Funeral Sermon for Shirley Luck: "God's Family, the Baptized"

+ In Memoriam – Shirley Lueck +

Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton

Ezekiel 37:1-14; Revelation 7:9-17; John 11:17-27

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

How do you fit 94 years in a service? I pondered that question more than once this week.

How do you remember a beloved mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, whom God richly blessed with a long and joyful life, and who spent most of those 34,310 days, 823,440 hours, and over 49 million minutes serving and caring for others? 

How do you give thanks to God for a dear friend and sister in Christ who considered her church to be her extended home, and her brothers and sisters in Christ as close as blood?

In a word. Family.

Shirley was always busy serving, loving, and caring for her family. Busy sharing the blessings of good food, a warm blanket, or a family camping trip. And busy sharing the greatest blessing of all: the love of Christ her Savior, and ours. Shirley’s love for her family at home and church ran deeply because Jesus’s love for her runs even deeper. Jesus’ love for Shirley and for you runs as deep as the cross and the grave. 

As Jesus declares to us today:

“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. 

You see, Shirley loved and cared for her family at home and church because she was, and is for all eternity, part of the greatest family of all, God’s household. On March 1^st, 1925, God brought Shirley into his family, born from above in Jesus’ Word and promise. Shirley was adopted by God’s grace.. Given the new birth by water and the Word. Our Lord wrote her baptismal birth certificate in the Lamb’s book of life, signed and sealed by the blood of Jesus. And sent the Holy Spirit to plant faith in Jesus in her that it would bear fruit in her love and service throughout her life. 

Family was everything to Shirley, for our Lord had made her part his beloved, family; God called Shirley, as he calls each of us, his own baptized child, holy and precious in his sight. That’s who St. John sees, and helps us to see in Revelation 7…

“Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
    and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;    the sun shall not strike them,
    nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,    and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

John’s vision in Revelation reminds us that God’s people, his family purchased and won by the blood of Jesus, is important to God as well. He calls and gathers us as his people. St. Luke describes God’s love for us in Jesus as a mother hen covering her chicks under her wings, protecting, sheltering, embracing us in his life and death. God does this not because we’ve earned or deserved his love, or are worthy to be called his children, but because of his gracious, merciful, boundless love for us. 

That was the key, the foundation, the center, and anchor for Shirley’s life and faith. She knew that as great as her for her family was, our Lord’s love for her and for you is the greatest love of all. 

Family is everything to our Lord as well. So much so that Jesus took on human flesh, was born for us, lived in his family home with Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and Nazareth for you, to bring you into God’s family. Jesus went to the cross to rescue and redeem us lost sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. God’s only begotten Son became man, that we might become sons of God. Jesus died on the tree of the cross to graft us into his family tree forever. Jesus spent every year, week, day, hour, minute, and second of his life – even his very last breath - to give his life for Shirley and for you and for all. 

Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we along with Shirley, should be called the children of God. And so we are.

That we would love as Christ first loved us. 

That we, along with Shirley and all the faithful departed, will one day rise from our graves as certainly as Jesus rose from his three-day rest in the tomb. 

And what a joyful family reunion that will be. The kind of mirthful, blessed, and gracious event our Lord promises in Ezekiel…

Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

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