1 Kings 17:17-24/Ephesians 3:13-21/St Luke 7:11-17
Baptism of Keira Skyler Marie Christl
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
She was the mother of the dead. She had buried her own mother and father; any siblings. She buried her husband. Now she was burying her only child. She is the icon of pity, of sorrow. She is, in a way, the female counterpart to that old saint, Job. First his crops, then his herds, then his children. He loses them all, one right after the other. St Luke paints an equally dire picture: A man who had died was being carried out, and he was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.
All those ‘ands.’ He piles on the grief. No family. No husband. No son. She journeys to the grave for her last time. She might as well be buried with her little boy, for what good was living any longer now that she was alone?
The community was supposed to care for her. That was the Law. But we know ourselves. We know our own weaknesses. How well do we care for our widows? For the fatherless? No, her options were bleak; her security was uncertain. In all likelihood she would be forced to turn to a life of prostitution, as many widows did. And so she weeps, not only for the death of her son, but also for herself. Her life is as good as over.
To this procession of death and its miserable train, comes Life itself. Christ, the Life of all the living, journeys with His disciples and a great crowd. When He saw her He had compassion on her. His heart was wrenched in agony for this poor woman. His guts ached for her. This is the compassion of Job’s Lord for a woman who suffered severely under the consequences of the Fall.
She was not being punished. Neither was the widow at Zarephath. That kind of thinking is sinister. It is despair worked by the old Adam and his evil ally, Satan. Worse, this false teaching pervades much of Pop American Christianity. “You got sick because you didn’t believe enough.” “Your mother is ill because you aren’t a good Christian.” “Your child is misbehaving because you didn’t fully give your heart to Jesus.” Lies! These are all lies. They aren’t even half true!
Run from such false teaching. Flee from it. Do not listen to it.
Beloved, suffering is not sin. And it is not punishment for sin, yours or others. It is true that you suffer the consequences of sin, yours, and those who sin against you. But this is not a sign of our Lord’s displeasure with you.
It is, though, the reality of the Fall. Recall that it was our Lord who allowed Satan to afflict Job. It was our Lord who gave St Paul his thorn in the flesh. It is our Lord who lays on each of you a cross, a burden to bear. Why? So that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
It is written in the letter to the Hebrews, It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Heb 12:7-8, 11).
So it is that Christ halts this funeral procession. He breaks right into this march of death and stops it in its tracks. Death will not pass by the body of Jesus. He stands in its way. He has compassion on this poor, suffering woman and says to her, Do not weep. It is as if He said, “Dear mother, I share your grief, I feel your pain. You have lost your child, you have no husband, you feel alone. But you are not alone. My Father in heaven loves you. In compassion He sent Me to destroy your enemies, to undo death, to bring comfort to those who mourn.”
This is true compassion. This is the very heart of mercy. It is, as St Paul writes, The love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Jesus’ heart goes out to this widowed mother who now buries her son, as if she is His flesh and blood; as if she is His own mother. Indeed she shall be. For He, the only Son of the Father, will look with compassion on St Mary, His mother, and give to her in her sorrow and grief, in her weeping, His beloved disciple as a son.
For this is the icon of our Lord’s mercy; His Cross. There He touched your funeral bier, He joined Himself to your death. Indeed He took your place, even as He did for this young man. For when our Lord touches the coffin and says, Young man, I say to you, arise, He signs His own death certificate. It is not because He is now unclean by coming into contact with a dead body. Rather, it is because to bring this man back from the dead, Jesus must take His place. And yours. He puts Himself on the bier. He puts Himself on the Cross. Jesus puts Himself in the grave, in order to bring you back from death, in order to raise you from your grave. Just as you sang, Great is Your steadfast love toward me; You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
St Luke writes, The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. So too you, who were dead in your trespasses and sins, have been raised up to life by the Word of Christ. For like Elijah stretching out over the boy three times, Christ Jesus stretched Himself over you in the Triune Name of God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - in Holy Baptism. There He stopped death dead in its tracks.
This is how it is for Kiera this morning. The procession from outside the Church, outside the Body of Christ, is stopped dead in its tracks at Christ’s life giving water of Holy Baptism. Their Christ Jesus who has had compassion on her, touched her bier, took her death unto Himself. She has shared by water and the Word in His own death and so shall share in His resurrection.
