May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
Questions
always are used in classrooms, homes and between family members. They can vary from what did you do last
night? How are you doing? To Did you know about Uncle Bob and Aunt
Mary? Questions also are used to ask far
more weighty matters, including acts of faith and whether someone has a faith
life or even believes in God. One such
question we heard this morning, ‘If God is for us, who is against us?’
On
the surface one can only imagine why this question would be asked, today, when
we are here to mourn the death of Dorothy?
But I, stand here today to answer this question and why it is important
for us today.
The
reason why this question is important is not because of anything that I have
done, nor that Dorothy ever did in her life here on earth. The importance is that God loved us and stood
in the gap by sending His Son Jesus Christ into the world for Dorothy, for you
and for me. Our world is full of sin,
death and the devil, and God sent His Son, Jesus Christ so we might be saved. You see God sent His Son, Jesus Christ into
the World to save the world from the grips of Satan.
When
Jesus Christ stretched out His arms and was nailed to the Cross of Calvary, His
love for us was manifest and it was in order that we, Dorothy, you, me and the
entire world might be saved. God
understood that we could not save ourselves and that we needed a Savior, His
Son Jesus Christ. From the beginning of
creation, the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit,
for the Israelite people who wandered in the desert, to the Temple in
Jerusalem, to the inn in Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ entered the world. Every event pointed to Jesus Christ love for
each of us and His death on Calvary for you, for me and especially for Dorothy.
This
is why we gather here today, laying claim to the promises of God made for all
of mankind, including all of you gathered here mourning Dorothy’s passing and
especially that this promise was for Dorothy and all of us. We cannot easily take away our mourning, but
what we can do is believe that Jesus Christ came into this world for each of
us. And this promise of salvation
offered for you, for me and for Dorothy, no one, not even the devil can take
away. So we hold onto this promise and
with firm conviction lay claim to the words of John in the Gospel. “16 “For
God so loved the world, that He gave His [b]only begotten Son, that whoever believes
in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not
send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might
be saved through Him. 18 He
who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged
already, because he has not believed in the name of the [c]only begotten Son of God.” This is the promise of love and forgiveness
that we hear and lay claim to today.
It is
the same promise of love from Jesus Christ that is written about in the hymn I
am about to sing. Listen to the words,
but know it is not just for all of mankind, but is the free gift from God for
all of us saints who gather here this afternoon to say goodbye to Dorothy. AMEN.
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