Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today for
this funeral sermon, I’d like to begin by reading Jesus’ words when he goes to
visit a family, where a young girl had died. He said:
The girl is
not dead, but sleeping.
Prayer: May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O
Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
After Frances died on Sunday, I
was talking Kevin and Joyleen and Dean and Geffrey at Joyleen’s house, and our
conversation went in a direction that I’ve never heard before. We were talking
about what Frances would wear in the coffin—apparently, when her husband died,
a few years ago, Frances had said that she thought it was inappropriate for him
to buried in a suit. She wanted him to be buried in a shroud, a long white
garment, much like a nightie. Frances had said that this was because when we
die, it’s like we’re going to sleep, so we might as well dress for bed. This
conversation really struck me, and for the rest of the week, I’ve been thinking
about whether I should specify to my family to make sure I’m buried in my
flannelettes.
Often today when people talk
about death, there’s a certain sense in which we often talk about it in a
round-about way. We don’t like to say simply, “He or she died”—we think it’s a
bit cold, just to say it like that. So people say, “He departed”, “she passed
away”, “he’s passed on”, and so on. Often these expressions are used to cover
up our awkwardness and uncomfortableness about talking about death. We use a
little “euphemism” (as it’s called), a cover-up word, to make it easier.
Sometimes, I’ve heard Christians and even pastors sometimes be quite harsh
about people with this, and have said to them, “Stop saying, “He passed on”,
“She passed away”—you should say, “He or she died.”
But in the bible, there’s
actually a whole lot of different ways to talk about death. And just as Frances
had spoken about death as if we’re going to sleep, the bible actually talks
exactly like this. There are many places in the bible, where it says that a
person “fell asleep”, meaning that they died. But this is not a
“euphemism”—this isn’t a cover-up word to make us feel better. This is a
wonderful confession of faith. There’s no cover-up words, no euphemisms, in the
bible—God doesn’t avoid talking about difficult topics in his word. But when
the bible says that a person “fell asleep”, it actually raises our whole
understanding of death to a completely new level. Because if we come to church
today and say the Frances has fallen asleep, we are actually making a wonderful
confession of faith that her Lord Jesus, “in the morning”, at the resurrection
of the dead, is going to wake her up.
And so, for our funeral sermon
today, I’ve gone through the bible, and I’ve picked out all the passages which
talk about death as “sleep”, and we’re going to go through each of them, and
think about them, as we gather here today with Frances in her nightie.
In the Old
Testament, this expression is not used in a lot of different situations. First
of all, I’d like to mention Psalm 13. The book of Psalms is a book of prayers
and poems addressed to God. And Psalm 13 is a particular psalm of someone who
is depressed and worn out and anxious and sad. And in the middle of the psalm,
the person prays to God: Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
Here this
person talk about death as the ultimate sleep, but also asks God to lighten up
his eyes, to bring new life to them, and the awaken him, and to brighten him
up.
But also in
the Old Testament, this expression is used when King David dies. In 1 Kings
2:10, it says: Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city
of David. It says that he slept with his fathers. We get the
impression here that he didn’t just go to sleep by himself, but that he went
and joined the rest of his family who had come before him who were also asleep.
It’s almost as though when King David died, it’s like the picture of a little
child who is scared in the night, and goes and crawls into bed with mum and
dad. The same goes for King David: when he dies, he crawls into bed with his
mum and dad. He slept with his fathers, with his ancestors.
But also,
this expression is then used about pretty much all the kings that came after
David. Each of them, when they die, go and sleep with their fathers. I wonder
if this expression is used only about kings for a reason. I think this also
fits very well with our Christian faith—Jesus is our king, and when we are
baptised, Jesus comes and clothes us with all of his royal clothes, just as if
we were a king or a queen with him. We become part of his kingdom, and part of
his royal family. And on Frances’s confirmation certificate, it says something
about this too, from the book of Revelation: Be faithful unto death, and I
will give you the crown of life. Isn’t it a wonderful thing, to think that
when we die, we go to sleep with our fathers, and join the whole of Jesus’
royal family!
But now I’d
like to go to the New Testament.