The Old Adam in her has been drowned and died and in Christ she is raised from her watery grave alive and Jesus has given her into the arms of her aunt and uncle, her dear grandmother, and according to His wisdom and His plan, into the arms of her mother. For in all these ways he loves her, even as He had compassion on the widow. She was not alone. The Lord was with her. Her community bore her grief and sorrow with her and then her joy and gladness at the resurrection of her son.
It is no different for Kiera. For our Lord Christ, her Redeemer, has given her into the arms of her Mother, the Church, and the compassion of His Father in heaven who is your Father in heaven. Kiera, you are not alone. Here you are surrounded by your Christian family, your brothers and sisters in Christ. They bear up with you under your cross and they take your burdens upon themselves.
This is what you do here, dear Christians, as you receive the Body and Blood of our crucified, dead, and buried, and behold risen and ascended Lord. You eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins, but that is not all. In compassion you take upon yourself the burdens and even the sins of one another. You suffer with one another; even as St Paul writes, Do not lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. Rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, you comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of this love that is yours in Christ.
And thus are you given to speak, again, as this young man. It is an unmistakable sign that he is living - he speaks! So to you. The Word of the Lord comes to your once dead ears and causes you to hear. It raises you from your graves, that is, His Word forgives all your sins and gives you life everlasting. Thus do you sit up and speak back that which has been spoken to you. This is the way of faith. To hear the living Word of Christ and to speak it back to God and to one another, even as this word about Jesus spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.
For He is THE prophet; greater than Elijah or Moses, who has come to rescue you from sin and death, to bring Life and immortality to light! For in Christ, God has visited His people; He has come to them and redeemed them. He has met your enemy, death itself, head on, and has overcome. Death has been swallowed up by death. He suffered for you, on your behalf. And He suffers with you, enduring the cross that He has given you. It marks you as His. You are redeemed. Your dirge of mourning has been turned into a song of joy and gladness.
Come then, share in the Feast of Life, the Supper of Your Brother, set before you through the compassion of your Father. Here you are filled with He who is the fullness of God dwelling in your flesh. In this Sacrament you are strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
The resurrection is coming. His own is your guarantee. Soon He shall call you from your graves and raise you to Himself in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. You shall weep no more. You shall live. To Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus, together with the Father + and the Holy Spirit, throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Baptism of Keira Skyler Marie Christl
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
She was the mother of the dead. She had buried her own mother and father; any siblings. She buried her husband. Now she was burying her only child. She is the icon of pity, of sorrow. She is, in a way, the female counterpart to that old saint, Job. First his crops, then his herds, then his children. He loses them all, one right after the other. St Luke paints an equally dire picture: A man who had died was being carried out, and he was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.
All those ‘ands.’ He piles on the grief. No family. No husband. No son. She journeys to the grave for her last time. She might as well be buried with her little boy, for what good was living any longer now that she was alone?
The community was supposed to care for her. That was the Law. But we know ourselves. We know our own weaknesses. How well do we care for our widows? For the fatherless? No, her options were bleak; her security was uncertain. In all likelihood she would be forced to turn to a life of prostitution, as many widows did. And so she weeps, not only for the death of her son, but also for herself. Her life is as good as over.
To this procession of death and its miserable train, comes Life itself. Christ, the Life of all the living, journeys with His disciples and a great crowd. When He saw her He had compassion on her. His heart was wrenched in agony for this poor woman. His guts ached for her. This is the compassion of Job’s Lord for a woman who suffered severely under the consequences of the Fall.
She was not being punished. Neither was the widow at Zarephath. That kind of thinking is sinister. It is despair worked by the old Adam and his evil ally, Satan. Worse, this false teaching pervades much of Pop American Christianity. “You got sick because you didn’t believe enough.” “Your mother is ill because you aren’t a good Christian.” “Your child is misbehaving because you didn’t fully give your heart to Jesus.” Lies! These are all lies. They aren’t even half true!
Run from such false teaching. Flee from it. Do not listen to it.
Beloved, suffering is not sin. And it is not punishment for sin, yours or others. It is true that you suffer the consequences of sin, yours, and those who sin against you. But this is not a sign of our Lord’s displeasure with you.
It is, though, the reality of the Fall. Recall that it was our Lord who allowed Satan to afflict Job. It was our Lord who gave St Paul his thorn in the flesh. It is our Lord who lays on each of you a cross, a burden to bear. Why? So that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
It is written in the letter to the Hebrews, It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Heb 12:7-8, 11).
