyrdoms increased throughout the Empire even as Christians risked their lives to care for the sick and dying, fearing not the the one who can harm the body, but fearing, loving, and trusting the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell. The charity and compassion of the Christian Church was the origin of hospitals as we know them.
In the midst of such devastation and disease, surrounded by the very snares of death, the century old words of St Paul to the Christians in the capital provided a peace which the world cannot give.
What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the One who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquers through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Barb knows the same peace as those early Christians. A peace which the world cannot give. A peace which surpasses all human understanding. A peace that guards her heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Not a Pax Romana, a Roman Peace, which was bloody and cruel and wrought by the sword, but the Pax Domini, the Peace of the Lord, which was wrought by the bloody death of the Son of God, her Savior.
It is true that in the very midst of life, the snares of death surrounded her. During her earthly life Barb buried two husbands and two children. She battled demons through the Word of God and prayer. For over a decade she spoke up for life, the life of the pre-born, risking her life, giving hope and consolation to pregnant mothers a the East Side Crisis Pregnancy Center. Who helped her in all this strife? Thou only, Lord, Thou only! Her holy and righteous God. Her holy and might God. Her holy and all merciful Savior!
Like those Christians of old, brothers and sisters in Christ to whom she is now joined, Barb feared not those who can harm the body. She fears, love, and trusts in Him who ransomed and redeemed her in body and soul, and who now gives her eternal rest. Like those Christians of old, Barb knew she needed a Savior, a Redeemer, because she knew her sin. She confessed it. Even when she had lost most of her memories and couldn’t keep thoughts straight, Barb still knew she was a fallen creature living in a fallen world.
And so, when I was privileged to visit her with the Word of Life and the Medicine of Immortality, we would often pray the 23rd Psalm. And she would commend herself, body and soul, and all things, into the hands of the Lord her Shepherd. So that even though she walked through the valley of the shadow of death, she feared no evil. The Lord was with her. The Rod of His Word and the Staff of His Spirit comforting her.
For this great Good Shepherd of Barb’s, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the One who took the heavy yoke of her sin. Was laden with her guilt and death, and labored for her eternal life as He shouldered the burden of the sin of the world all the way to Calvary’s Cross. There He swallowed death forever. On Golgotha, the Mountain of the Lord, He removed the covering of death spread over all nations so that today we cover over Barb with the white funeral pall, the symbol of Christ’s righteousness that covers all her sin.
Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Christ Jesus spoke those words to Barb last Tuesday night when I was privileged to pray the Commendation of the Dying with her before she departed this life in peace. Remember Dennis? Every time we visited her at Traditions? She would ask to go home. To go home. She asked again in the hospital. She is now at home. She is at rest.
But He first spoke these words to Barb when He baptized her, plundered her into the holy waters to share in His death-defying death. As a little child He revealed the love of the Father, the life of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit to her through water and the Word in Holy Baptism. And though it was a new hymn to her, and even though she was in her 80s when she sang it, Barb gladly sang that she is God’s own child. Her baptism released her in a dear forgiving flood, sprinkling her with Jesus’ blood. Not sin, not Satan, not even death can end her gladness. She is baptized into Christ.
And what did you confess, dear Christians, at the start? 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. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. People loved by God, behold, I tell you a mystery, Barb is not dead. COVID may have taken her earthly life, but Christ Jesus has given her a share in a life that cannot die. We will loving place her mortal remains into God’s acre today and await with joy the resurrection of all flesh. And you, Dennis, and all who believe and are baptized shall be saved and shall see her again.
The truth is, dear people, in the very midst of life we are always surrounded by the snares of death. The devil, the world, and our own flesh hound us at every turn, never giving us a moment’s peace. There is always some disease, some epidemic, some ruler, something present or something coming, that always seeks to threaten our lives. But even worse, always seeks to pull us into false belief, despair, great shame, or vice. To pull you away from Christ. In all these things we are more than conquers through Him who loved us.
Behold, He is our God. Wait for Him. Be strong and let your heart take courage, and wait for Him. Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
In 165 AD an epidemic from China swept through the Roman Empire. Over the next fifteen years the disease took the lives of nearly 5 million people. At its height there were an estimated 2,000 deaths a day in Rome. By 189 AD the disease, which became known as the Antonine Plague, decimated as much as one third of the population and devastated the Roman army.
