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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 Marty, Don, Sharla, and Sha(w)na; others of Sharabeth’s family and friends; and Brothers and Sisters in Christ of Pilgrim Lutheran Church,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
After our beloved Mary Beth passed from this life to the next just more than one year ago, Sharabeth decided to finish instruction in the faith that she had begun many years ago. Last fall, she joined a weekly class with four other students, and, in December, she confessed with her mouth the faith that she believed in her heart. The Bible passage she received then as part of her Confirmation was read earlier today as part of the Epistle Reading, namely, these verses from Romans chapter 10:
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9-10)
Little did we think at that time of her Confirmation that just more than seven months later we would be hearing these verses again at her Funeral! Yet, hearing those verses again even at her Funeral can bring us great comfort and joy, for we know that “Sharabeth confessed and believed and has been saved”.
The Epistle Reading that includes these verses is part of the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul’s larger teaching in Romans about how the righteousness by faith that leads to life is for everyone and, more specifically, the Reading is a part of his teaching that any one’s rejection of that righteousness is not God’s fault, but his or her own. That teaching may be a warning for us who may be rejecting that righteousness or could yet reject it, but it is also a comfort, for we know that “Sharabeth confessed and believed and has been saved”.
Some combination of Sharabeth’s congestive heart failure and diabetes may end up being the official cause of death for her earthly body, but I can tell you that something else ultimately was to blame. As St. Paul makes clear elsewhere in Romans, death is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). Sharabeth inherited original sin from her parents, and then she committed countless actual sins of her own. No doubt that, as a correctional officer and substance‑abuse counselor, Sharabeth knew the weakness of others, as well as herself. And, you and I do well to recognize our own weakness, the original sin we inherited from our parents and the actual sins we commit, things that we have thought, said, and done and things that we have left unthought, unsaid, and undone. Again as St. Paul makes clear elsewhere in Romans, God’s moral law, such as His Ten Commandments, gives knowledge of sin and so stops every mouth and holds the whole world—every person, including you and me, regardless of our age—accountable to God (Romans 3:19‑20). St. Paul says There is no distinction—not only between Jew and Greek but also between anyone else—all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22-23).
In such trespasses and sins, we all by nature are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1, 5). We are unable to do anything good before God, much less decide to believe in Him or to confess His holy Name. But, as we sang in today’s Psalm, when iniquities prevail against us, the Lord atones for our transgressions, and the Lord chooses us and brings us near, in order for us to dwell in His courts (Psalm 65:1-8; antiphon v.4a). The Lord not only uses His law to show us our sin, but the Lord also uses His Gospel to show us our Savior from sin, and thereby the Lord leads us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we confess and believe both our sin and the Christian faith, then God truly does forgive our sin—all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.
From her family, I understand that Sharabeth was especially careful with money, frequently used coupons, effectively lowered her father Don’s household spending, and still is like an angel on one’s shoulder urging frugality. Yet, when it comes to our forgiveness, our justification and salvation, no amount of human effort, no coupon, can save us. If we were not already sinful and could do the Commandments perfectly all of the time, then we could live by them, but we cannot! We cannot obtain righteousness based on the law, but we can obtain righteousness based on faith. We hope in the Lord and not in our own merit (Lutheran Service Book 607:3). We do not have to ascend into heaven in order to bring Christ down, nor do we have to descend into the abyss in order to bring Christ up from the dead. He has done everything for us! His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave are the awesome deeds by which the God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, answers us with righteousness—Christ’s righteousness, that we receive as a free gift of God through faith.
If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be justified and saved. We are not justified and saved because we confess and believe, as if those works of ours somehow save us, but we are justified and saved because the firm and active God-given faith that leads to confession, whether expressed in the simplest creed or in the most-complex of confessional writings—that faith has as its object Jesus Christ, the only true God in human flesh, Who died and rose in order to save all people. As we heard in the Gospel Reading (John 14:1-6), that Jesus ascended to prepare a place, not only for Sharabeth, but also for you (in His Father’s house are many rooms); Jesus alone is the way to that place, and the truth, and the life. His empty tomb proclaims His conquering arm, and those, like Sharabeth, who put their trust in Him, not death nor hell shall harm (LSB 526:3).
I am told that Sharabeth’s favorite Bible was a Korean-English Bible that she first had given to another and then later received back. The language does not matter, but what does matter is the word of faith that is proclaimed! Preachers are sent so that people can hear and believe and call on Him of Whom they have heard. No one can confess and believe except by the Holy Spirit’s working through the Gospel and Sacraments (1 Corinthians 12:3). The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16), and the Gospel is not only read and preached, but the Gospel is also applied to us with water in Holy Baptism, with the touch of a pastor’s hand in individual Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. On November 26, 19‑61, by the hand of Rev. L. D. Braun, God made Sharabeth His child in the waters of Holy Baptism, and, on December 10, 20‑17, by my hand, God confirmed her in the faith and first gave her Christ’s Body and Blood, which she thereafter regularly received both here at Pilgrim and at home with her father, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
By that forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation that we receive through faith, God brought forth from Sharabeth—and brings forth from us—good works, the fruits of repentance and faith. Sharabeth had a big heart, evident in her vocation of caregiver for her Aunt Kay, her father, and her nieces, nephew, and great-nephews. While we do grieve Sharabeth’s loss from this world, we do not grieve as those who lack the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the body and the blessed reunion in heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13)! If not right now, we soon may be able to rejoice, maybe even rejoice in the same way that Sharabeth rejoiced over the Pittsburg Steelers late 19‑70’s successive Superbowl victories—we may soon be able to rejoice that God fulfilled all of His promises to her and gave her the victory over sin, death, and the grave through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 7:25; 1 Corinthians 15:57). He, your Redeemer, lives to comfort you when faint, to wipe away your tears, and to calm your troubled heart (LSB 461:3, 5). As we heard in the Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 61:1-3), the Lord Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit in part to comfort all who mourn. As we sang in the Psalm, He stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples, including your grieving hearts. “His hand of mercy never will / Abandon us, nor waver. / Our shepherd good and true is He, / Who will at last His Israel free / From all their sin and sorrows” (LSB 607:5).
Whether or not all repent and believe, Sharabeth did. “Sharabeth confessed and believed and has been saved”. And, not only Sharabeth, but also everyone else—there is no distinction between Jew and Greek or between anyone else—everyone else who confesses and believes and who calls on the Name of the Lord also will be not be put to shame but also will be saved (confer Isaiah 28:16; Joel 2:32).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +