+ IESUS + 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 A Sermon on the Occasion of the Reverend Robin Michael Hintze s Funeral 10 March 2014, Monday of Lent I Our Savior Lutheran Church in Westminster, Massachusetts The Reverend Jason D. Lane CHRIST IS RISEN! To Mom, Hannah, Livy, Marta, Tante Honey, family, friends, and to the church of God in Westminster, MA, beloved of God who are called, marked, and sealed for eternal life by the powerful working of the God in Holy Baptism, GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE FROM GOD OUR HEAVENLY FATHER AND FROM OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. The text is from St. Paul s first letter to the Thessalonians 4:13-18: [13] WE DON T WANT YOU TO BE IGNORANT, BROTHERS, ABOUT THOSE WHO ARE SLEEPING, SO THAT YOU DON T GRIEVE LIKE THOSE WHO HAVE NO HOPE. [14] FOR IF WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED AND ROSE, WON T GOD ALSO TAKE THOSE WHO FELL ASLEEP WITH HIM THROUGH JESUS? [15] BY THE WORD OF THE LORD, WE TELL YOU THIS, THAT WE WHO ARE ALIVE, WHO REMAIN UNTIL THE COMING OF THE LORD, WILL CERTAINLY NOT GO BEFORE THOSE WHO ARE SLEEPING. [16] FOR THE LORD HIMSELF WILL COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN WITH A COMMANDING SHOUT, WITH A VOICE OF AN ARCHANGEL AND WITH THE TRUMPET OF GOD, AND THE DEAD IN CHRIST WILL BE RESURRECTED FIRST, [17] THEN WE WHO ARE STILL ALIVE, WHO REMAIN, WILL BE CAUGHT UP TOGETHER WITH THEM IN THE CLOUDS TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR, AND SO WE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH THE LORD. [18] SO COMFORT EACH OTHER WITH THESE WORDS. I could stand here and tell you what you already know about this man or maybe what you don t know yet the legends go on. I could tell you sinful as he was, and he d be the first to tell you that I could tell you how faithful he was to Jesus even unto death, how he was griping the crucifix with every amount of strength he had left and pointing us all Home in his last hours. I could tell you how faithful and how dedicated he was in preaching and teaching God s Word and caring for our
souls with the holy sacraments, how he was a pillar of the church, a pastor to so many young pastors, a defender of the faith, how sweet he was to mom and how much he loved his girls. I could tell you what you already know or maybe don t know yet. I could tell you that his laugh was contagious, that his mind was extraordinary I mean really wild!, that his wit even better, his clarity was so refreshing, and his humility was so Christ-like. I could tell you all the things you already know, or maybe you don t know yet, and how many more wonderful things that none of us except our Father in the heavens have any clue about. But I won t. First, because that would take way too long. And secondly, because he d say: My dear son, preach the text! Our pastor, our brother, our father in Christ has fallen asleep in Jesus. So now what? Now, says St. Paul, [13] WE DON T WANT YOU TO BE IGNORANT, BROTHERS. Isn t that refreshing? Because the worst way to grieve is to grieve without KNOWLEDGE, without HOPE, without the TRUTH. And as Pastor would always say, So what s actually true? What does God actually say? Well, the first thing Scripture says here is that those who die in Christ are just sleeping. Which is funny if you think about it. Here we are with tears in our eyes, overwhelmed by sorrow and shock. And Christ says, and the Spirit says, Don t be afraid; he s just sleeping. As if we re all having this waking nightmare that he s gone, but really he s just taking a nap, as if all we need to do is yell: Michael, WAKE UP! But he doesn t. And so his sleep looks a lot more like death than a nap, which is also why we need this instruction now: WE DON T WANT YOU TO IGNORANT, BROTHERS, ABOUT THOSE WHO ARE SLEEPING SO THAT YOU DON T GRIEVE AS THOSE WHO HAVE NO HOPE. So first things first, so that you don t grieve without hope: he s just sleeping. It seems like a fine line between godly grief and grieving with NO HOPE. But, I don t know, maybe pastor s death doesn t make you feel ignorant at all, just torn apart. Torn apart because you know that he s with the Lord now and you should rejoice, but destroyed in heart because the one you love is gone. I mean, maybe you ve tried to comfort yourself in these past few days with the hope that he s with the Lord. And as true as that is and as comforting as that should be, it s just really hard for you to tell yourself that over and over again. You know why? It s because that s his body, that s his flesh and bone that s lying right here in front of us in a casket. And that s hard! But it s also true that our brother was made for this. I suppose that sounds provocative, if I say it like that that he was made for this, as if this, this was the goal. But understand, I don t mean that Michael was made for dying. He wasn t;
