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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Dear Debby and Alan, the rest of the extended Lowery Family, Members of our Pilgrim Lutheran Church, and other gathered friends,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
God our Father has been pleased to summon out of this vale of tears to our eternal home the soul of our dear sister in Christ, Sarah Jane Crockett Lowery, who departed this life this past Monday, at the age of 82. Her earthly remains are before us. In the final ten months of her life that I have been pastor of Pilgrim Lutheran Church, getting to know her a little was my privilege and pleasure. Although she would not schedule a time for me to visit her at her home, her repeated visits to the emergency room, hospital, and the nursing home gave me other opportunities to visit with her, on occasion hearing her confession and absolving her and communing her. At those times, I welcomed her interest in the progress of our sanctuary remodeling, and we are thankful for the designation of memorials in her honor to that end. Yet, what I appreciated more about Sarah, as I got to know her, was her care and concern for the members of our congregation and for her own family. I think that care and concern are evident in her choosing as the Bible text for this funeral sermon certain verses from the sixth chapter of the Holy Gospel according to St. John.
The verses she chose come after Jesus has fed more than five‑thousand people with only five loaves and two fish, after He walked across the Sea of Galilee back to Capernaum, and after a crowd found Him there and He began to speak to them about His being the bread of life. Hear these words that He speaks both to believers and to unbelievers.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
For our meditation on that reading on this occasion, I have chosen the theme “Coming to Jesus”.
The phrase “Coming to Jesus” can a have a somewhat different meaning in popular culture. Especially the last twelve years or so, people have labeled as a “come to Jesus” meeting those meetings where someone has to face an unpleasant truth, such as being confronted over negative behavior. Such meetings sometimes have specific ground rules, such as nobody interrupting another or putting words in another’s mouth. The meetings might even include ultimatums of decreasing politeness that border on or cross over into being a threat. That popular‑culture meaning of “come to Jesus” is only somewhat different from its apparent origin in the 19th‑century Holiness Movement, where travelling preachers called people to “come to Jesus” to repent or else be damned for eternity.
Sarah, our dear sister in Christ, knew what it was to repent of her sin. As much as you love and think well of your momma, na-na, aunt, or friend, we all must also acknowledge that she was a sinner, as we all are sinners. God through St. Paul says that the wages of sin are death. In the death we see before us, we see what is in store for us on account of our sin. As is clear in the text that Sarah chose, some see Jesus and do not repent and believe, or do not come to Him, while others see Jesus and do repent and believe, or do come to Him. As Jesus makes clear in the verses after the text, no one can come to Jesus on his or her own, but God the Father draws them to Him, He grants that they come to Jesus, or, as the text says, He gives them to Jesus.
God the Father from eternity gave Sarah to Jesus in repentance and faith, and God the Father also wants to give you and me to Jesus in faith. As Jesus made clear in the text, He came in order to do the will of Him Who sent Him. That will is not for Jesus to lose any of those sinners whom God the Father gave Him but to raise them up on the Last Day. That will is not for Jesus to lose but to raise up Sarah, you, and me. So, Jesus invited her, as He also invites us, to come to Him
Jesus was and is true God, Who came down from heaven and has taken on human flesh. (No one can come to God apart from coming to the human flesh of Jesus.) In that human flesh, Jesus wrestled with the will of Him Who sent Him; He was repeatedly tempted not to do that will. The most vivid example of Jesus’s wrestling with that will is His struggling in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying that if it were possible the cup of suffering and death might pass from Him. Yet, in those same prayers, He submitted to God the Father, praying “Not My will, but Yours be done.” Jesus submitted to God the Father for us and for our salvation. Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the grave for Sarah, for you, and for me, to save us from our sin. Because of Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, when Sarah repented and believed, when she came to Jesus, God the Father forgave her sin, whatever her sin was. Likewise, when you and I repent and believe, when we come to Jesus, God the Father forgives your sin and mine, whatever our sin might be. God the Father gives us to Jesus and gives us that forgiveness in the same specific ways.
A couple of the ladies at Pilgrim were sharing with me their memories of Sarah always bringing food to congregational meals; she clearly wanted people to be fed! In a much greater way, our Lord Jesus wants to feed us physically and spiritually. Jesus identifies Himself in the text as the bread of life, He Who gives life, and He says that whoever comes to Him shall not hunger. Those who are baptized and believed come to Jesus present in the Sacrament of the Altar with His body and His blood in bread and wine, and from Him they receive forgiveness and eternal life.
In the text, Jesus describes God the Father’s will in two ways: first, Jesus’s not losing but raising up on the Last Day all those Whom the Father has given Him, and, second, everyone’s looking on the Son and believing in Him and so having eternal life and being raised up on the Last Day. Those who are so coming to Jesus are baptized and regularly partake of the Sacrament of the Altar. Elsewhere Jesus says both that, unless one is so born of water and the Spirit, one cannot enter the Kingdom of God, and that, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. But, Jesus says, whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life and will be raised up on the Last Day.
In the text, Jesus rules out any possibility that He will cast out someone so coming to Him. Yet, people can mistakenly think they believe and are coming to Jesus when in fact they do not believe and are not coming to Him. What Jesus says in the text and elsewhere is true: no one can be snatched from the Father’s hand, but people can, as it were, pry themselves out of His hand by their unfaithfulness. Being baptized and regularly receiving the Sacrament of the Altar are ways we know for sure we are saved. We look not to our faith and love but to God’s objective promises of grace given for Christ’s sake.
By that grace of God, Sarah lived up to her and others’ confirmation verse printed on the front of your service folder: she was faithful unto death and has received her crown of life. She came to Jesus. On the Last Day, He will raise up and glorify these remains, and she will enjoy eternity in them. If you and I are coming to Jesus, we can be comforted now, knowing both that on the Last Day we with our same eyes will see her again and that we will spend eternity with her in God’s presence. If you are not coming to Jesus, then let Sarah’s care and concern expressed in choosing this text help make this occasion your “come to Jesus” moment. (Amen.)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +