John 14:1-6
1 ¡§Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father¡¦s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.¡¨ 5 Thomas said to him, ¡§Lord, we don¡¦t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?¡¨ 6 Jesus answered, ¡§I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Dear Family and Friends of Shirley Wilkening:
To send someone we love on a journey can be a frightening experience. We know the time is approaching; we plan for weeks or months. Everything is in place and well rehearsed. Still when the time comes, there can still be a knot in your stomach as they leave, still some doubt -
Ĩ What have I forgotten?
ƒ® What can’t I plan for?
Ĩ Am I sure everything has been covered?
Today we send a dear friend and family member, Shirley, off on her journey. The journey for which she has been preparing since the day she was baptized and God the Holy Spirit created faith in her heart. A journey which Shirley knew was coming and because of the faith God gave her, she was prepared to take. Yet, for Shirley¡¦s friends and family there may still be a mixture of emotions today, one of which is fear. Fear because today we stand at the most shattering spot in the entire world ¡X an open grave.
It is a time at which we must all face our own mortality as well as the mortality of the one we love. It is a time when the words of God recorded by St Paul in his letter to the Romans weigh heavy on our minds ¡V ¡§The wages of sin is death.¡¨ These words bring questions to our minds.
Ĩ Am I ready for this moment in my life?
Ĩ Am I prepared for my death?
Ĩ How will I face this moment when it comes?
When we have questions about death we need to stop and listen, listen to Jesus and hear His word which tells us, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me." but it can be hard advice. This is no time for trite words, easy assurances. We do not like to think about death if we have any doubts about our own readiness. But still Jesus says, ¡§Do not let your hearts be troubled." These are words more for us than they are for Shirley.
This was a difficult time for you as a family, the last few weeks were spent in the hospital and finally the nursing home, but it was also a good time to spend together. Shirley would have wanted nothing more than to have family close. It was a time to remember the gifts of God to you, and one of these great gifts was Shirley. The times I met Shirley for devotion and the Lord¡¦s Supper, she was always welcoming and ready for a chat. Our time together showed me that she was a woman of faith, who treasured her family and her church. She would tell me stories about fishing and going to visit her family in the various places they lived. But most importantly our time together was spent hearing the Word of God, confessing her sins and receiving the assurance of forgiveness through our Saviors body and blood. And because of this time together Shirley knew that her future was secure no matter what direction her illness would take.
Shirley had little reason to fear death, as the time approached, because she trusted the words of Jesus, ¡§Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father¡¦s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
Over the past two years that I have been her pastor, Shirley would go in and out of the hospital dealing with her illness but she would always go home a few days later. When she would go home from the hospital we would talk about how her room was not ready yet. It wasn¡¦t time for her to go on the final journey. But if it was she was ready to go to her heavenly home. She knew that Jesus had a place prepared for her. Shirley was certain that she would spend eternity in the loving arms of Jesus.
Today our certainty isn’t quite as secure as Shirley¡¦s was; not as secure as we might want. When we face death, when we are faced with the death of a loved one, we ask along with Thomas, "Lord ...How do we know the way?" Doubts and questions can creep in. In the confusion and high emotion around death, we need to hear clearly the words, ¡§You know the way to the place where I am going."
These words bring calm as we are reminded of the long preparation that began at our baptism. From the moment of our baptism we are preparing for the moment of our death. As Shirley lived out her baptism in the promises of God all her life, she knew that Jesus would come for her. She depended on the promises she learned from Luther’s Catechism. "What benefits does God give in Baptism? In baptism God forgives sin, delivers from death and the devil and gives everlasting salvation to all who believe what God has promised." Shirley lived her life in "daily repentance" secure in the promises made to her by God so many years ago. She trusted that Jesus was her only Savior from the wages of sin. She trusted that it was God who himself who gave His life on Calvary¡¦s cross so that she would live forever.
To each of us who stand at the open grave today, to each of us who must recognize that we are all dying people, to each of us whose certainty may be a little shaken today ¡X Jesus reminds us that, " You know the way to the place where I am going. . . . I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me...¡¨ Jesus reminds us that, "I claimed you in your baptism and I have had a place waiting for you all these years." God seeks to lead us all through our lives. When we are in tune with God, it happens as though by instinct. When sin separates us from God, we need to hear words of hope and forgiveness to remind us that we do know God and God knows us and he has done everything needed for our salvation and he has a room for us in His heavenly mansion. We need to hear these words especially today as we say "Goodbye" to one who is dear to all of us.
As Shirley goes to her place prepared for her, we too can look forward to joining her when our time comes. Our future is assured when we trust what God has promised. I believe that Shirley’s hope for all of us today would echo those words of Jesus, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." Shirley’s future is secure and we need not worry about her. We can say farewell to Shirley without fear for her. We can have our fears quieted today also as we are reminded of God’s plans for us. Because of God’s promises to us, and to Shirley, we can leave this place with confidence, firmly established on one who is "the way, the truth and the life." AMEN
