December 2010 Newsletter Article

‘Christ Jesus brought this gift to me,

My faithful Savior,

Whom You have made my eyes to see

By Your favor,

Now I know He is my life,

My friend when I am dying.’

In Peace and Joy I Now Depart - Luther

Lutheran Service Book Hymn 938

Brothers and sisters in Christ, without beating around the bush, I want you to take a moment and consider death. More specifically, I want you to consider your death. Admittedly, it is not a comfortable subject, but after attending the Good Shepherd Institute at the seminary in Fort Wayne last week with one of our organists I am convinced more than ever that we make the most powerful confession of our faith in how we face death.

The conference topic – The Theology of the Christian’s Death in Rite and Song – was obviously a big draw; more people attended this year’s conference than any other in ten years. It should come as no surprise. I do not raise this issue to bring specific instances to mind, but if you have attended many funerals for friends or family outside of our congregation, you have surely experienced a wide spectrum of practices. Have you been to a funeral lately? What was spoken about Christ in the service? Was the service in the funeral home or in the church? What did you see? What was said? What was sung?

Christian funerals are celebrations of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the forgiveness, life, and salvation he gives to us by grace, through faith. It looks forward with great anticipation to the resurrection of the dead promised by Christ at his return and at the same time it is a stark reminder to everyone in attendance of their own mortality. Much of the world has a paralyzing fear of death, however, and strives with all its might to guard against it, mask it, euphemize it, and cover it up. One of the most common things seen at funerals somewhere is the poem, ‘Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there, I do not sleep,’ and goes on to end, ‘Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there, I did not die.’ It was written to comfort the bereaved, but it fails because it attempts by turn of phrase to deny what is plainly visible – that a beloved person has died.

A Christian funeral is uncomfortable for the world because it is honest about life and death. Death is the wages of sin. It is last attack of the Old Adam against us and it is inevitable for all of us. There is only one cure for death, and that is resurrection from the dead, and that cure is not complete until Christ returns. This is what we, by the grace of God, believe in life, and this is what we confess in the face of death. Consider the poetry of the hymn, ‘Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart.’ (LSB 708) The third stanza reads,

‘And in its narrow chamber keep
My body safe in peaceful sleep
Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken me,
That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face,
My Savior and my fount of grace.’

Instead of avoiding death, this hymn confronts it. Instead of telling the grieving how to feel, it tells them of the hope of resurrection from the dead in Christ. The hymnal is one of our greatest treasures when it comes to comfort in the face of death; in many ways it is a teacher for all of us about how to die. Death is the wrong end to our lives; it was not God’s plan. Death is horrible, and when we face it in others and ourselves, Jesus alone is our cry!

For the sake of brevity, please consider the following: you are encouraged by the world to prearrange with a funeral home before you die. If that is an important way of taking care of your loved ones at a stressful time, how much more helpful would it be to speak to your pastors about your funeral before you die? As Luther writes in the hymn above, Christ alone is our friend when we are dying. Consider planning ahead so that He is confessed to your loved ones as He has been confessed to you!

To Christ alone be all the glory, forever and ever, amen.