Willard, Eileen, Sandy, and Ronald, family and friends of Elaine:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!
[Intro]
The Triune God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is the God of comfort. Just some weeks ago, I visited with Elaine at the farm. Although I did the talking and singing, it was God’s comforting words that brought peace to Elaine. Afterall, it is the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding. God’s peace is unlike anything else in this world. God’s peace is sure and certain.
As you are likely aware, Elaine enjoyed the craft of sewing and embroidery. She also had a green thumb for gardening. But what she may be best known for is her cooking and baking. I have heard much about her homemade potato salad and her apple bars.
The Triune God certainly blessed Elaine. The Lord provided her with a loving husband Willard; three children: Eileen, Sandy, and Ronald; grandchildren and greatgrandchildren; and most importantly the gift of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Today, Elaine is resting from her labors as she has received the promise of eternal life. She no longer suffers the effects of sin. She is at peace as she has joined the Church Triumphant with all the saints in heaven!
For us here this morning, we are experiencing a loss. With any separation, we come to a time of mourning. We mourn because death is not natural. You see, humanity was not created to die. But due to our first parents – Adam and Eve – we all die, because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). And so we mourn. But mourning is a good and godly work. You see, Jesus wept at the death of His friend Lazarus. Jesus wept because He loved His friend, so weeping and mourning the death of any loved one is a good work.
We Christians mourn because of the reality of death. We mourn because we were never intended to die and should live forever. But we do not mourn as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). We mourn, but our mourning is mixed with hope. Our tears are mixed with faith. Our sadness is mixed with joy, since despite the wages of sin being death, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23b).
[Four Important Truths about God]
We just sang the hymn “On Eagles’ Wings” (LSB 727). This hymn is a beloved hymn by many. It is certainly a hymn of comfort. Although the stanzas of this hymn build on the way God comforts us – His believers – it is the refrain that is the most familiar aspect of this hymn. I have noticed that whenever this hymn is sung, the voices always become louder when the refrain is sung:
And He will raise you up on eagles’
wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His hand.
Text: © OCP Publications. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110002938
This refrain comes from today’s Old Testament text, Isaiah 40:27-31, which certainly gave the Israelites comfort as they would be led away into exile by the Babylonians. So, in the midst of their coming tears and heartache, God wanted them to remember that He was still in control and that He continued to love them.
Two questions appear in this Isaiah text: “Have you not known? Have you not heard?” (Isaiah 40:28a). These questions direct us back to what God reveals about Himself in the Scriptures. You see, we discover who God is only in what He has revealed to us in His Word. There, in the Holy Bible, God reveals Himself as “the Lord,” the God of free and faithful grace.
Following those questions, “Have you not known? Have you not heard?” God Himself gives us four important truths about Himself:
- First, He is “the
Creator of the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 40:28c), which means that He
has unlimited power and uses that power for the benefit of His creatures. He
gave us – and every other creature – life and provided a beautiful world
in which to live.
- Second, “He does not
faint or grow weary” (Isaiah 40:28d), which means that His power was
not exhausted by creation nor does He grow tired with the continuous care of
the world He called into existence.
- Third, “His
understanding is unsearchable” (Isaiah 40:28e), which means that He is
beyond our human ability to grasp and understand. He is holy. All of humanity
knows there is a god; the psalmist says, “The fool says in his heart,
‘There is no God’” (Psalm 53:1). But the full truth about God lies
beyond our empirical investigation. God must reveal Himself if we are to know
anything about Him beyond the fact that He exists and He is great. This, God
reveals to us in the Scriptures.
- Fourth, God “gives power
to the faint” (Isaiah 40:29a), which means that He gives strength to
the weary and the weak. He turns Himself toward His creatures. He gives
blessings to them out of pure love for them.
God is all powerful. But for humans, we are much different. We are creatures, not the Creator, so “even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted” (Isaiah 40:30). We do grow weary and weak. We certainly can understand some things, but we must learn. Without the Lord, the best humans can do is only stumble and fall. But to such limited creatures as we are, God promises to give strength. The question then is how? How shall the Lord renew our strength?
[Strength Renewed in Christ]
“They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31a). You see, faith in the LORD brings this strength!
When we rely on human strength, we will stumble. But when we trust in the LORD for strength, He gives it! Not only will those who cling to Jesus Christ, like Elaine, receive strength; they will renew their strength. All believers in Christ will arise from the ashes of grief and suffering to run and walk again.
By faith in Christ, we “shall mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31b). You see, Christians are pictured as eagles soaring in the blue sky. Eagles ride air currents as they stretch out their wings and soar. For us, God promises to be the wind beneath the wings of His people. This is such wonderful comfort for all who hope in the LORD! The entire life of God’s people – their walking, running, and soaring – is filled with the boundless and tireless strength of God. Even in death, Christians mount on eagles’ wings and soar to God in heaven, where God gives them joy forever with His presence. There, they “hunger no more, neither thirst anymore” (Revelation 7:16a).
Christ’s faithfulness to us provides our only hope for life – for He said of Himself: “Whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:15-16). We are saved only by grace through faith in Christ alone. This is the foundation of the Christian faith, for which Elaine believed and trusted.
You see, it is only through Jesus’ suffering and death for our sins that we are united to God the Father and this union gives us eternal life! This union comes to all believers through the water and the Word in Holy Baptism. This union is strengthened each time we hear His Word and partake of His Sacrament as we receive forgiveness of sins.
Through Christ alone, we have life as we “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31b), as we run and are not weary, as we walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31c-d).
The eagles’ effortless and jubilant flight is that of Christians who have been freed from the power of sin, death, and Satan and strengthened to let their lights shine before all people. By clinging to Christ, we fly like eagles as we are held squarely in the palm of Christ’s hand, the very hands on which they themselves are engraved with the marks of the nails from His atoning death on the cross and His bodily resurrection.
As much as we speak about heaven, heaven is not the end. You see, for all the faithful in heaven, there is still something better on the horizon. “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). On the day of the Lord’s coming, we know death does not have the final say. Life has the final say. Since Christ has been raised from the dead, we too, will also be raised. So, Elaine’s grave will be as empty as the grave of Jesus! This body buried will be the body raised on that glorious resurrection day!
May we, too, with Elaine, receive God’s renewed strength and the promise of eternal life to the age to come! Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +
Elaine Grack's Obituary: https://hantge.com/obituaries/elaine-h-mielke/
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