Funeral Sermon for Betty Cecil: "Something More Certain"

+ In Memoriam - Betty Cecil +

Job 19:21-27; Romans 6:3-11; John 11:17-27

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lately, it seems that every email, press conference, TV or radio commercial is quick to remind us that we live in uncertain times. But if you think about it, that’s a little like saying water is wet and rocks are hard. There’s always uncertainty in our daily lives. The 10% chance of rain turns into a thunder shower. Stock markets that bottom out one week soar the next week. Our bodies and minds, which are one day healthy, soon grow old, get sick, and are taken by death. 

And while it’s true that certainty can be hard to find; it’s not the whole truth. Certainty may be hard to come by, but it’s not impossible. There is, in fact, something more certain than all the uncertainties of life.

Job proclaims it to us today: I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;²⁶ And after my skin is ^[f]destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God.

The Apostle Paul declares it to us today: For as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection

Jesus reminds Martha, and us of what is most sure and certain: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. ²⁶ And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

As we learned, and as Betty learned, we confess this is most certainly true!

Today, as we mourn the death of a beloved mother, grandmother, and sister in Christ, we rest in the sure and certain promises of Jesus. For we know what Betty knew, and confess what she confessed, that there is something and someone more certain than sin, death, disease, and the grave – Jesus’ death and resurrection for us, and in him, the promise of our own resurrection.

This is what we confess, as Betty did throughout her life, when we confess the Apostles’ Creed. “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” In this life, death and taxes may appear to be the only certainty, but in Jesus we have something more certain. As St. Paul says in Romans 6:

For he who has died has been ^[b]freed from sin. ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Likewise you also, ^[c]reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As a baptized Lutheran, Betty knew these promises well. So well, that even when dementia slowly ate away at her memory, the hymns and prayers and psalms she had learned and sung and prayed for so many years stuck with her. Our Lord buried his sure and certain Word deeply within her heart and mind and soul. And what our Lord promises and delivers, no man or disease can rend asunder. 

Our Lord’s sure and certain Word and promises to Betty were what sustained her in this uncertain world. It was our Lord’s Supper and Baptism and forgiveness that filled her with a sure and certain hope in the resurrection, even as our Lord’s promises continue to do so for us today.

For though our flesh and heart may fail, the Lord is our strength and hope and confidence. 

Though we die, yet in Christ we shall rise and live.

Though we are uncertain about many things, we join Job, Paul, Martha, and Betty in living and confessing what is most certain. 

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. ²⁶ And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

This is most certainly true.

In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.