Funeral sermon for Charles D. Lau (1939 - 2010)

Beloved family and friends, members of our church family here at Hope, and especially you Donna: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Charles Lau was born on March 18, in the year of our Lord 1939. He was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Confirmed in the faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Charles spent the last 25 years of His life here at Hope Lutheran Church. It was as a member of this congregation and of the one holy Christian and apostolic church that Charles drew his final breath this past Monday. He died in Christ on February 22, in the year of our Lord 2010. As St. John narrates from the Book of Revelation, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from this time forth" (Rev. 14:13). Amen.
Hear the Word of the Lord from the mouth of Simeon in the temple: "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation."
I chose this verse as the text for the sermon today in part because both Charles and Simeon died in peace. Not to say that they both wanted to die, from my understanding in my conversations with Charles, he most definitely wanted to live... to spend time with his loved ones, especially with Donna, his beautiful wife of 40 years. You see, in the short time I knew Charles, it became obvious to me that Charles was a man who understood so very well, like Simeon did in our reading, that life is a gift. Life is a blessing, especially if life is lived with faith in Jesus. Such a life, after all, is the only life well worth living. And such a life is the one that Charles lived, as Simeon lived long ago. It's Luke chapter 2, verse 29: "Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him."
What this means is that Simeon was a man who had lived a full life. He had lived his life in faith in God, and he knew that his time was near. One day, led by the Spirit, the old man went his way once more to the temple of God, his mind firmly holding onto that special promise from God that he would not die before he had seen the Christ, the Messiah. It's when that belief is rewarded, when Simeon finds the child, that he took that baby Jesus in his arms, holds him up and pours out his soul to God: "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation."
These words of Simeon, dear friends, were loud in my ears that day last Saturday when I had the gracious opportunity to give to Charles one final foretaste of heaven, when together we celebrated the Sacrament of the Altar, and Charles ate and drank of the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. You know, it's funny; it's one of those things that you never can really describe... but at that moment, after receiving God's gift... you could just SEE that Charles was at peace. I don't know how else to describe it. I mean, what does "peace" look like? I don't know, all I can say is that Charles had it. By the grace of God, our brother was allowed to do just what Simeon did, to "depart in peace."
How does someone get this peace? Allow me, if you will, to read a verse that I shared with Charles the first time I met him. It's from First Corinthians 6. St. Paul says: "You are not your own; [for] you were bought at a price." It hearkens back to our adoption into God's family. The day Charles received God's gift of water and the Word, he received the benefits of the greatest price ever paid. esus paid for Charles' life by dying on the cross. It is that price of blood that makes today —not a somber day, not a mournful day— but a joyous day. Joyous because Charles was "bought at a price." Joyous because that price paid his entry fee to heaven where all who trust in Christ receive rest from their labors... in the paradise of heaven where Jesus Christ Himself, the Lamb of God, welcomes us home.
This is important because— you see, Charles, like all of us, was not perfect. Charles, like all of us, was born under the power of sin, death and devil. Charles, like all of us, Charles needed a Savior. He needed someone to come and to make things right between him and God. He needed someone to come and make peace between him and his God. He needed someone to buy him back from these forces of evil that ensnared him and us. He needed someone and by the grace of God, he received someone, that same someone that Simeon took in His arms that long ago day in the temple in Jerusalem, the consolation of Israel, the savior Jesus Christ the Son of God. The same Jesus Christ who would buy Charles and all people back from sin, death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, shed for us on the cross so many years ago.
Now this has eternal significance for Charles, just as it does for you and me. Because he was bought with a price, that means that he belongs to God. He is one of God's children, holy and precious in His sight. That means that today —even now at this very moment!— Charles is with our Lord in heaven. When Charles died, because of his faith in Christ, he went to heaven. It's that simple. And one day soon, Charles, and all of God's saints, will rise from the dead, his body will be restored to him purified of sin, and he will live forever That's what Job was talking about in the Old Testament when he said, "[even] after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God" (Job 19:26). And again, St. Paul writes, "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet" (1 Cor. 15:51).
What a glorious day that will be, when heaven and earth are joined together again, when Charles and all who have died in the faith are lifted up out of the grave and reunited in the flesh, when all of God's children— living and dead are joined together in Jesus Christ! That is his future, and that is yours as well, all you who trust in Christ Jesus for your salvation. That day will be glorious, I promise you, but until that day, we grieve. We grieve because we miss him. We grieve knowing that, even though he died in peace, and at peace... still things just don't seem quite right with him gone. But dear friends in Christ, when you grieve, don't "grieve as others do who have no hope " (1 Cor. 4:13), for we grieve with hope. Our grief is tempered with the knowledge that that "twinkling of an eye" is coming, that "last trumpet" when Christ will come again in power and glory. We grieve and mourn, but we do so knowing that our grief will come to an end.
For this is the great Christian truth, the heart of Charles's faith, of Simeon's faith... the heart of the faith of that whole great cloud of witnesses with which the Church is surrounded: If we believe in Jesus our Savior and our King... if we put our lives in God's hand, all will be well. We also will truly "depart in peace." And falling asleep in peace, we will awaken in the arms of our Savior... to eternal life and eternal joy. In Jesus' precious name, Amen.