Job 19:21-27/1 Corinthians 15:20-26/St John 19:16-30
In the Name of + JESUS. Amen.
Neil and Lisa, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren of Ruth, nieces and nephews, family, friends, and loved ones of all kinds, dear brothers and sisters in Christ of hers from St Peter’s: grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, who in His great love for us, offered up His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in our stead, and in His great love for Him, raised Him from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit!
The Church, the beloved Bride of Christ Jesus, shall hear these words from the passion according to St John this Friday. Good Friday. They shall be read in somber reflection; the contemplation of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of the beloved Son of the Father, Jesus Christ.
She shall hear these words and in them she shall rejoice. Not because the Bride of Christ is somehow morbid or preoccupied with death. But because the passion accounts are the Gospel of the Gospels, the bloody, beating heart and center of the Christian faith. They are the very account of that blessed marriage by which Christ Jesus wed Himself to His Bride, washing her in His blood, and uniting her to Himself, one flesh, forever.
In this the Church, the beloved of Christ rejoices. And in this, Ruth, His beloved, His dear one in whom His heart delights, also rejoiced. Not because she was preoccupied with death, but because she, by His grace, through His Word and Spirit, believed and confessed that the death of Jesus Christ her Lord was and is her Life.
For Ruth also confessed that she was a poor, miserable sinner; a daughter of Adam in whom all die. Like old Job, Ruth knew her own mortality. Often her thoughts would turn to the blessing of her long life as she mourned with hope the passing of her nieces and nephews, her sisters, her family who have gone before her in the faith. She mourned with hope those whom she would see again in her own death and resurrection; those who fell asleep in Christ, confessing, by His grace, the faith He bestowed upon them as free gift. She faithfully longed to be joined to that company of angels and archangels and all the host of heaven, according to the Lord’s good and gracious will.
By the same token Ruth lamented that some of her family and loved ones had forsaken such faith, though it was taught them as children through catechesis and prayer, by the on-going hearing of the Word of Christ by which faith is both created and sustained. It grieved her to see members of her family, her own flesh and blood, turn their backs on the mercy and loving kindness of the Lord for them.
Yet she never judged anyone; never spoke a word in hostility concerning them. At least not to me. But she would simply pray for them; for you. As she would point around her room, motioning to the pictures of her dear family, Ruth prayed each of you, by name, confidently petitioning her God and Father in heaven through Jesus Christ to provide you with what is needed to support this body and life, to give you the strength to see through each day, and, above all, that He would by His Word and Spirit, create and sustain saving faith in you where and when it pleased Him.
And it pleased our God and Father through Jesus Christ to bestow such faith upon Ruth through His Word and Spirit in the waters of Holy Baptism. There she was joined to the sacrificial, atoning death of Jesus Christ her Lord. In her Baptism, the blood our Lord shed for the sins of whole world, cleansed Ruth and forgave all her sins. There the seamless garment of Christ’s own righteousness covered over her unrighteousness as He presented her to Himself in perfect splendor and majesty. The white, cross laden baptismal pall represents this reality.
This blessed gift of saving faith, which grabs hold of Christ as the heart’s delight, was nurtured and strengthened by the on-going preaching of the Word of Christ which Ruth gladly heard at St Peter’s Lutheran Church. For there she, like the Mother of our Lord and Mary Magdalene, stood at the foot of Jesus’ Cross, so to speak, and beheld the glory of their salvation; through the Word read and preached and in the Holy Supper of Christ’s crucified and risen Body and Blood, given and shed for her for the forgiveness of sins. She received this heavenly food as deposit and guarantee of her own life and salvation; of her own resurrection in Christ.
For even now Ruth beholds her Redeemer as she awaits the resurrection of all flesh. Behold I tell you a mystery: our dear sister in Christ, Ruth, is not dead. She lives. She lives in Christ Jesus who died for her. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.
Ruth belongs to Christ. Therefore she is not dead, but alive in Christ, who has destroyed the power of death and brought life and immortality to light. And today we shall loving place her body into God’s acre, awaiting in hope the resurrection of the dead, when she shall with all Christians, see God, even as Job confessed: Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
For as the Church is in the midst of Holy Week and heads into Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, longing to hear again of the blessed death of her Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, she does not do so unknowingly. The Resurrection of Christ Jesus is not a surprise. We already, even today - perhaps especially today - joyfully sing of its reality and meaning. Indeed, it is only on account of the resurrection that the Church can rejoice with repentant joy over the events of Good Friday. And it is only by such faith and in the confidence of His resurrection, that we can place Ruth’s body into the earth awaiting with joy her resurrection from the dead at the Last.
Such confidence is likewise yours in the bold confession of the reconciling death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For this is Ruth’s confession of faith and the confession for which she hoped and prayed for all her family. For you must contend with the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, with its significance and meaning, its purpose and result. In Adam all die. Including Ruth. Including you. So also in Christ shall all be made alive. On that Last Day God the Holy Spirit, together with the Father and the Son, shall raise Ruth and all the dead, and give eternal life to her and all believers in Christ.
So let us keep the festival
To which our Lord invites us;
Christ is Himself the joy of all.
The sun that warms and lights us.
Now His grace to us imparts
Eternal sunshine to our hearts;
The night of sin is ended,
Alleluia! (LSB 458:6)
In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name of + JESUS. Amen.