none of us were. But this man was meant to rest in Jesus; all of us are. What s shocking, however, is just how extreme God has to be to get us to rest in Jesus. I think that s shocking. He s got to be so extreme that He s got to put us to death. So here s something true that we all need to hear: God caused this death. Yes, Satan s vile. Yes, THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. Yes, DEATH SPREAD TO ALL BECAUSE ALL SINNED. Yes, THE STING OF DEATH IS THE LAW. Scripture s not lying. But the curse is God s curse. That s how extreme the Lord s got to be with us, so that He can have us whole, so that some how we d stop moving and stop thinking that we have a righteousness of our own. Is this the way we want it? Of course not. We weren t made for this. We weren t made to see this. I don t want to be here, and you don t want to be here, not like this. But this is how God does it. The Holy Spirit says in Romans 8, and listen because it matters now. He says, FOR THE CREATION WAS SUBJECTED TO FUTILITY (and here it is), NOT WILLINGLY, BUT BECAUSE OF HIM WHO SUBJECTED IT. How long is your life, really? What is a millimeter on a endless string? Or what d we get, two inches out of that string? But what is a millimeter, which is your life, when it s still attached to the eternal God who made you? This death, any death, the thought of death, is from the Lord, TO TEACH US TO NUMBER OUR DAYS, says Psalm 90. How many have to fly away before we see how short this fleeting life is? What s it going to have to take before we re resting in Jesus? Actually it s going to take death, real death. Which is why, beloved, Christ suffered and died: one death for all deaths. One who WAS MADE SIN for all sins. One Sinner lifted in the place of all sinners. See your life suspended! we sing. One horrible and eternal outpouring of God s wrath on Him. One man, a Green Leaf, a Sprout out of the stump of Jesse, in the prime of His life; see Him DESPISED, REJECTED, beaten beyond recognition and burned by the fury of God against all ungodliness. And not, not because God s Son wanted the pain. Not because he loved death or wanted to suffer, but because IT WAS THE WILL OF THE LORD TO CRUSH HIM, to have the fire of God s wrath burn against Him alone Christ alone! so that we wouldn t be touched, so that death, this wretched thing that rips our lives and our loved ones away, so that death would lose its sting forever, and turn out to be just a rest, just a brief sleep until the last trumpet blast. Because, as the Scripture says, ALL THOSE WHO ARE BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST JESUS ARE BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH, BURIED WITH HIM. That means you ve already died! No more sin, no more sorrow, no more death, no more judgment! THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS!
[V. 14] IF WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED AND ROSE, WON T GOD ALSO TAKE THOSE WHO FELL ASLEEP WITH HIM THROUGH JESUS? Won t he take the one s the He s laying down in the grave. Well let s see if God the Father knows anything about laying a child in a grave for a nap. Christ is risen! He walked out of His tomb, flesh and blood, TOUCH ME AND SEE; STICK YOUR FINGERS IN DEEP TO MY WOUNDS! He s making fires and eating fishing and in 10,000 places at the same time and more, and filling all things. We say Michael, WAKE UP! And he doesn t and it s dark and its scary, and we re unsure because we don t know what to think, which why this text: WE DON T WANT YOU TO BE IGNORANT. I know it s good to rejoice over our brother who s gone before us. But still, that s his body there. And I can t seem to shake that off, and maybe you can t either. Maybe we re not supposed to. Because that s still him. That s the man we know. Mom, that s the face you kissed and that s the voice we heard and those are the arms that carried you girls to bed at night. It was those hands that gave us Christ s body and blood and those BEAUTIFUL FEET that BROUGHT US THE GOOD NEWS. Therefore, before his death overwhelms us, we have here these two things. First, your pastor is with the Lord now, and it s good. And secondly, as good as that first thing is, it gets much better than that, because our God won t leave it like this, because He s got hands and feet too! Christ is risen! [14] FOR IF WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED AND ROSE, WON T GOD ALSO TAKE THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP WITH HIM THROUGH JESUS? Do