So it is that Christ halts this funeral procession. He breaks right into this march of death and stops it in its tracks. Death will not pass by the body of Jesus. He stands in its way. He has compassion on this poor, suffering woman and says to her, Do not weep. It is as if He said, “Dear mother, I share your grief, I feel your pain. You have lost your child, you have no husband, you feel alone. But you are not alone. My Father in heaven loves you. In compassion He sent Me to destroy your enemies, to undo death, to bring comfort to those who mourn.”
This is true compassion. This is the very heart of mercy. It is, as St Paul writes, The love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Jesus’ heart goes out to this widowed mother who now buries her son, as if she is His flesh and blood; as if she is His own mother. Indeed she shall be. For He, the only Son of the Father, will look with compassion on St Mary, His mother, and give to her in her sorrow and grief, in her weeping, His beloved disciple as a son.
For this is the icon of our Lord’s mercy; His Cross. There He touched your funeral bier, He joined Himself to your death. Indeed He took your place, even as He did for this young man. For when our Lord touches the coffin and says, Young man, I say to you, arise, He signs His own death certificate. It is not because He is now unclean by coming into contact with a dead body. Rather, it is because to bring this man back from the dead, Jesus must take His place. And yours. He puts Himself on the bier. He puts Himself on the Cross. Jesus puts Himself in the grave, in order to bring you back from death, in order to raise you from your grave. Just as you sang, Great is Your steadfast love toward me; You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
St Luke writes, The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. So too you, who were dead in your trespasses and sins, have been raised up to life by the Word of Christ. For like Elijah stretching out over the boy three times, Christ Jesus stretched Himself over you in the Triune Name of God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - in Holy Baptism. There He stopped death dead in its tracks.
This is how it is for Kiera this morning. The procession from outside the Church, outside the Body of Christ, is stopped dead in its tracks at Christ’s life giving water of Holy Baptism. Their Christ Jesus who has had compassion on her, touched her bier, took her death unto Himself. She has shared by water and the Word in His own death and so shall share in His resurrection.
The Old Adam in her has been drowned and died and in Christ she is raised from her watery grave alive and Jesus has given her into the arms of her aunt and uncle, her dear grandmother, and according to His wisdom and His plan, into the arms of her mother. For in all these ways he loves her, even as He had compassion on the widow. She was not alone. The Lord was with her. Her community bore her grief and sorrow with her and then her joy and gladness at the resurrection of her son.
It is no different for Kiera. For our Lord Christ, her Redeemer, has given her into the arms of her Mother, the Church, and the compassion of His Father in heaven who is your Father in heaven. Kiera, you are not alone. Here you are surrounded by your Christian family, your brothers and sisters in Christ. They bear up with you under your cross and they take your burdens upon themselves.
This is what you do here, dear Christians, as you receive the Body and Blood of our crucified, dead, and buried, and behold risen and ascended Lord. You eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins, but that is not all. In compassion you take upon yourself the burdens and even the sins of one another. You suffer with one another; even as St Paul writes, Do not lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. Rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, you comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of this love that is yours in Christ.
And thus are you given to speak, again, as this young man. It is an unmistakable sign that he is living - he speaks! So to you. The Word of the Lord comes to your once dead ears and causes you to hear. It raises you from your graves, that is, His Word forgives all your sins and gives you life everlasting. Thus do you sit up and speak back that which has been spoken to you. This is the way of faith. To hear the living Word of Christ and to speak it back to God and to one another, even as this word about Jesus spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.
For He is THE prophet; greater than Elijah or Moses, who has come to rescue you from sin and death, to bring Life and immortality to light! For in Christ, God has visited His people; He has come to them and redeemed them. He has met your enemy, death itself, head on, and has overcome. Death has been swallowed up by death. He suffered for you, on your behalf. And He suffers with you, enduring the cross that He has given you. It marks you as His. You are redeemed. Your dirge of mourning has been turned into a song of joy and gladness.
Come then, share in the Feast of Life, the Supper of Your Brother, set before you through the compassion of your Father. Here you are filled with He who is the fullness of God dwelling in your flesh. In this Sacrament you are strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
The resurrection is coming. His own is your guarantee. Soon He shall call you from your graves and raise you to Himself in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. You shall weep no more. You shall live. To Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus, together with the Father + and the Holy Spirit, throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
RSS Feed