+ In Memoriam: Shar Nalder - June 17th, 2023 +
Psalm 107:1-9; Isaiah 25:6-9; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; John 11:17-27
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Life is full of patterns and rhythms. Anyone who loves music, as Shar did, can quickly recognize those patterns. The beat that moves the song, the words that go with the music, and so forth. Knowing these musical patterns comes in handy, especially if you’re like Shar and enjoy some karaoke.
The Holy Scripture is full of patterns as well, especially ones found in music, in the book of psalms, the song book of the bible. The pattern quite often goes like this. The Lord does something for his people – saves, rescues, redeems, answers their prayer – and God’s people, in turn, respond with thanks and praise. That’s the pattern. God gives out of his steadfast love, and we respond with thanks and praise.
That same pattern is at the heart of the psalm we read together earlier, Psalm 107.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
I couldn’t help but think of this psalm as I thought of the life and faith of Shar this week. From what I’ve come to know of her, she embodied this biblical pattern. God gave her his abundant grace and blessings, and she, in turn, could not help but live life in joy and thanks and praise.
The words of Psalm 107 reminded me of Shar and the last time I saw her. When I came to the family’s house to visit, Shar had died earlier that morning, and she was resting peacefully, wrapped in her Wonder Woman blanket. Someone, I think it may have been Irene, said, “She was our wonder woman.”
Even though we grieve today, we also are thankful for the life and faith in Jesus that God gave to Shar. We are thankful for her life that was a blessing to everyone around her. We are thankful for our Lord’s gifts to Shar in this life, but also for his greatest gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s why even as we mourn, we also join the psalmist in saying…
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
Indeed, our Lord has done wondrous things for Shar, our wonder woman. I recently learned that she had won gold and silver medals in the special Olympics. And enjoyed other sports and activities from bowling to basketball. All gifts of God to be enjoyed and thankful for.
Shar also brought joy and wonder to her time with family and friends, whether it was a hug, a favorite costume, or any number of her favorite songs. And whether you were family and close friends, or had only known her for a short while, Shar was known for sharing her love with everyone around her. And the Scriptures remind us over and over again that the kind of love Shar had for others comes from the love our Lord Jesus first gave to her. That’s the pattern of the Scriptures, and Shar’s life as well: God gives his gifts, God loves us and rescues us from sin and death, and we respond with thanks, praise, and love for others around us.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
No doubt there are many things wonderful things that come to mind when you all think of Shar, the most wonderful of them all is this: that the God who has filled the Bible with all the signs and wonders he has done came down from heaven in the most wonderful, unexpected way, to save Shar and you from sin, death, and the grave. There are many wonderful things in this life, but none so wonderful and amazing as the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord who became man, was born, lived perfectly, suffered in our place, paid for our sin, died our death on the cross, rested in our grave, and rose from the dead on Easter Sunday and did this all for Shar and for you.
This is the wonderful good news that prophet Isaiah declares in Isaiah 25 when he says that on the mountain of our Lord’s death, where he was crucified for Shar and for you, there he swallowed up her death and yours forever.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
This is the wonderful, gracious promise that our Lord gives us through the prophet Isaiah and the apostle Paul, that Shar’s death, our death, and death itself do not get the last word. That there will come a day when our Lord Jesus will return and wipe away every tear from our faces. That our Lord Jesus who himself rose from the dead will raise Shar and you and me and all the faithful departed from our graves as well. A day, as St. Paul says, when this perishable body will put on the imperishable. A day when we will be raised in glory, and yet raised in the body, as real and as tangible as those famous hugs from Shar. This is the hope of what we confess in the creed…I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
This is also the wonderful and comforting promise our Lord Jesus gave to Shar and gives to you.
I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
That’s quite the promise. And yet Jesus kept it. Christ Jesus died for Shar and for you, and by his death he destroyed the power of death. Christ Jesus rose from the dead for Shar and for you, and by his resurrection he opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers…for Shar and for you. And by his word, when our Lord Jesus returns on the Last Day, he will call us forth as easily and quickly as he did Lazarus from his grave. Arise! Come forth. And live!
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble
It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
The peace of God which surpasses all human understanding will guard and keep you in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
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