Neil and Lisa, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren of Ruth, nieces and nephews, family, friends, and loved ones of all kinds, dear brothers and sisters in Christ of hers from St Peter’s: grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, who in His great love for us, offered up His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in our stead, and in His great love for Him, raised Him from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit!
The Church, the beloved Bride of Christ Jesus, shall hear these words from the passion according to St John this Friday. Good Friday. They shall be read in somber reflection; the contemplation of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of the beloved Son of the Father, Jesus Christ.
She shall hear these words and in them she shall rejoice. Not because the Bride of Christ is somehow morbid or preoccupied with death. But because the passion accounts are the Gospel of the Gospels, the bloody, beating heart and center of the Christian faith. They are the very account of that blessed marriage by which Christ Jesus wed Himself to His Bride, washing her in His blood, and uniting her to Himself, one flesh, forever.
In this the Church, the beloved of Christ rejoices. And in this, Ruth, His beloved, His dear one in whom His heart delights, also rejoiced. Not because she was preoccupied with death, but because she, by His grace, through His Word and Spirit, believed and confessed that the death of Jesus Christ her Lord was and is her Life.
For Ruth also confessed that she was a poor, miserable sinner; a daughter of Adam in whom all die. Like old Job, Ruth knew her own mortality. Often her thoughts would turn to the blessing of her long life as she mourned with hope the passing of her nieces and nephews, her sisters, her family who have gone before her in the faith. She mourned with hope those whom she would see again in her own death and resurrection; those who fell asleep in Christ, confessing, by His grace, the faith He bestowed upon them as free gift. She faithfully longed to be joined to that company of angels and archangels and all the host of heaven, according to the Lord’s good and gracious will.
By the same token Ruth lamented that some of her family and loved ones had forsaken such faith, though it was taught them as children through catechesis and prayer, by the on-going hearing of the Word of Christ by which faith is both created and sustained. It grieved her to see members of her family, her own flesh and blood, turn their backs on the mercy and loving kindness of the Lord for them.
Yet she never judged anyone; never spoke a word in hostility concerning them. At least not to me. But she would simply pray for them; for you. As she would point around her room, motioning to the pictures of her dear family, Ruth prayed each of you, by name, confidently petitioning her God and Father in heaven through Jesus Christ to provide you with what is needed to support this body and life, to give you the strength to see through each day, and, above all, that He would by His Word and Spirit, create and sustain saving faith in you where and when it pleased Him.
And it pleased our God and Father through Jesus Christ to bestow such faith upon Ruth through His Word and Spirit in the waters of Holy Baptism. There she was joined to the sacrificial, atoning death of Jesus Christ her Lord. In her Baptism, the blood our Lord shed for the sins of whole world, cleansed Ruth and forgave all her sins. There the seamless garment of Christ’s own righteousness covered over her unrighteousness as He presented her to Himself in perfect splendor and majesty. The white, cross laden baptismal pall represents this reality.
This blessed gift of saving faith, which grabs hold of Christ as the heart’s delight, was nurtured and strengthened by the on-going preaching of the Word of Christ which Ruth gladly heard at St Peter’s Lutheran Church. For there she, like the Mother of our Lord and Mary Magdalene, stood at the foot of Jesus’ Cross, so to speak, and beheld the glory of their salvation; through the Word read and preached and in the Holy Supper of Christ’s crucified and risen Body and Blood, given and shed for her for the forgiveness of sins. She received this heavenly food as deposit and guarantee of her own life and salvation; of her own resurrection in Christ.
For even now Ruth beholds her Redeemer as she awaits the resurrection of all flesh. Behold I tell you a mystery: our dear sister in Christ, Ruth, is not dead. She lives. She lives in Christ Jesus who died for her. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.
Ruth belongs to Christ. Therefore she is not dead, but alive in Christ, who has destroyed the power of death and brought life and immortality to light. And today we shall loving place her body into God’s acre, awaiting in hope the resurrection of the dead, when she shall with all Christians, see God, even as Job confessed: Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
For as the Church is in the midst of Holy Week and heads into Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, longing to hear again of the blessed death of her Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, she does not do so unknowingly. The Resurrection of Christ Jesus is not a surprise. We already, even today - perhaps especially today - joyfully sing of its reality and meaning. Indeed, it is only on account of the resurrection that the Church can rejoice with repentant joy over the events of Good Friday. And it is only by such faith and in the confidence of His resurrection, that we can place Ruth’s body into the earth awaiting with joy her resurrection from the dead at the Last.
Such confidence is likewise yours in the bold confession of the reconciling death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For this is Ruth’s confession of faith and the confession for which she hoped and prayed for all her family. For you must contend with the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, with its significance and meaning, its purpose and result. In Adam all die. Including Ruth. Including you. So also in Christ shall all be made alive. On that Last Day God the Holy Spirit, together with the Father and the Son, shall raise Ruth and all the dead, and give eternal life to her and all believers in Christ.
So let us keep the festival
To which our Lord invites us;
Christ is Himself the joy of all.
The sun that warms and lights us.
Now His grace to us imparts
Eternal sunshine to our hearts;
The night of sin is ended,
Alleluia! (LSB 458:6)
In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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