WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.725 --> 00:00:04.925 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 2 00:00:06.825 --> 00:00:09.725 The loss of a loved one mother, 3 00:00:09.925 --> 00:00:16.525 father, spouse, daughter, son, or friend is one of the heaviest and most 4 00:00:16.525 --> 00:00:21.725 burdensome one of the most heavy and painful burdens a person has to 5 00:00:21.725 --> 00:00:22.925 experience in life. 6 00:00:24.325 --> 00:00:30.025 Death leaves a gaping hole within our lives. For in losing them 7 00:00:30.425 --> 00:00:34.625 we lose a piece of something of ourselves as well. Our life often 8 00:00:34.625 --> 00:00:38.225 becomes impoverished, the poorer for their absence. 9 00:00:39.625 --> 00:00:43.125 In some cases, the loss may be felt as a loss 10 00:00:43.125 --> 00:00:47.025 of what could have been or might have been. We may mourn 11 00:00:47.025 --> 00:00:49.825 the loss of opportunities that might have forge deeper and more 12 00:00:49.825 --> 00:00:53.925 meaningful bonds with a parent or a spouse or a friend. 13 00:00:54.725 --> 00:00:57.425 We grieve over the time we fail to spend with them. 14 00:00:58.425 --> 00:00:58.825 We mourn 15 00:00:58.825 --> 00:01:02.125 what might have been with the loss of a child, both for the child and 16 00:01:02.125 --> 00:01:03.925 for the parental child bond. 17 00:01:05.125 --> 00:01:06.225 In other cases 18 00:01:06.325 --> 00:01:07.925 we had such a connection and bond 19 00:01:07.925 --> 00:01:12.525 that it feels as if the ground beneath our feet has been removed and 20 00:01:12.525 --> 00:01:17.525 we're falling into an abyss disoriented without purpose and direction 21 00:01:18.125 --> 00:01:22.125 and without meaning it's hard to imagine life without our loved one. 22 00:01:23.825 --> 00:01:28.425 Now, in various ways, we try to keep them alive for us by keeping 23 00:01:28.425 --> 00:01:29.425 their memory alive. 24 00:01:30.825 --> 00:01:34.825 Visiting cemeteries and placing flowers at gravestones was a long 25 00:01:34.925 --> 00:01:38.925 honored tradition of acknowledging loss and trying to maintain that 26 00:01:38.925 --> 00:01:39.625 connection. 27 00:01:40.625 --> 00:01:44.125 Not sure how often that takes place these days with our transient and 28 00:01:44.125 --> 00:01:48.925 mobile society in which we now live with people spread out across the 29 00:01:48.925 --> 00:01:54.625 country, but the need and desire to maintain or it is not lose that 30 00:01:54.625 --> 00:01:55.825 connection persists. 31 00:01:57.125 --> 00:02:00.525 If you think about it in many cultures, if not, most cultures of the 32 00:02:00.525 --> 00:02:04.725 world prior to the modern era, people believe that the spirits are 33 00:02:04.725 --> 00:02:06.125 souls of their loved ones 34 00:02:06.125 --> 00:02:12.625 now resided in a kind of higher existence and now lived on a spiritual 35 00:02:12.625 --> 00:02:17.325 or non material, plane beyond the boundaries of this, physical and 36 00:02:17.325 --> 00:02:18.425 transient world. 37 00:02:19.525 --> 00:02:23.425 As such people thought that perhaps they were able to look after us 38 00:02:23.425 --> 00:02:27.725 who are left behind on Earth. And maybe even they had access to the 39 00:02:27.725 --> 00:02:31.425 gods or God and this could influence or persuade them to act for the 40 00:02:31.425 --> 00:02:35.525 benefit of those of us who remained on Earth. 41 00:02:36.725 --> 00:02:39.725 Such views have not been confined to non-Christian 42 00:02:39.725 --> 00:02:41.925 traditions. Variations 43 00:02:41.925 --> 00:02:44.725 also existed within the Christian tradition with regard, to those who 44 00:02:44.725 --> 00:02:48.925 lived exemplary lives and was subsequently elevated to the status of 45 00:02:48.925 --> 00:02:49.525 sainthood. 