Funeral Sermon

As a clergyman I have the privilege of being with people in some of their most intimate moments, and there is nothing more intimate than dying. Many people think that it must be hard for us clergy to be around death so much. Yes, it is hard to be around death, as all of you here know. There is no question about it. Yet in this hard time, we also have the ability to learn. I have found that I learn some of the deepest things about basic Christian truths from those who are dying and from the families who have asked me to be with them during their mourning.
I only had the chance to meet Herb once before his death, but in that one meeting, Herb reminded me of something that we often forget. Death is not the end for those of us who profess Jesus Christ.
When I walked into the door at Herb’s house to say prayers and to anoint him with holy oil he was asleep. Herb’s family told me that he had been asleep for awhile. When the family and I gathered around him, the rain started to come down in giant storm. A few words into the prayers Herb opened his eyes, lighting struck, the power started flickering and all the phones in the house started ringing.
The skeptic will say that this was all just coincidence, but I know it is not. Herb knew that his time here was drawing to a close. People, whom doctors declare are past alertness and deep thought often wake up and become alert for a few moments during these prayers. They can feel the fact that their family has gathered around them to say goodbye and to commend them to God. Herb did just that, he opened his eyes, knowing his loved ones where there to say goodbye, to say I love you, and to commend him to God.
When this happened, what I could feel was the direct connection between Herb and God. All of us Christians are connected to God throughout our entire lives, but we feel that connection in different ways at different points in our lives. I know we feel that connection to God the strongest when we are dying. Now I have never been close enough to death to feel this intense connection myself, but I know it happens. I know it happens because I can feel that connection radiating from the person who is dying. The feeling is tangible, as if I can reach out and touch it.
When Herb opened his eyes, I felt it. I could feel the connection between him and God.
This experience is proof of what Jesus tells us about death. In the Gospel passage we heard, Jesus tells about that connection between us and God. He tells us that “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes is me will never die.” We know this doesn’t mean that we will never physically die, we do, just as Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus did in this Gospel passage. Mary and Martha had not put it together yet. Martha says to Jesus “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Martha is aware of Jesus’ miraculous powers, and can only think about life here on earth. In a grief that we can all understand she yells at Jesus. What Martha doesn’t understand yet is that the gift Jesus came to bestow on us is far bigger than what she is asking for. Martha simply wanted a few more years with Lazarus. Instead, Jesus offers us far more. The gift we receive from God is that we are not bound by that physical death. Jesus Christ died for us and rose on the third day and in doing so trampled down death. Like the physical death Jesus endured, we too must also face that. But like Him, death never can win, never can have the final say. We live in God after death through the miracle of the resurrection of all the dead. The gift Jesus gives us is so much bigger than those few years Martha is asking for. Jesus offers us eternal life in God.
This is what I felt when Herb opened his eyes. I could feel the knowledge that death would not win, the fact that he would be raised again, coming from Herb in that moment.
That is the gift that Herb gave me last week. He reminded me of one of the basic facts our life in God. Death has no power over us because we are raised again. I say it all the time. I read it all the time, but nothing compares to standing in a room with someone who is being reminded by God of this truth in a deep intimate connection. I thank Herb for the gift of allowing me to experience with Him this intimate communion with God where he was reminded of God’s never failing love for Him. Death truly has no power for us, for those who believe in Christ Jesus will live again.