Sermon - Marlys Evenson Funeral

Jesus Resurrected and Mary Magdalene, cira 1923

Dear Lowel, children, grandchildren, relatives and friends of Marlys, may God give you peace today, and comfort you with the glorious promise of the resurrection of the dead through Christ Jesus our Lord. St. Paul writes: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Yes, even Marlys’ death which we must now face does not separate her from her Lord Jesus. He was crucified and died for the forgiveness of her sins, so that when the Lord returns on the final day He shall raise her from the dead and bring her into paradise.

I regret that I didn’t have a greater opportunity to get to know Marlys. I give thanks to God that when I visited her in the hospital last week she was alert and able to talk with me very clearly. From just that brief interaction with her, it was apparent that she was a woman of great faith, desiring to receive a pastoral visit before she died. She wanted the opportunity to gather with her family around the Word of God, to pray, sing, and read the Bible. In the midst of her death, she wanted the good news of Jesus Christ to be at the center. 

It was also evident to me that she was a woman of great compassion. Earlier this week her family explained to me that as the oldest child of six kids, and withj the untimely death of a parent, she became like a second mom to her siblings. This prepared her well to care for her husband and her own children later on. I don’t need to repeat your own stories to you, since you should tell them to each other, but I do want to highlight Marlys’ compassion which led to her being so well-loved, making her death that much more painful to swallow.

Death is painful because it feels so wrong. Why should Marlys, such a loving and compassionate woman, die? She was a long-time Sunday School Teacher, which explains a couple of our hymns today, and so of all people she doesn’t seem deserving of death. Yet, Marlys, from conception, inherited the disease of sin. From her first parents Adam and Eve down to her, she has inherited sin, and she is herself therefore a sinner. She knew this well, as she confessed her sins to me last Monday. She was a sinner who sinned, and the wages of sin is death. Because she knew about her sins and her impending death, her faith and her hope rested in Jesus. Like the children’s hymn she taught to children, she knew and believed that “Jesus loves me! He who died heaven’s gates to open wide. He has washed away my sin, lets His little child come in.”

Marlys believes the words of her Lord Jesus, who said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” God the Father sent His Son Jesus the Christ, to give up His life for Marlys and for all, and so rescue us from the powers of death. Marlys was a sinner, certainly. But for her sake Jesus died upon the cross in order to atone for her sins and forgive her. Her sins are cleansed of her in the blood of Jesus. Christ rose from the dead, proving that death is defeated, and so on account of Christ’s resurrection Marlys will arise from her death as well.

For Marlys and for every Christian, death is no more than a slumber from which she shall be reawakened. See, when Marlys died her soul was taken into the nearer presence of God in heaven. Her body is here on earth, and today we will lay her body in the grave to rest from her labors. But when Christ returns He will raise her body to life and her soul and body shall be reunited, so that Christ may take her into the new creation in His eternal kingdom to live with Him forever! Death is temporary for the Christian. Marlys lives with Christ now, and she shall live in His kingdom eternally. “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” 

This is wonderful news because firstly it means that Marlys shall dwell with God forever in His kingdom. To dwell with the Lord, to see Him face to face, to live forever in His presence is the greatest thing that could ever be imagined. So Job says: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” What joy to know that Marlys lives with the Lord now, and will one day rise with Him to see Him with her own eyes.

This is secondly great news because it means that those who also have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and live forever in His kingdom, and see Him face to face, will also see Marlys again face to face in the flesh. Lowell, kids and grandkids, I know you also want to see Marlys again so badly. She has been such a backbone to your lives, holding much of it together, and it’s hard to see a life without her in it. What a joy, then, it is to know that God has shown you how you can see her again. Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Through Jesus you will see Marlys again and dwell with her forever. So look to Marlys’ example of faith, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Attend the Divine Service. Listen to His Word. And make sure that your faith is strong so that you too may die with Christ and live with Him and Marlys forever.

And in the meantime, think about this: In Holy Communion you are united with Christ and with the whole heavenly host, including all those who have died and are with Him now. Last Monday when I visited Marlys and you guys in the hospital, I was able to give Marlys and Lowell communion together. But Lowell, when you come to this rail here on Sunday mornings, eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ, you are communing with her still. Because Christ is present here and He promises to bless you and keep you, and when you dwell with Christ you dwell with those who have fallen asleep in Christ.

How remarkable, therefore, that even in the very midst of death, life reigns supreme through your Lord Jesus Christ. “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Indeed, Marlys has conquered death! Heaven’s gates have been opened wide to her. May God give us faith to face the days ahead, and the certain hope that we too shall arise with Marlys and Christ to live forever in paradise.