46 00:02:50.625 --> 00:02:54.025 In the row of Saints, they could serve as intermediaries between us and 47 00:02:54.025 --> 00:02:54.525 God. 48 00:02:55.525 --> 00:02:57.025 In some popular views today 49 00:02:57.025 --> 00:03:00.125 I suspect Christians have come to see and believe that the dead loved 50 00:03:00.125 --> 00:03:00.625 ones 51 00:03:01.525 --> 00:03:06.425 have been given the wings of an Angel who now looks after us, in some 52 00:03:06.425 --> 00:03:06.825 way. 53 00:03:08.325 --> 00:03:14.225 Yet I suspect in an increasingly secular age in which there is no life 54 00:03:14.225 --> 00:03:20.825 beyond this life respect and reverence are shown the dead not in terms 55 00:03:20.825 --> 00:03:24.225 of recognizing a higher form of existence in which they now live. 56 00:03:24.225 --> 00:03:28.525 But in terms of remembering and respecting and even celebrating the 57 00:03:28.525 --> 00:03:33.725 life that our loved one lived here on Earth, a life that has now ended 58 00:03:34.025 --> 00:03:35.425 and does not continue. 59 00:03:36.525 --> 00:03:39.725 Rather than mourning their death, then they choose to celebrate their 60 00:03:39.725 --> 00:03:40.225 life. 61 00:03:40.925 --> 00:03:44.925 And for some, that is all they have as there will be no future 62 00:03:44.925 --> 00:03:45.925 celebrations. 63 00:03:47.025 --> 00:03:51.925 Beyond that, the consolations that we offer are often limited to 64 00:03:52.625 --> 00:03:56.625 they remain alive within our hearts and within our memories. 65 00:03:58.325 --> 00:04:01.325 In the meantime, we may try to honor them and honor their lives by 66 00:04:01.325 --> 00:04:02.825 carrying on the work that the 67 00:04:04.325 --> 00:04:06.725 did or perhaps taking up their causes. 68 00:04:07.225 --> 00:04:10.125 We celebrate the best of what they brought into our world. 69 00:04:11.625 --> 00:04:15.925 Now these practices whether religious or non-religious 70 00:04:17.625 --> 00:04:22.025 all affirm the importance of our connections, with those who have 71 00:04:22.025 --> 00:04:22.525 died. 72 00:04:23.725 --> 00:04:26.025 And they acknowledge the loss, that one endures. 73 00:04:27.125 --> 00:04:29.925 But they can only consider these connections and losses in limited 74 00:04:29.925 --> 00:04:30.425 ways. 75 00:04:31.625 --> 00:04:37.125 As Christians we view all things including the loss of the loved ones 76 00:04:37.125 --> 00:04:40.425 that we have lost in the light of Christ. 77 00:04:41.425 --> 00:04:48.025 It is he who gives us access to God's heart that we might see all 78 00:04:48.025 --> 00:04:50.325 things with the eyes of God. 79 00:04:51.225 --> 00:04:52.525 And so we honor 80 00:04:53.825 --> 00:04:59.925 those who have gone before us for what they were, and who they were in 81 00:04:59.925 --> 00:05:01.025 the eyes of God. 82 00:05:02.325 --> 00:05:05.825 In some cases, this may make the grief over the loss of loved ones, 83 00:05:06.525 --> 00:05:11.025 even sharper, but the hope and comfort that much greater. 84 00:05:12.625 --> 00:05:15.525 If the loss is more painful and grief, more sharper, it is because we 85 00:05:15.525 --> 00:05:17.525 know that it wasn't supposed to be like this. 86 00:05:18.525 --> 00:05:21.225 This is not the life that God had created for his human creatures. 87 00:05:22.325 --> 00:05:22.925 As Dr. 88 00:05:22.925 --> 00:05:26.925 Adams, point out, to me in a conversation when time, God says, it is 89 00:05:26.925 --> 00:05:28.825 not good for Adam to be alone. 