Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text (Colossians 3:17-18): For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you will appear with him in glory.
Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In the history of the bible, there have been many wanderers, many pilgrims, many exiles: People who flee their old country and are looking for a new one.
Abraham was called a “wandering Aramean”. He wandered from his homeland to a new land that didn’t yet belong to him. Jesus says about himself that “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
And today as we come to lay Elga to rest, we come to say that the wandering is over. Now is the time to rest in the arms of Jesus Christ.
We should never forget that God, our heavenly Father, in looking after the world, gave you to Elga, and gave Elga to you. And that’s why we are here. God gave us a gift in this person, this mother, this grandmother. She was a wanderer, a traveller, far away from her homeland, but now we come to lay her to rest. We come to lay her to rest in the soil of a foreign country, but also we lay her to rest in the arms of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God.
St Paul says: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you will appear with him in glory.”
Christianity is probably the only religion in the world which is not a cult of the dead. There is no karma, no reincarnation, no continual wandering of dead spirits. This is because Jesus rose from the dead. St Paul says: “If Christ didn’t rise from the dead, then my preaching is in vain and so is your faith.” But in fact, Jesus did rise from the dead, and destroyed the power of death. Death no longer has any power over us. When St Peter said to the first Christians, “Repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of your sins”, he wasn’t asking people to join a religion of death, but rather to join themselves to the Author of Life. Holy Baptism, even when we are the smallest of babies, is the resurrection from the dead given ahead of time.
We say that Christ was risen from the dead, as the first fruits of those who are to be raised. Others will rise too from the dead. And one of the gifts of the resurrection is that Christ gives us back to those we love with new glorious bodies. But until then, we rest. We rest in the arms of Jesus Christ. And when we rest there, we rest not as wanderers, wandering spirits, but as living, because Christ is living, waiting to be risen from the dead just as Christ is risen from the dead.
For you have died and you life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears then you will appear with him in glory.
Notice the word: “hidden” there. We know these things to be true only because Jesus himself has said so. “I give my sheep eternal life,” says Jesus, “and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” In this life we still have a lot of suffering and heartache prepared for us. Those we love might be snatched out of our hands, but they will never be snatched out of the hands of the risen, living Lord Jesus.
And so we say: For you have died and you life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears then you will appear with him in glory.
Christ, who is your life, draws us to himself with arms outstretched upon the cross – dying for the sin of the world, and breathing out his loving words: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Our life in Christ is always hidden with Christ in God. And it is the same living, risen Jesus Christ who says, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”
But when Christ who is your life appears then you will appear with him in glory.
Christ suffered, died for the sin of the world, and has risen again, so that we may belong to him and live under him in His kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.
So blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears then you will appear with him in glory. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus, our risen, living Lord. Amen.
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