Funeral Sermon for Sonja Means, May 17, 2020

Bill and Sonja have been away from North Augusta for a while.  We, their friends here in North Augusta, have very much missed them; we will doubly miss Sonja now that she is separated from us by this veil we know as death.  To the family, Bill, Scott, Lori, all of you, know that we stand with you in your grief, and like you, we will miss Sonja.  

        There is an unusual dichotomy in Christian funerals-  We are chiefly here today to celebrate Sonja, to celebrate her moving into the larger life with God, to celebrate God’s faithfulness to Sonja and her faithfulness to God- you will hear all this in the burial service we are doing here this morning.  This is Sonja Easter celebration, her resurrection celebration; but at the same time, we are here grieving Sonja’s absence from among us. So, to the family, we grieve with you, but we are here also to celebrate with you.

        Over a half-millennium before the time of Jesus, Isaiah wrote the words that we just read:

⁸He [that is, God] will swallow up death… forever [Isaiah writes]
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces …
    ⁹ It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. 

The salvation Isaiah is talking about comes to us in two ways- First, God saves us from something, which is from the great interloper and robber of God’s creation- death; but secondly, God saves us for something- which is, simply, to be with Him forever.  In Isaiah’s Words those many centuries before Jesus, God promised to save us.  In Christ, some 2000 years ago, God actually did it. 

        So, it should be quite apparent that we Christians understand death quite differently from the secular world around us.  For us who are in Christ, death does not have the last word, God does.  For those who wait upon Him, Isaiah says, God will swallow up death forever.  The God described in Psalm 139, which we just read, which describes us as fearfully and wonderfully made by Him, did not create us to be swallowed up by death and simply move into oblivion.  We were each created to be with Him, Glorify Him, and enjoy Him forever.  For you Presbyterians among us, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever should sound familiar- It is from article 1 of your Westminster Catechism.  

        Glorifying God and enjoying Him forever - This is precisely what Sonja is now doing.  Someday, hopefully, all of us will join her. And it is then that God will wipe away every tear from our eye, just as Isaiah prophesied. 

        So, death does not have the last word in Sonja’s life- God does!  I pray this is also true for each of us here.     

The Reverend Rob Hartley, May 17, 2020

The Relationship between Justification and Sanctification

        At one of our Saturday morning men's fellowship at Holy Trinity, our scripture readings led us into briefly talking about the relationship between "Justification" (conversion) and "Sanctification" (a life that leads to holiness, obedience and good works).  We used churchy terms that perhaps need defining; hence, I thought it would be useful to say something about this on my blog page. Here it is.

        Justification and Sanctification are both workings of the Holy Spirit in us.  Justification is a time when a person encounters God's grace and is led into a personal surrender to God, becoming a new creation with a new life in Christ (theologians call this new life "Regeneration").  Our salvation is established, Christ's own righteousness replaces our unrighteousness in the eyes of our Heavenly Father, and we can now be united with God in the family of God.

        Sanctification, on the other hand, is a life-long process, beginning with our Conversion / Regeneration / Justification, in which we live out our life in Christ, mature in the Faith, progressively be transformed into His image, learn to discern the Good Shepherd's voice, and seek to do His will (i.e. obedience).  Sanctification is what St. Paul is talking about in 2Cor. 3:18- "And we all, with unveiled face [that is, justified before God's by grace through faith, and empowered by the Holy Spirit], behold the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."  

       It is important, therefore, that we know that we are made right with God (justified), not by how sanctified and holy we are, but by God's grace which we appropriate by our faith and trust in Christ.  This is at the heart of the Gospel, because if you are like me, you know that standing before God based on our righteousness is a very iffy proposition (in fact, it's impossible).  Being able to stand before God with Jesus' imputed righteousness is definitely "Good News."  Martin Luther and others sparked the Protestant Reformation over this fundamental bit of Truth.  Luther writes in his essay Freedom and Service,  "Behold, from faith flows forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love, a joyful, willing and free mind that serves ones neighbor willingly..."  The justifying grace of God gives us the freedom to appropriate the sanctifying grace of God.  To Luther, the relationship of faith and works is much like that of the tree to its roots.  The roots provide the tree with the foundation and the freedom to bear fruit. Dietrich Bonhoeffer would say it is more a matter of obedience: This free gift of justifying grace gives us the freedom to obey God and live as God calls us to live.

Father Rob