The following is posted with family permission. May the Lord give to the family of Sylvia Colby and to all who mourn comfort in their grief and a sure confidence in His loving care.
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| Sylvia Colby |
The Epistle reading (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) from this morning says
that we are not to grieve as others might grieve. The reason why we do not grieve as other
people might grieve is because we have something called hope. Indeed, the Apostle Paul says in our text,
“…we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that
you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”
So, does this mean that we are not to grieve
the loss of Sylvia? Does this mean that
we should not cry at funerals and that we should not feel pain? Does this mean that we shouldn’t experience
sorrow and that we should not mourn?
Should we toughen up and pull ourselves together and stuff our emotions?
Should we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps? Absolutely not! The Epistle lesson is saying that we can
weep, that we can cry, that we can mourn for the loss of Sylvia, but we do so
without despairing grief. In other words, we do not grieve as if this
is the ultimate end, as if there is nothing beyond death.
The reason why our grieving as Christians is
different than other people is that we have something called hope; hope that
lies in the midst of our grief. We look
at the loss of Sylvia, the pain of death, with hope in view. We hold our sorrow in one hand and hope in
the other hand. In other words, we mourn
the loss of Sylvia with all of the emotions that come with loss, but we grieve
not as if we are uniformed and not as if we do not have hope.
But how is this hope able to do such
things? Keep in mind that left to
itself, the word ‘hope’ is a rather empty word.
If you say, “I have hope!” that is fairly ambiguous. The reason being, hope needs an object. In other words, what is the source of our hope? Our source of hope right here and right now
is in the promises of God. It is in the promises that the shed blood of
Jesus Christ is sufficient to forgive us of all of our sins. It is in
the promises that Jesus is righteous and that we are holy because we wear
Christ’s righteousness like a robe. Our
hope is in the promises that Jesus is
coming back. Our hope is anchored in the
promise that a powerful trumpet will blast and penetrate to our dead
bodies. Our hope is connected to the
promise that there will be a resurrection of the body; that Christ is coming
back to take us home unto everlasting life.
Unfortunately, the original hearers of the
Epistle text, that we read earlier, had some misconceptions about what happens
after death. There was doubt and uncertainty. Some were worried that when they died that
there was no hope that they were out of the reach of Christ. There was a lack of hope and what we could
say was misplaced hope.
Is it any different for us today? In the midst of death it seems to me that every
one of us looks for hope. Death has a
way of doing that. Unfortunately, we can
end up in despair when our hope fails to be placed where it should or when our
hope is connected to hopeless things. Yes,
even the best well-intentioned Christians sin when they place their hope in the
wrong places. For example, you and I can
place our hope in our very own accomplishments.
We can place our hope on our own accumulated worth. Thus, when we attend funerals, like this, we can
begin to think about our own death.
Death then brings about insecurity.
Thus we attempt to offset this insecurity with hope and assurance. But if not careful we can end up placing our
hope in our own perceived goodness. “What will be my fate when I die? Well, I am a pretty good person.” It is most unfortunate when we place our hope
in the unholy trinity of ‘me, myself, and I’ for we cannot save ourselves; we
cannot scrub hard enough to purge the stain of sin from our conscience. Furthermore, we self-deceive ourselves when
our hope is placed in our own spiritual resumes, resumes that surely will not overcome
the harshness of death.
Now, I could spend some time at this point
mentioning some of the wonderful things that Sylvia has done and accomplished
in her life. Let me affirm you that it
is good to remember and adore these wonderful memories and workings of
Sylvia. However, for the little time
that I got to know Sylvia, I am convinced that her hope was not in what she did
and did not do. I am convinced that her
ultimate hope was not in herself, but it was outside of herself. Her hope was in Christ Jesus. Sylvia’s hope was in the shed blood of Jesus
for the forgiveness of her sins. Two
weeks ago she wept as she received the body and blood of Christ given and shed
for her, a sinner; body and blood that gifted her forgiveness. Yes, she had hope in something that was
unsinkable. Her hope was not in herself,
it was the same hope that the Apostle Paul speaks of, hope in Christ Jesus—her
Lord and your Lord.
My friends, hope looks outside of us and it looks beyond
death to the death of Jesus. And get
this, the death of Jesus was not for Himself, it was for Sylvia, it was for
you! Indeed, Sylvia shared in the death of Jesus; she was washed clean, without
spot or blemish. God placed His name
upon her in her baptism. Through faith
she was united with Him in life and in death.
You who have ears, hear this, she was not abandoned at death! In death Jesus came and took her with Him
into her rest, into the realms of eternal glory. Furthermore, Jesus will also take her with
Him at the Resurrection of all the dead.
At the last day, Christ will come and the trumpets will sound and Sylvia
will hear the beautiful and powerful voice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Like Lazarus, she will come forth from her
grave, alive, and with a glorified body.
All the pain of her body will be left behind as she will be clothed in
splendor and holiness and never ending life.
My friends, we do not grieve like others, for we have hope. Furthermore our hope is not like others
because our hope is not in ourselves, but in a Savior who came and will come
for us! We have hope not in our
abilities to climb but in the descent of our Savior to you and me, a Savior
that comes to meet us in our death!
We have present hope my friends in the midst
of death. We have hope right here and
right now in the midst of this funeral as we believe, teach, and confess that
Jesus defeated hell, death, sin, and the devil.
We have hope right here and right now as we believe, teach, and confess,
that Jesus is the resurrection and the life; that there is a future
resurrection for us who are in Christ Jesus.
Now, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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