The Caesar at the time, Marcus Aurelius Antonius, whose family name became associated with the pandemic, laid the blame for the unusual and fatal disease squarely on the Christians. Their refusal to acquiesce to the sacrifices to the pagan gods, to bend the knee to the deity of Caesar, to participate in the rampant immortality of the day, made them common targets. Hostility, persecution, and martyrdoms increased throughout the Empire even as Christians risked their lives to care for the sick and dying, fearing not the the one who can harm the body, but fearing, loving, and trusting the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell. The charity and compassion of the Christian Church was the origin of hospitals as we know them.
In the midst of such devastation and disease, surrounded by the very snares of death, the century old words of St Paul to the Christians in the capital provided a peace which the world cannot give.
What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the One who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquers through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Barb knows the same peace as those early Christians. A peace which the world cannot give. A peace which surpasses all human understanding. A peace that guards her heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Not a Pax Romana, a Roman Peace, which was bloody and cruel and wrought by the sword, but the Pax Domini, the Peace of the Lord, which was wrought by the bloody death of the Son of God, her Savior.
It is true that in the very midst of life, the snares of death surrounded her. During her earthly life Barb buried two husbands and two children. She battled demons through the Word of God and prayer. For over a decade she spoke up for life, the life of the pre-born, risking her life, giving hope and consolation to pregnant mothers a the East Side Crisis Pregnancy Center. Who helped her in all this strife? Thou only, Lord, Thou only! Her holy and righteous God. Her holy and might God. Her holy and all merciful Savior!
Like those Christians of old, brothers and sisters in Christ to whom she is now joined, Barb feared not those who can harm the body. She fears, love, and trusts in Him who ransomed and redeemed her in body and soul, and who now gives her eternal rest. Like those Christians of old, Barb knew she needed a Savior, a Redeemer, because she knew her sin. She confessed it. Even when she had lost most of her memories and couldn’t keep thoughts straight, Barb still knew she was a fallen creature living in a fallen world.
And so, when I was privileged to visit her with the Word of Life and the Medicine of Immortality, we would often pray the 23rd Psalm. And she would commend herself, body and soul, and all things, into the hands of the Lord her Shepherd. So that even though she walked through the valley of the shadow of death, she feared no evil. The Lord was with her. The Rod of His Word and the Staff of His Spirit comforting her.
For this great Good Shepherd of Barb’s, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the One who took the heavy yoke of her sin. Was laden with her guilt and death, and labored for her eternal life as He shouldered the burden of the sin of the world all the way to Calvary’s Cross. There He swallowed death forever. On Golgotha, the Mountain of the Lord, He removed the covering of death spread over all nations so that today we cover over Barb with the white funeral pall, the symbol of Christ’s righteousness that covers all her sin.
Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Christ Jesus spoke those words to Barb last Tuesday night when I was privileged to pray the Commendation of the Dying with her before she departed this life in peace. Remember Dennis? Every time we visited her at Traditions? She would ask to go home. To go home. She asked again in the hospital. She is now at home. She is at rest.
But He first spoke these words to Barb when He baptized her, plundered her into the holy waters to share in His death-defying death. As a little child He revealed the love of the Father, the life of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit to her through water and the Word in Holy Baptism. And though it was a new hymn to her, and even though she was in her 80s when she sang it, Barb gladly sang that she is God’s own child. Her baptism released her in a dear forgiving flood, sprinkling her with Jesus’ blood. Not sin, not Satan, not even death can end her gladness. She is baptized into Christ.
And what did you confess, dear Christians, at the start? 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. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. People loved by God, behold, I tell you a mystery, Barb is not dead. COVID may have taken her earthly life, but Christ Jesus has given her a share in a life that cannot die. We will loving place her mortal remains into God’s acre today and await with joy the resurrection of all flesh. And you, Dennis, and all who believe and are baptized shall be saved and shall see her again.
The truth is, dear people, in the very midst of life we are always surrounded by the snares of death. The devil, the world, and our own flesh hound us at every turn, never giving us a moment’s peace. There is always some disease, some epidemic, some ruler, something present or something coming, that always seeks to threaten our lives. But even worse, always seeks to pull us into false belief, despair, great shame, or vice. To pull you away from Christ. In all these things we are more than conquers through Him who loved us.
Behold, He is our God. Wait for Him. Be strong and let your heart take courage, and wait for Him. Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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