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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: 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.
Dear Sharon; J.D. and Tifaney; Steven, Angela, and Cooper; Sandy and Danny’s other family and friends; and Brothers and Sisters in Christ, especially those of Pilgrim Lutheran Church,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Danny loved the outdoors and outdoor activities, especially fishing. Yet, for all of the fantastical adventures that he and his grandson Cooper had—including one of Cooper’s favorite memories, their and Grandma’s trip to the Dude Ranch—apparently they never camped in a tent. Of course one does not have to have camped in a tent in order for one to understand that ultimately, under the wrong conditions, tents are flimsy and frail, at best really only a temporary dwelling place. That idea of a tent’s im-permanence is central to what the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul, himself a tentmaker of a sort, says in our sermon text. There, St. Paul contrasts the temporary tent of even our redeemed earthly bodies, with all of their shortcomings, to the permanent building of what will be our transformed and glorified heavenly bodies, with all of their greater benefits. Just a verse earlier (2 Corinthians 4:18), St. Paul had similarly contrasted transient seen things with eternal unseen things, and clearly, with the close connection between the verses, resurrected and restored bodies are among those unseen things, along with the visible presence of the Lord. So, St. Paul can go on to say that we walk by faith, not by sight, though we cannot completely say that about Danny. This morning as we reflect on this sermon text, we do so under the theme, “We walk by faith, Danny now by sight”.
If we, as we should, grant that death is an inevitable consequence of sin in this fallen world, then, in a sense, Danny’s death as a believer, being grieved by family, friends, and a church full of believers, is about the ideal situation, if there is such a thing—ideal because of the sure and certain hope that believers have. Instead of groaning, we should be of good courage, ourselves ready to be at home with the Lord, although we may find that, especially at times like these, we are not of as good courage as we should be. Danny was a sinner, no doubt about it, as those closest to him knew and he himself readily confessed, even by picking as a First Reading a verse that referred to the foremost of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Yet, all of us can and should make that same confession! For, from the moment of our conceptions we are sinful by nature, and our sinful natures lead us to commit all sorts of actual sins, any one of which sins by itself warrants both death here in time and torment in hell for eternity. And, make no mistake about it: a time of judgment is coming, as the sermon text and today’s Epistle and Gospel Readings make clear (2 Timothy 4:6-8; John 5:24‑30), whether that time will be one of secret judgment to be revealed on the Last Day at deaths like Danny’s or a time of public judgment on that Last Day. Whenever that time might be, the good or evil that we do while we are in the tents of our bodies will be the evidence either of our repentance and faith or of the lack of such repentance and faith.
Already this past Sunday I missed Danny in Adult Bible Class and the Divine Service and, in between, I missed his taking care of one of the many things he always took care of, in this case, getting the acolyte ready. Another one of those many things Danny always took care of was burning the previous year’s Palm Sunday branches to make the ashes for the next Ash Wednesday. Danny not only made the ashes but he also readily received the ashes as an outward sign of his inward repentance and faith. As he repented and believed, so should we all! For, when we, empowered by God, turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better than to keep on sinning, then God forgives our sin, all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin by grace because of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for us.
A number of people have told me that they will miss the welcome that Danny always gave, both to visitors to Pilgrim and to members of Pilgrim, whether with a firm handshake or, in some cases, with a warm hug. As if there was any doubt, my spending time with the family gathered around Danny’s bed in C‑I‑C‑U last week reinforced for me all the more just how loved Danny was by so many people. Of course, the most important love that Danny received was from God, love that gave God’s only Son to death on the cross, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). As the First Reading reminded us, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. What appeared to be Jesus’s defeat on the cross was shown by His resurrection to be His victory over sin and death and the grave. Unlike the eyewitnesses of Jesus’s resurrection, we who have not seen Him and yet have believed in Him are especially blessed (John 20:29). As St. Peter put in one of his Divinely‑inspired letters, “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). All who repent and believe in Jesus, applying the forgiveness that He won on the cross to themselves, can so rejoice even now.
The esophageal surgery Danny underwent nearly two weeks ago was expected to change permanently Danny’s diet. Even that news was accepted by the former market manager and lover of meats, such as an assortment of meats on Christmas Eve, lamb on Easter Sunday, and barbecue anytime, with sauce the recipe for which it was too late for the family to elicit from him last week. The surgery was not, however, expected to keep Danny from receiving the Lord’s Supper, as he regularly did, including most recently the Sunday before his surgery. Far better than the best of meats and the finest of wines described by Isaiah (Isaiah 25:6 NIV), in that Holy Meal, bread is the Body of Christ given for us and wine is the Blood of Christ shed for us, for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. As we heard in the sermon text, Danny’s and our first “guarantee” of that salvation came as the Holy Spirit was given in Holy Baptism, welling up from the Baptismal Font with forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation—not all that unlike oil and gas fountaining forth from the wells that Danny so faithfully checked for years working with the Thomases.
But, of all the vocations that Danny had, arguably one of the most important was that of father. Even as I was finishing this sermon I received an email from a friend of mine in the community who never knew Danny personally but spoke highly of him and of being touched by Danny’s death because of what my friend knew of Steven years ago as a Boy Scout Senior Patrol Leader. Danny and Sharon’s Christian parenting is evident not only in the fine men that their sons are but also in their sons’ wives and in their grandson. All those to whom Danny taught the Catechism should remember well its quotation from Exodus that the Lord shows love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments (Exodus 20:6). With the Holy Spirit in him from his baptism, Danny tried, as described in the sermon text, to please the Lord, not groaning but being of good courage, loving not only the Lord but also his neighbors as himself. All believers so try to please the Lord by keeping His commandments, and all believers still fail to some extent, and so they live every day with repentance and faith, receiving the Lord’s forgiveness of sins through His Word and Sacraments.
In his final hours last weekend, Danny heard that Word sung, led by Sharon’s beautiful and confident voice, in hymn after hymn, including three of the four hymns that we either have sung or will sing yet today. Now, Danny is, as is said, on the other side of the Communion Rail, joining with our worship here as part of all the company of heaven. We walk by faith, but Danny now walks by sight, at least for the most part. The sermon text seems to describe the current state of Danny’s soul, at home with the Lord, as “naked”, away from the temporary tent of the earthly body and yet waiting to be clothed with the permanent building of the heavenly body, when what was mortal will be swallowed up by life. The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting are coming, and with them the blessed reunion of all who repent and believe in heaven before God’s eternal presence. In the sure and certain hope of those things that we and even Danny have yet to see we were saved, and we wait to see them with patience and joy (Romans 8:23-25).
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +