Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text (Psalm 121:7): The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
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.
During the last couple of weeks, the church throughout the world has joined together to celebrate Easter, the greatest celebration in the entire church calendar.
But for some of us, it hasn’t exactly been a time where we have felt like celebrating. And even throughout the world, there have been people who have been celebrating and people who have not been. People celebrating a royal wedding, and then also the continued suffering in Libya, and other parts of the world.
But here we are, on this day coming to commit the body of our friend, husband, father, into the hands of God, our heavenly Father. Only a few weeks ago, none of us would have thought that we would have been here today doing this, and performing this duty.
And so on this day, receive your strength from the words of Psalm 121:
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord has kept your life for many years now. God has kept your life by sending you a husband, a father – he has kept your life in whatever way he needed to by sending this person, Hans, to you. Never forget this.
And also, our heavenly Father kept Hans’s life by sending you to him. He sent him the wife that he needed, the children he needed, the family, the friends. All of us who are here today are here, because God has kept our life through Hans in some way, and also God has kept Hans’s life through us.
Now we stand in the presence of God the Father today and say: “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” But there is no way that we are saying today, “The Lord is no longer keeping me from all evil; he is no longer keeping my life.”
Instead, the Psalm says:
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
He does it not because you deserve it, or because Hans deserved it, but just because he is good. We don’t read anywhere in the bible, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is fair.” We only read, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.”
And so we come here to this place today, to give thanks to God for all the blessings that we have received from him through Hans.
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The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
It’s a strange thing that Hans should have died on the Thursday before Easter. This is also the day that Jesus Christ himself began his suffering, and also for us it was a day where a different type of suffering also began.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, we say, he was crucified, dead and buried.
Here is Jesus going to the cross, to keep the world from evil – not from the experience of evil, not from the experience of suffering, but from the power of evil.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
Jesus Christ is the only one who died for us in this way. He is truly God, and a true man, and his blood is the only thing that covers us, and has the power to protect us from all evil.
Nobody saves themselves from their sin. You don’t save yourself, neither do I, and neither did Hans. Nobody even cooperates with God in saving themselves.
It is Jesus Christ who is our Saviour and no-one else. As Martha says in our Gospel reading today: “Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
But also, we come from Thursday, when Jesus was betrayed and began his suffering for us, to Friday when he died, Saturday when he rested in the tomb, and we come together with the women to the tomb of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday morning.
Now these women were coming to pay Jesus their respects, to give him a proper funeral. They were coming to anoint his dead body with spices and ointments. This is very much like what we are doing today. And they found the tomb empty.
And we might think they were immediately happy or something. But in actual fact they became more confused than they ever were before.
And it’s in the midst of many tears, that Mary Magdalene turned around to talk the man who she thought was the gardener. We read:
“She turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
That is the reason why Jesus can say to people such as us gathered here today and say, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
That’s why he says to Martha when her brother died: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
He will keep you when everything is going well; and he will keep you when you are mourning so that he can comfort you.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
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But what about us? Let’s talk about Holy Baptism.
Holy Baptism is not an empty thing where we do something for God. It is a washing of the Holy Spirit, and pouring out of the Holy Spirit’s gifts, it is a washing in the blood of Christ and a pouring out of the forgiveness of sins.
There is an old story about Martin Luther, where the devil came to his house, and knocked on the door and said, “Does Martin Luther live here?” He said, “No, Martin Luther died years ago. Only Christ lives here.”
When we look at Holy Baptism, don’t see it as just a bit of water. Recognise that the gardener is Jesus. Baptism is Jesus risen from the dead for you. In Holy Baptism we have already died. We have already been put to death – even in the small dark recesses of our past when as small children parents bring them to the church, Christ comes and claims us and says, “You are mine and I am never letting you go.” For the whole of life, there is still nothing that we can do to save ourselves – Baptism now saves you, says St Peter.
It does this because it is God’s work. Jesus Christ did his own work when suffered, died and rose again. And he does his own work when he baptises people.
As we heard at the beginning of our service today, “We were buried with him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of God the Father, we too might live a new life.”
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
Throughout the world over the last two weeks, the church has shouted out, sung, and preached the simple words: “Christ is risen!”
And these words are spoken so that all of you should have the confidence that you also will be raised from the dead.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
In one of our readings today it says that Christ is the first one to rise from the dead. That means that there will be many more. And when we are raised from the dead, Jesus Christ will give us back to those we love in a new way, with a new life. Because our life has been kept by him. He will keep your life, the psalm says. It’s safe in his hands, it’s kept safe by him.
God bless you all this day, and in the weeks and months to come.
Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”
The church says: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”
The Lord will keep your from all evil; he will keep your life. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus, our risen Lord. Amen.
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