90 00:05:28.825 --> 00:05:32.425 Meaning that God's creation was not complete yet. 91 00:05:33.025 --> 00:05:34.125 It was incomplete. 92 00:05:34.425 --> 00:05:38.525 It is not until Eve until God creates Eve as well 93 00:05:38.525 --> 00:05:40.625 that God pronounces it very good. 94 00:05:40.625 --> 00:05:43.325 It is now as it should be, it is complete. 95 00:05:43.925 --> 00:05:46.225 This is how God intended things to be. 96 00:05:47.225 --> 00:05:50.425 And so, perhaps our loss in some way mirrors, or reflects God's own 97 00:05:50.425 --> 00:05:51.525 loss and grief. In that 98 00:05:52.225 --> 00:05:57.625 the creation is now once again incomplete with the loss of a loved 99 00:05:57.625 --> 00:05:57.925 one. 100 00:05:59.225 --> 00:06:00.625 But the hope and comfort 101 00:06:02.125 --> 00:06:03.425 that we are afforded 102 00:06:04.225 --> 00:06:08.425 in Christ by seeing things through the eyes of God, is that much 103 00:06:08.425 --> 00:06:08.925 greater. 104 00:06:09.925 --> 00:06:11.825 Christ's death means that sin and death 105 00:06:11.825 --> 00:06:15.425 do not get the last word. Christ's Resurrection means that 106 00:06:15.425 --> 00:06:17.225 incompleteness and loss 107 00:06:17.225 --> 00:06:18.925 do not get the last word. 108 00:06:19.325 --> 00:06:23.625 God has the last word. Re-creation has the last word. 109 00:06:23.925 --> 00:06:25.725 Life has the last word. 110 00:06:27.425 --> 00:06:32.225 And in the light of this gospel, then we honor our loved ones as 111 00:06:32.225 --> 00:06:35.925 fellow creatures of God. As God's creatures 112 00:06:35.925 --> 00:06:40.225 they received their life from God and the various gifts that made them 113 00:06:40.325 --> 00:06:43.825 who they were. As fellow human creatures of God 114 00:06:43.825 --> 00:06:48.525 they were themselves gifts from God to us and gifts for God's 115 00:06:48.525 --> 00:06:49.225 creation. 116 00:06:50.025 --> 00:06:52.625 God may have blessed us through them with laughter with comfort with 117 00:06:52.625 --> 00:06:56.125 their presence and with their help and thus their death results 118 00:06:56.125 --> 00:06:56.525 not only 119 00:06:56.625 --> 00:07:00.725 in that they are torn from us, but torn from this world in which we 120 00:07:01.025 --> 00:07:04.225 and they were living members and participants. 121 00:07:06.625 --> 00:07:10.125 And yet in seeing them as gifts and perceiving them as God's gift to 122 00:07:10.125 --> 00:07:11.325 us and to the world. 123 00:07:11.325 --> 00:07:15.825 We perceive something of God's generosity upon his entire creation, of 124 00:07:15.825 --> 00:07:17.625 which we ourselves are part. 125 00:07:18.325 --> 00:07:19.525 We give thanks for them 126 00:07:20.025 --> 00:07:23.825 and for the gifts that we received through them. We honor them by 127 00:07:23.825 --> 00:07:26.725 participating, and continuing the work that they have begun, but 128 00:07:26.725 --> 00:07:28.325 perhaps have not yet finished. 129 00:07:30.625 --> 00:07:34.025 And yet also in light of the Gospel, we perceive them, not only as 130 00:07:34.025 --> 00:07:38.825 fellow human creatures, but as baptized children of God and co-heirs 131 00:07:38.825 --> 00:07:41.525 of Christ for eternal life. 132 00:07:44.225 --> 00:07:49.125 As the Apostle John writes, see what kind of love the father has given 133 00:07:49.125 --> 00:07:52.525 us that we should be called children of God 134 00:07:53.125 --> 00:07:55.725 and so we are. Beloved 135 00:07:55.725 --> 00:07:57.325 we are God's children now. 136 00:07:58.025 --> 00:08:02.425 And what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he 137 00:08:02.425 --> 00:08:08.425 appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And 138 00:08:08.425 --> 00:08:12.425 everyone who does hopes in him purifies himself 139 00:08:12.625 --> 00:08:14.325 as he is pure. 140 00:08:15.325 --> 00:08:16.825 And so we honor our 141 00:08:18.725 --> 00:08:26.225 beloved ones baptized in Christ as those whom God has adopted and 142 00:08:26.225 --> 00:08:28.625 those to whom God has shown his faithfulness. 