you believe it? It was His hands and feet like ours that He stretched out for us. It was with His lips that said, FORGIVE THEM, FATHER. It was His side they pieced when BLOOD AND WATER FLOWED. He died with sinners. They laid Him in a tomb. They buried Him and with Him they buried their hope. WE HAD HOPED THAT HE WAS THE ONE TO REDEEM ISRAEL, they said. They didn t understand how much they cost and how much He was willing to pay. They didn t understand the battle that Christ had to fight. We had death coming, but I tell you, death had Christ coming! Because CHRIST IS RISEN! OUR FINAL ENEMY IS DEATH and Christ took that too. For thus says the Lord, DON T BE AFRAID. I AM THE LIVING ONE. I DIED, AND LOOK, I AM ALIVE FOREVER, AND I HOLD THE KEYS TO DEATH AND HELL. It s just too wonderful! So WON T GOD, this God, this flesh-and-blood, back-from-dead God ALSO TAKE THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP WITH HIM BECAUSE OF
JESUS? Pastor taught us all in confirmation class, and you re going to have to help me out: Great we confess is the mystery of our faith: Jesus died. (Jesus died.) Jesus rose. (Jesus rose.) Jesus is coming again (Jesus is coming again). He s coming again and if it s not now then it s soon and if it s not soon then it s really now. [15] BY THE WORD OF THE LORD, WE TELL YOU THIS, THAT WE WHO ARE ALIVE, WHO REMAIN UNTIL THE COMING OF THE LORD, WILL CERTAINLY NOT GO BEFORE THOSE WHO ARE SLEEPING. [16] FOR THE LORD HIMSELF WILL COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN WITH A COMMANDING SHOUT, WITH A VOICE OF AN ARCHANGEL AND WITH THE TRUMPET OF GOD, AND THE DEAD IN CHRIST WILL BE RESURRECTED FIRST. That means him! That means, if Christ comes back today, we ll see that body resurrected like Easter morning, wakened by the shout of Christ and the trumpet blast. Our shouts haven t worked, we couldn t rouse him from his slumber, but the voice of Christ will. And if not now, then soon, and if not soon, then now. Then we ll see Christ right here and now, and by His command Michael will rise in this flesh, except new, and in that body, except gorgeous. That comes first. THEN [v. 17] WE WHO ARE STILL ALIVE, WHO REMAIN, WILL BE CAUGHT UP TOGETHER WITH him and all the saints IN THE CLOUDS, TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR, AND SO WE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH THE LORD. Do you like flying? Do you know how much Satan hates this? He hates it when God brings His saints safely in from the storm and rests them in the shelter of His eternal harbor. Beloved in Christ, and I speak to you saints of Our Savior Lutheran, Satan is furious to have lost this man. Furious. He is outraged. And he will rage against you as he has raged so boastfully in the last days of this man s life. Satan wants you to be afraid, to scare you. He d like to remind you that if you strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter or the wolves will gather. Are you scared yet? The enemy wants you to think that this was his work, that he was the one who struck your shepherd, that he was the one who s caused this pain. Satan wants Mom to think he took her husband and wants you girls to think he took your father, that there s no hope, how can there be hope in this? And there s Livy last night, standing over her father s coffin, and she says Satan had nothing to do with this. That s so sweet. And Pastor Yeadon said it too: Satan wins nothing! Because Christ is the Lord of death and life. And Satan can only watch as soul after soul is taken by Christ s angels to Himself in heaven. And soon, when Christ returns, it ll be the bodies of the multitudes that no one can count, and the saints of God in triumph with the crucified and resurrected One. And song will never end. And you will never find the end of that joy.
So tell me, is there any hope for him? Is there any hope for us? If so, [18] COMFORT EACH OTHER WITH THESE WORDS. Because if He doesn t come now, then soon, and if not soon, then now. For behold, the ONE WHO HOLDS death by the throat will say to this body with a COMMANDING SHOUT, Michael, get up! And as sure as Christ is flesh and blood, Michael and all those who are sleeping will rise. Because CHRIST IS RISEN. And then gone the sighing, gone the dying, gone the crying. But for now, we grieve; we mourn. We mourn as those who have HOPE and we listen to Jesus, who says to us now, DON T BE AFRAID. I M COMING SOON! Now stand up, so we can do this together. Great we confess is the mystery of our faith: Jesus died, Jesus rose, and Jesus is coming again. (singing) Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen. COMFORT EACH OTHER WITH THESE WORDS. In the Name of Jesus + Amen.