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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Dear Linda, Becky, Bob and Claudia, Mary Ann and Mack, and LaVera’s other family and friends,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
With the words of Ecclesiastes you all selected for this meditation this morning still echoing in our ears, we can say both that November 12, 19-21, was LaVera’s “time to be born”, and that last Wednesday, July 3, 20-13, was her “time to die”. The death of her physical body that day truly has given you all “a time to mourn”, but just as truly the “time” will come “to dance”. Thus the theme for this meditation on this reading this morning is “A Time to Mourn and A Time to Dance”.
The words of Ecclesiastes you all selected for this meditation comprise one of the book’s most well‑known and most often‑quoted sections. Their divinely‑inspired author identifies himself only as “the preacher” (Ecclesiastes 1:1), but he is usually thought to be King Solomon, writing in Jerusalem near the end of his reign, probably about 930 B-C (or B-C-E, as the politically correct say these days). In the book as a whole, “the preacher” offers his mature and reasoned reflection on life, and, specifically in these verses, he gives 28 items—in 14 pairs of broad contrasts—that are representative of the occasions and situations people find themselves in over the course of their lives. There are various theories of how this list is organized and how its specific items are to be interpreted, but the bottom line is that God has appointed for everything an appropriate starting point, duration, and ending point. We are subject to His times and changes, over which we have little, if any, control, and about which we have little, if any, understanding.
What the author of Ecclesiastes has written in these verses, we know to be true from our own lives. For example, in the midst of what Bob and Claudia intended to be a time of enjoyment traveling with their grandchildren, came a time of greater concern for LaVera’s health. Now, in the midst of whatever you all had planned for last week and this week, there is this “time to mourn”. Although, given LaVera’s health situation, perhaps some of you have in some sense been mourning her already for a while now. Still, the “time to mourn” the author of Ecclesiastes mentions is chiefly that grief that comes with someone’s death and that gathering of all those who sense the loss to share their grief with the family, participating in various rituals, much as we have gathered here today.
As there is a time to be born and a time to die, so also, the author of Ecclesiastes writes immediately after, there is a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted. Our human lives are as fleeting as a plant’s agricultural season! We are planted and plucked up. Today, with LaVera’s earthly remains before us as a reminder, staring us in the face is death itself—death that God did not originally intend but death that resulted because of humanity’s sin. No matter how highly you regarded your beloved mother, your grandmother (of varying degrees of “greatness”), your aunt, your cousin, or your friend, you must admit that she was a sinner. Likewise, we each must admit that individually we, too, are sinners—sinners for whom death likewise looms.
Bob mentioned to me that his mother seldom got her dander up, but also that, if she did, they had to look out. Perhaps on at least some of those occasions you deserved her dander? Similarly, the Almighty and Holy God is righteously wrathful over our sin. As the author of Ecclesiastes goes on to say in the verses after those read, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work” (Ecclesiastes 3:17). Now, before that time of judgment, is the time to tear our garments in sorrow and repentance over our sin.
LaVera was said to love being a surgical nurse, and, when she could no longer be in the operating room, she continued nursing as a ward clerk, and, even after she retired, she volunteered at Winkler County Memorial Hospital in the Pink Ladies Hospital Auxiliary. LaVera might have especially related to the author of Ecclesiastes’ writing of “a time to heal”, though, as an opposite to “kill”, “heal” in this passage seems to be much more than what can be done in a hospital. “Heal” seems to be resurrection from the dead, what God has done in Jesus Christ and promises to do for all flesh—whether that resurrection is to eternal bliss in heaven or to eternal torment in hell depends on whether you or I reject the forgiveness of sins God freely offers by faith in Jesus Christ.
You see, as St. Paul writes by divine‑inspiration to the Galatians, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). Or, as he wrote to the Romans, at the right time, while we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for us (Romans 5:6, 8). Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave so that we do not have to suffer the eternal torment in hell that we deserve on account of our sin. When we turn in sorrow from our sin, believe that Jesus died for our sin, and want to do better, then God forgives our sin, whatever it might be. In Jesus Christ, what we have with God is not “a time to hate” but “a time to love”, not “a time for war”, but “a time for peace”.
Ultimately, the author of Ecclesiastes realizes that people’s lives only have value if the people fear the Lord, in other words, if they have faith in God, if they believe that Jesus Christ died for them. A few verses after those read, the author of Ecclesiastes rhetorically asks, “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:21) Of course, God knows, and people like LaVera, you, and I can know for certain, too, as God gives outward signs in order for us and others to know.
God wants all people to be saved, and He creates faith in Jesus Christ when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel. In the water and Word of Holy Baptism, God forgives sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe. Baptized believers who are troubled by a particular sin privately confess their sin to their pastor and receive individual absolution from the pastor as from God Himself. And, those who believe hunger and thirst for Jesus’s body and blood given with bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar. In short, believers’ right use of God’s Word and Sacraments and their communion with His Church are outer signs of their inner faith. Such inward faith also brings forth in believers’ lives outward good works.
I am told that LaVera was baptized, attended church when her hospital schedule and health allowed, was otherwise involved at her church, was highly regarded for her patience, and was well‑liked in Kermit. What about you? Do you believe? Are you Baptized? Do you regularly hear God’s Word and receive His Sacraments? Are you in communion with His Church? Does your life show forth the fruits of faith?
These words from Ecclesiastes made us realize God has appointed for everything an appropriate starting point, duration, and ending point. We are subject to the occasions and situations He permits, but how we respond is up to us. Those who repent over their sin and believe in Jesus Christ gladly submit to Him Who controls and shapes their end. Now may be “a time to mourn”, but , with faith in Jesus Christ, “a time to dance” will come. On the Last Day, the resurrection of the body will mean for all those who believe a blessed reunion in heaven and eternity in God’s presence. Then, the words of the Psalmist will be fulfilled: God will turn believers mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11).
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +