Terry, John, Nancy, and Janey, family and friends of Lorna:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
A host of angels their voices did raise
In loud hallelujahs of glory and praise
For the little Lord Jesus who on Christmas
Was born
To save all us sinners and all the forlorn.
The magi brought gifts of gold, frankincense
and myrrh
But the gift of Jesus is a joy forever.
The gift of Jesus is both forever joy and forever life! As many of you may know, Lorna was a poet. She may not be nationally or worldly known, but her poetry was indeed published from time to time. In fact, that rhyme I just spoke were her very words. Lorna, indeed, lived her life not just knowing of Jesus, but holding onto Him, since in Him was the gift of joy and life. She firmly trusted that Jesus rescued her from her sins. Just as she knew Jesus in her earthly life, she now is in His presence as on Tuesday, June 25th, her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ led her from death to life as He welcomed her into the Church Triumphant.
When I served First Lutheran Church as the associate pastor, I welcomed the opportunity to meet our many homebound members. Each homebound member became my family. Many had not set foot inside First Lutheran Church in years, but I – as their pastor – served as their lifeline to Christ’s Means of Grace, His Word and Sacraments, so they would be sure of their forgiveness, life, and salvation in Christ.
Oddly enough, my first visit with Lorna back on July 27th, 2017, was a little rocky. I was fresh out of seminary as I was still trying to figure out what it meant to be a pastor. I was nervous. Rightfully so. As everything was new. On that first visit with Lorna, I introduced myself and she to me. But then I began the Communion Liturgy from my Pastoral Care Companion. I began praying, “Gracious Father, You have assured us that we shall receive strength every day of our lives. Grant your servant Lorna, who is homebound…”
Suddenly Lorna interrupted the prayer and said, “I am not homebound.” I was startled. I immediately thought, “Uh oh.” I didn’t know what to say. Eventually I said something, but that “I am not homebound” stuck with me. In fact, those words are still underlined in my Pastoral Care Companion.
Now, for any of our shut-in members, they know that I never said that phrase in that prayer again. I thought that prayer would be perfectly fine without that phrase. So, I have left it out ever since.
As much as I thought I may have offended Lorna that day, she still answered my phone call to schedule our next visit that next month and every month since until I accepted the Divine Call to Prince of Peace Lutheran in West Salem, Wisconsin. And yes, I even visited Lorna during the dreaded Covid pandemic.
Each time we met, I learned more about her, and she learned more about me and my family. She shared stories about herself, Orville and her kids as they trekked all about Minnesota, first beginning in Glencoe, then to Cokato, then to Hutchinson, to Darwin, and then back again to Glencoe. Her family albums would come out on various occasions.
Then usually sitting on a recliner was her cat, Katie. According to Lorna, most of the time, Katie would hide from her guests, but not from me. Maybe Katie just knew that my family would one day adopt her. That day would come when Lorna moved to Grand Meadows in 2020. For Terry and John, they will never forget adoption day and how such a mellow cat turned into a wild beast. But ironically enough, Katie would return to her house when Melissa and I purchased Lorna’s house. Katie also taught our other cat Gigi a thing or two, especially how to beg for water from the bathtub spout.
But what I will remember most about Lorna was her talent for poetry. I did say that she was published. But there were times when the Senior Perspective newspaper would forget to publish her latest poem. I did hear about those moments. They always assured Lorna that it would be published in an upcoming issue.
Poetry was one of her God-given talents. She rhymed about God’s creative acts, His redemptive acts, and His sanctifying acts. She rhymed telling of her sure and certain faith in Jesus Christ as her Redeemer and Lord, who was crucified and died for the forgiveness of her sins and yours and my sins, which begets eternal life and salvation, and how He rose from the dead three days later for our justification. This gift we receive by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Today, Lorna is resting from her labors as she has received the promise of eternal life. In her later years, Lorna certainly struggled with the effects of sin that we all daily face, including especially back spasms, macular degeneration, and strokes, but now she no longer suffers the effects of sin as she has joined the Church Triumphant with all the saints in heaven!
At the same time, today, all of us are experiencing the loss of Lorna. With any loss, we mourn. Some mourn publicly, while others mourn privately. We mourn because every human being has inherited that dreadful disease known as the original sin of Adam and Eve and has died because of it. Were it not for sin, there would not be death. So, we long for the day when Christ comes again to finally defeat death.
Until that day, we mourn, but mourning is a good and godly work. Remember, Jesus wept at the death of His friend Lazarus. Jesus wept, because He loved His friend, so weeping and mourning the death of our loved ones is a good and godly work.
We mourn because of the reality of death. We mourn because we were all intended to live forever. But we do not mourn as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). So, we mourn, but our mourning is mixed with certain hope. Our tears are mixed with faith. Our sadness is mixed with joy, because one day in the future “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed … [as] this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51b-52, 53b).
As I began our sermon, I said that the gift of Jesus is both forever joy and forever life. That is what Lorna believed and confessed.
Jesus says in our Gospel reading, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Each time Lorna received Christ’s Body and Blood under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of her sins and to strengthen her faith, she received the Medicine of Immortality, which is the antidote to eternal death, that bestows eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ own mission and work is the Giver of Life. For just as simple bread satisfies hunger for a time, Jesus gives eternal life. As the Bread of Life, Jesus is the source of life and the very content and substance of life. So, eternal life is possessed when Jesus is possessed.
Jesus as the Bread of Life leads us to the Messianic Banquet that we heard about in our reading from Isaiah 25: “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 25:6-8).
Until that day, everyone who clings to Jesus has the Bread of Life. So, what does it mean to have the Bread of Life now? Well, it means that we cling to Jesus as our Teacher. It means that we are committed to Him and trust Him. You see, only when we adhere to Jesus, we have eternal life. This adherence which is of faith is true and salvific. And this adherence is only made possible by Christ and His Means of Grace: Word and Sacrament. So, if you would like the same eternal life as Lorna, follow her example by receiving Christ’s Means of Grace through His Word, which we gladly hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest, and through His Sacrament at the Lord’s Table as He serves forgiveness, life, and salvation!
Today, Lorna has come out of this great tribulation of our life now and is now clothed in Christ’s Robe of Righteousness as she is before the throne of God where she hungers no more, neither thirsts anymore as she is in the presence of her Lord Jesus Christ. But as much as we may believe that heaven is the end, it isn’t. For all the faithful in heaven, there is still something more on the horizon. St. Paul writes, “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
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, Lorna’s grave will be as empty as the grave of Jesus! The body buried will be the body raised on that glorious resurrection day!
I would like to leave you with some thoughts on one of Lorna’s favorite hymns, “Just as I Am.” Each stanza of that hymn begins with the same phrase “Just as I am.” That simple word “just” warrants our attention. That word “just” is not a coincidence. It is on purpose. It is speaking of the doctrine of justification, which is the doctrine by which the Church stands or falls. Justification is the grace that all have received when Christ took upon Himself our dirty rags of sin and gave us forgiveness, life, and salvation in return, so that just as we are poor, wretched, and blind, Christ’s cross has pardoned and cleansed us. His immeasurable love has set aside every barrier, and the believer is His alone by grace through faith, just as I am. This is why this hymn was beloved by Lorna and so many of us.
May you also receive the same forever joy and life that Lorna knew on earth and is now fully revealed in the Church Triumphant with the angels and archangels and her fellow saints in the Church Triumphant! Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +
Lorna Nemitz's Obituary: https://hantge.com/obituaries/lorna-nemitz/
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