From Job to Paul- A Funeral Sermon

Job- The trees are beautiful aren’t they Paul?

Paul- Yes, Job, they are very beautiful.

Job- The thing about trees is that they get cut down or blown down or struck by lightning or burned up by the fire. They’re never the same after that.

Paul- Things like that sure do change the trees. Most people would say that the trees are dead after that.

Job- But that’s not really so because trees sprout up again. Even from a stump a shoot can form and a whole new tree comes up. It takes a while, but it grows again.

Paul- They do grow again. Sometimes it takes the death of one tree to grow a whole new forest. Look at the fires in the forests. They burn up acres of land so that new trees can grow. Amazing how God works in the world, eh Job?

Job- Truly. But it’s different for us people. We die but we don’t sprout new people.

Paul- No, we don’t sprout new people. When we die, we die. It seems like a pretty permanent thing. But we often say that we fall asleep.

Job- But Paul, when we fall asleep, we wake up again. When we die, we can’t hear or see or move, so waking up is nearly impossible. I’m not sure I like saying that we fall asleep.

Paul- Take it easy my friend. There is someone to wake us up. God our Father will wake us up. With the sound like a trumpet and with his great booming voice, the same voice that spoke into creation the entire world will call your name, my name and wake us up.

Job- If He can speak and create mountains then He can sure speak and wake the dead. But what about in the mean time? Life is hard, full of tragedy and pain. And when someone close to us dies, how do we get through it?

Paul- Life is tough and death is real. There’s no way around that and to pretend as if everything is fine when it’s not, isn’t helpful. But here’s the thing, it’s what I told my friends in Thessalonica. Because we’re Christians, we look at the tragedy of life with a different set of eyes. We look at death not with despair, but with hope. But it’s not a hope in something fluffy and white clouds and harps. It’s a hope in the one and only savior, Jesus Christ.

Job- So, what you’re saying is that death sprouts hope like a stump sprouts a new tree? Death sprouts hope. When you say you hope in Jesus, tell me what that means.

Paul- My hope in Jesus is this: I was baptized in Jesus’ name. Since I was baptized in Jesus’ name, I will die like him but I will also rise like him. His death is my death. His resurrection is my resurrection. My hope is in something certain, eternal life with Christ. That’s why death sprouts hope.

Job- The trees are beautiful aren’t they, Paul?

Paul- Yes they are and a beautiful reminder of the hope we have in Jesus.

Hilda was a wife, a widow of 39 years, a mother to her children and a mother to those who needed one. She was servant in church, in Sunday School, in the community, at the Pioneer’s Home. She learned to drive at age 57 and bought her first car. She prayed continually, shared her devotional life with her children and her love for the Holy Scriptures. She was steadfast in her faith in Jesus. All of these things are important to those of us who are left here this afternoon. Hilda made a mark, left her legacy on our lives. Some of you here today can say that you know Jesus because of Hilda. She has run her race and finished well. For that we will ever be grateful to our Father in heaven who gave us time with Hilda.

But today is not a day to praise Hilda for all of her good deeds. Today is a day to look to Jesus, the giver of our faith and Hilda’s faith. Today is a day to remind ourselves that we, like Hilda, are sinful human beings in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. Today is a day where we look to the cross and remember what God the Father in His mercy has done for you, me and Hilda on that tree. That tree is the tree that sprouts hope. Jesus’ death on that tree is the spring of hope and life for all of us. The trees are beautiful aren’t they?