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