143 00:08:29.825 --> 00:08:33.725 God has been faithful to the promises that he made them in their 144 00:08:33.725 --> 00:08:34.425 baptism. 145 00:08:34.925 --> 00:08:37.025 He will continue to remain faithful 146 00:08:39.425 --> 00:08:44.725 to those baptismal promises until Christ returns. And he will continue 147 00:08:44.725 --> 00:08:51.725 to remain faithful to those promises of raising them and us from 148 00:08:51.725 --> 00:08:52.425 the dead. 149 00:08:53.525 --> 00:08:57.325 As we recall, God's faithfulness, to his promises, to those who have 150 00:08:57.325 --> 00:08:58.025 gone before us. 151 00:08:58.025 --> 00:09:02.025 We call that those same promises are given to us to you 152 00:09:02.425 --> 00:09:04.925 and to me. And as we honor 153 00:09:05.825 --> 00:09:08.225 our lost loved ones in hope. 154 00:09:09.525 --> 00:09:13.125 God's remembering his promises and being faithful to his promises is 155 00:09:13.125 --> 00:09:15.525 especially important for us 156 00:09:15.525 --> 00:09:19.925 human creatures who still live with the effects of the fall. For try 157 00:09:19.925 --> 00:09:22.925 as we might to maintain our connection with our loved ones 158 00:09:22.925 --> 00:09:26.525 who have entered death before us. And try as we might to keep their 159 00:09:26.525 --> 00:09:31.025 memories alive through stories and pictures and items of our loved 160 00:09:31.025 --> 00:09:32.925 ones all too often 161 00:09:32.925 --> 00:09:37.825 I suspect that we find our memories fading with the passage of time. 162 00:09:38.625 --> 00:09:39.825 We don't want that to happen. 163 00:09:40.425 --> 00:09:42.525 We may feel guilty about that happening. 164 00:09:43.125 --> 00:09:45.325 We want to keep their memories alive. 165 00:09:48.025 --> 00:09:49.925 But God's memory does not fade away. 166 00:09:51.025 --> 00:09:52.725 God remembers his promises. 167 00:09:53.525 --> 00:09:58.425 God remembers those to whom he has made the promises of Resurrection, 168 00:09:58.825 --> 00:10:03.725 life and restoration and God remembers the promises that he has made 169 00:10:03.725 --> 00:10:08.425 to us and is faithful to those promises. God's 170 00:10:08.425 --> 00:10:12.525 remembrance of them does not simply take place within the mind as it 171 00:10:12.525 --> 00:10:16.825 does with us, God's remembrance of his promises brings about 172 00:10:16.825 --> 00:10:19.025 real-world consequences. 173 00:10:20.125 --> 00:10:22.325 Consider when we celebrate the Lord's Supper. 174 00:10:23.025 --> 00:10:27.725 Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. Remembrance of his promises 175 00:10:28.425 --> 00:10:33.125 promises that are effective and creative. Promises that take place and 176 00:10:33.125 --> 00:10:37.925 find fulfillment with the reception of the body, and blood of our 177 00:10:37.925 --> 00:10:39.425 resurrected Lord. 178 00:10:40.625 --> 00:10:46.025 As we anticipate the resurrection of our bodies and those of our loved 179 00:10:46.025 --> 00:10:46.425 ones. 180 00:10:48.025 --> 00:10:52.525 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.