In Life And In Death, God is For Us!

A Funeral Sermon For Lornadell--Romans 8:28-39

It is a remarkable promise that God makes to us today, we who mourn Lornadell’s passing: that he is working all things together for our good. All things! Even our sorrow and loss—all things for our good.

This promise from God’s Word is easy enough for us to believe when everything in our life is going the way we want it to—when we have our health and when we have our family close to us. Of course God is working all things for our good—we can see it!

But the truth of this promise of God working all things for our good is also true for this day—this day when we mourn the loss of a wife and mother and aunt and friend and sister in Christ. Eyes that are focused on illness and loss and sorrow cannot see how any of this is for our good—and yet the promise of God stands:

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

So that we might believe this and be comforted in our grief, God calls us to lift our eyes to him—to focus our attention on his gracious work in Lornadell’s life—his care and concern for her that began long before her birth and will continue forever in heaven and know that even today he is working all things for the good of those who love him—for Lornadell and for us. The Bible says that:

Those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

A simple summary of these words from the Bible might go like this: God has always loved Lornadell and will always love Lornadell and the circumstances of her life- and the difficulties of her last days- and her passing from this life- doesn’t change that love one bit. From everlasting to everlasting God has always cared for Lornadell.

He chose her in Christ to be his own child before the foundation of the world. He sent his Son Jesus to live and die for her to forgive her and give her life that death cannot end. He planned her life so that she was born and raised in a Christian home. He called her to himself in the waters of Holy Baptism at St. John Lutheran Church in Poth, Texas. He declared her right in his sight through faith in Jesus. And now he has brought her to himself in glory where she will live with him forever in heaven.

All of this our gracious God has done for Lornadell in time and eternity so that on this day when we mourn her passing there can be absolutely no doubt in our minds that even in the painful and difficult and sorrowful things-- God was working for her good and he is working for ours too. And so…

What then 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?

Even though it is difficult to see it right now, even though there seems to be some overwhelming evidence to the contrary, God promises us that in life and in death he can be counted on to do what is best for us—as the Bible says, that he is for us.

That promise was made especially to Lornadell when she was confirmed at First Lutheran Church in Floresville, Texas. On Pentecost Sunday in 1944, Pr. Winters laid his hands on Lornadell’s head and gave her this very verse that he had chosen for her, to bless her with: If God is for us, who can be against us?

Pr. Winters knew that God was FOR Lornadell—he knew everything that God had done to bless her and bring her to himself—but he also knew that life in this broken world would hold some hardships for her as well—that there would be times and circumstances and events when she would wonder to herself: is God really for me?

And those times came. She lost a son-- and can there be anything harder for a parent than that? She had various health issues that became more prominent and disabling over the years. She had her own share of the world’s sorrows.

But throughout her life she could be confident that God was for her—not because things were always going her way-- but because of what God had already done for her in sending his Son Jesus to lay down his life for her on the cross. There was no doubt that God was for her because of the gift he had given her in Jesus.

Along with this most important gift of Jesus, God also blessed her with other gifts just as he promises to those who love him. He gave her the gift of a husband in Charlie with whom she was blessed to enjoy sixty one years of marriage; the gift of a son in John who was as kind and caring and attentive to his mother as any son could be; a successful work life in banking; and many friends in this community.

God did indeed, along with Jesus, graciously give her all things just as he promised. But now he has called her to himself and the questions and doubts come. Why were her last years filled with such difficulty? Why couldn’t God have let her stay with us for just a while longer? God’s word has an answer to these doubts and questions that every believer struggles with at times like these. The Bible says:

Who shall 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.

When we are confronted with doubts and questions about the loving purpose of God in the hard times of life-- he reminds us what his real purpose is: to restore us to our status as his children and bring us safely to heaven where we will live with him forever. That’s what he wants for us more than anything else—that we would live with him forever.

We are sad to say goodbye to Lornadell. But how much sadder it would be to know that she had to live on forever in broken health and increasing disability? God wanted much more than that for his child! And so he sent his Son to die for her sins and he raised him from the dead to give her a new and eternal life.

Through faith in Jesus, God declared that Lornadell was right in his sight and promised that she would live with him forever. The fullness of that life is still to come on the Last Day—but it is no less certain than all of the other blessings God has already given her.

That is what Jesus came to do for her- and that is what he has been doing for her every day of her life as he prayed for her before his heavenly Father’s throne, ordering her life so that she would live in faith and depart this life in faith.

Jesus was with Lornadell every day of her life until he brought her safely home and he promises the same to us. The Bible says:

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 conquerors through him who loved us.

When we lose a loved one it is normal that we grieve—even for Christians. St. Paul said that we grieve—but not as those who have no hope. And so we shed tears and we mourn our loss but that sorrow does not overwhelm us because we know that Christ’s love for Lornadell continued right up to that moment when he called her to himself and that same love will be with us in the days ahead.

Nothing can separate us from that love. Even when we do not feel it—even when the sorrows of life seem to crowd it out—Jesus cares for us and he will not let anything change that love he has for us.

That promise is what gives us the strength we need to carry on—to do the things that need to be done: meals to prepare-a garden to plant-volunteer hours to be worked—Javelina games to attend—service projects to accomplish with the Lions Club.

There will be tears in the days ahead—the weight of sorrow will seem at times to be unbearable—but God promises that we are more than conquerors because of Jesus’ love for us. In other words, he will see us through. In fat, he will see us through not only the days ahead-- but he will see us safely through our entire life until that day he calls us home to join those we love in heaven. The Bible says:

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.

God wants you to have that same confidence that St. Paul had when he was inspired to write these words—to believe that nothing, absolutely nothing, not even the death of those we love, not even our own deaths-- can separate us from Christ.

Lornadell believed that. She was a Christian lady who knew and believed that Jesus was her Savior and that she was loved by God from everlasting to everlasting. And while she is separated from us for a time---she is at home with Christ. I pray that God would grant the same to each of us assembled here this day. Amen.