Funeral Sermon for Robert Mills: "A Hands On Savior"

+ Funeral Sermon for Bob Mills – September 8^th, 2018 +

Texts: Isaiah 26:1-4, 19; Romans 14:7-9; John 6:27-40

Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Some say the eyes are a window into a person’s soul. And while there’s some truth to that, I’ve found that you can get to know an awful lot about a person by their hands. The well-worn wedding ring or firm grip are an autobiography to the world; every callous, line, and scar have a story to tell us about that person.

In the short time I’ve known Bob, I discovered that he was a man who liked to work with his hands. 

Hands that carried ladders, lugged fire hoses, and reached out to help those in need despite the danger. Hands that were joined in holy matrimony with Mary for over 55 years. Hands that held his children and grandchildren. Hands that worked on the house, helped a friend or neighbor, and sanded, sawed, and hammered in the workshop. 

Yes, Bob’s hands were a window into his life; witnesses to a life full of hard-work. Love. Contentment. 

And yet, Bob would be the first to admit that none of these earthly blessings came from his hands. For he knew that everything – clothing and shoes, house and home, a devout wife and devout children, labor and leisure, indeed all we have – all of it comes from our Heavenly Father’s hands. He richly and daily provides us with all that we need to support this body and life. And he does this purely out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in us. 

This is how he provided for Israel in their 40 years in the wilderness. How He provided for Bob throughout his life. How he provides for us all our earthly needs. By grace. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Everything we have in body and soul comes from the cross of Christ. Everything. 

Bob knew this, believed this, lived this. For he confessed what the Scriptures tell us, that as many good things as our hands do, they also do many bad things too. Our hands – and everything we touch – are stained with sin. Our sinful hands are a window into our sinful hearts.

This is why Jesus warns us and the crowds in John 6, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.”

Jesus isn’t saying that food and earthly stuff is bad; he’s simply warning us that none of that will keep us alive forever. There’s nothing that our hands, heart, or head can do to save us from perishing.   

What will save us? Not us or the work of our hands, but Jesus and his handiwork of salvation for us. For our Lord is a hands on kind of Savior. He saw our sinful mess and said, “I can fix this. I will fix this. Look to my hands.”

Hands that formed and knitted us in our mother’s womb. Hands that gave us, just as he gave Bob, new birth, new life from above in Holy Baptism; washed and cleansed of sin through the hands of the pastor who baptized us in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

Hands that healed the sick just as he works through the hands of doctors and nurses to care for us. 

Hands that put daily bread on our table and his body and blood – the bread of Life – on his table for our forgiveness. As Jesus declares: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” 

Not figurative hands, but real, touchable, hold-able hands like ours – flesh, blood, and bone. 

Hands of an infant held in Mary and Joseph’s arms. Hands that extended on the cross to save Bob, and you, and all. Hands that were nailed for you, and for Bob, and for all. Hands, head, and body that bore all our sin, disease, and death for us as he suffered at the hands of sinful men, for sinners. Hands that still bear the scars, those dear tokens of his passion, love, labor, and sacrifice for us.

Glorified and resurrected hands stretched out to give us peace. Hands that carry us home to be with him when we die. Hands that will one day reach down into our graves and pull us up as quickly as an exuberant student raises his hand in class to answer a question.

As Isaiah proclaims:

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.    You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,    and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Jesus will give the word. Arise! And up we go: Bob, us, and all the faithful departed, will arise. We will be made new: a new hands, new, glorified, and resurrected bodies. 

This is why we make the sign of the cross and remember our Baptism as we confess the Apostles’ Creed…we believe in the resurrection of the dead, and the life everlasting. This is the confession, hope, and faith that Bob lived in, died in, and will live again in for all eternity.

For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Yes, Jesus is also a man who likes to work with his hands. And his hands tell us the story of our salvation. Hands on the cross for us. Hands on the stone rolled away for us. Hands of blessing throughout our life.

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.