There was an
event during Jesus’ ministry where a ruler came to him and said: My daughter
has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. Now,
Jesus then goes to the house, and he sees all the people there carrying on and
weeping and wailing and playing funeral music on their flutes. And Jesus says: Go
away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping. We read: And they laughed
at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took hr by the
hand, and the girl arose.
What a
wonderful thing it is that Jesus says here! The girl is not dead, but
sleeping. And that’s the confession of faith that we make today about
Frances: The girl is not dead, but sleeping. I remember going to an old
graveyard once, and often, especially in old cemeteries, there are a lot of
children’s graves. At it’s often very sad to go and see this little
gravestones, with children 2 years, 3 months, 1 day old. But I remember seeing
one where at the bottom of the gravestone it said: This child is not dead,
but sleeping. What a wonderful confession of faith which the people put
there on that stone, that this child’s life is not finished, but that there
will come a time when the child will wake up!
In the
Gospel of John, which I read earlier today, we read about where Jesus was was
asked to go and visit a man called Lazarus. But it so happens, that Lazarus
dies before Jesus get to him. Jesus says: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,
but I go to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen
asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought
that he mean taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has
died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may
believe. But let us go to him.”
Just listen
to those powerful words that Jesus says: Our friend Lazarus has fallen
asleep, but I go to awaken him. Here we have such wonderful hope. John
tells the history about what actually happens. Jesus goes to visit Lazarus’
sisters who are grieving for his death, and Jesus goes to the tomb and raises
him from the dead. And so, this is exactly how it is with each Christian—Jesus
says: Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. Jesus
calls him: Our friend Lazarus. Jesus doesn’t just say: Lazarus,
but Our friend Lazarus. And not just My friend Lazarus, but Our
friend Lazarus. So here is Frances today who has died. And Jesus calls her
his friend, but also then he shares her with all of us, so that she’s not just
Jesus’ friend, but she’s the friend of all Christians who knew her. She’s our
friend Frances. And Jesus says: Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,
but I go to awaken him. What a wonderful promise it is—each of us Christian
when we die, go to be with Jesus. Jesus says to the thief on the cross: Today
you will be with me in Paradise. But also, on the Last Day, Jesus also
promises that he will wake us up, and reunite our bodies and souls in a
glorious way.
St Paul says
this in another passage about falling asleep. He says: 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. For the trumpet shall sound, and
dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
Do you see?
We’re not all simply going to stay asleep, but just like Lazarus, there is a
day when Jesus will also come and wake us up, and change us, and renew us, and
transform us, so that our bodies are just like his. Jesus has created us in
body and soul, and he won’t let anything go to waste. He has died for the world
and risen from the dead—and what he created, he will also transform and glorify
and clothe with power.
There are
two more passages, I’d like to read about this. When the bible says that
Christians fall asleep, it’s to encourage us. To say that today that Frances
has fallen asleep is a wonderful confession of faith. And in God’s word, this
fact is so important, that when the bible speaks about the first person to die
for the Christian faith, the first Christian martyr, it says that he fell
asleep. This man was called Stephen—sometimes we call him St Stephen. He spoke
fearlessly about Jesus, and when the people didn’t like what they heard, they
threw stones at him until he died—they stoned him to death. And we read about
this in the book of Acts: And falling to his knees [Stephen] cried out with
a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said
this, he fell asleep.
All this
terrible stuff, all this anger and hatred is happening all around him, and the
bible talks about his death as if he took his toothbrush and simply went to bed
for the night. And yet, that’s exactly how it is—when we die, we simply put on
our pyjamas, and go to bed for the night—safe with Jesus.
And so, I’d
like to finish today’s sermon with one last passage about this topic, which
comes from St Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. And I think this passage
simply speaks for itself. The whole purpose of this passage is to comfort
people who are grieving, just like us, but not simply to pat us on the shoulder
and say, “There, there”, but to comfort us with the living power of our living
Lord Jesus, who has risen from the dead. St Paul writes: But we do not want
you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not
grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have
fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who
are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those
who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry
of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet
of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are
left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one
another with these words.
Amen.
Dear Lord
Jesus, we come into your presence today to give you thanks for Frances, and to
ask you for the comfort of your word and Holy Spirit. Teach us what it means that
when we die we simply fall asleep with you, trusting that just as you rose from
the dead, you will also transform us to be like you. Amen.
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