Romans 8:35-39

Funeral Sermon for Evelyn Munster

July 6, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Gone, but not forgotten. That’s why we mourn today.  A dear child of God has died. After 96 years of life on this earth, she made quite a mark, and so she is not forgotten.  The Munster name can still be found around town.  The Munster name is still connected to the barbershop. Children and grandchildren, great and great-greatgrandchildren. Five generations. Memories, experiences, that must live on here is quite astonishing.  After the service today, I hope you can join us in Luther Hall to share in some of the memories.

Gone, but not forgotten. But what happens when you who remember Evelyn aren’t here anymore either?  What happens to us when those who remember aren’t here anymore either? If we are forgotten, does that mean that we are gone?

Or let me put it another way. It is no secret that over the last several years, Evelyn’s mind was not what it once was. Most of her memories were gone, but that could not rob her of who she was: a faithful wife and mother, a friend, and most importantly, a child of God. In my opinion, this was one of the defining aspects of her life in her last years.  Still singing the song she taught her children, and she may have first learned from her parents. “Jesus loves me.”  She sang this song continuously, to everyone at every situation. The staff knew it. The other residents knew it. Any visitors knew it. It could very well be that Evelyn was one of the greatest evangelists in Park Place, simply by singing and sharing that “Jesus loves me.”  What a testament of her faith. Testament of her Savior.  She may have forgotten much, but she is not gone. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Not dementia, not death, not sadness.

Her faith in Christ was deeper than her memory, because the Lord remembers His people. Though her mind may have been gone, she was remembered by the Lord who preserved her in that true faith to life everlasting. Psalm 115:12-18, “The Lord has remembered us; He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Arron; He will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children! May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth! The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth He has given to the children of man. The dead do not praise the Lord, not do any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!”

This is very significant. The Lord remembered Evelyn.  He remembered His promises to her, delivered at her baptism when she was only a couple weeks old, reaffirmed throughout her life by the Word of God itself, fed and nourished continuously by means of the true body and blood of Jesus in the Sacrament of the Altar.  The Lord did not forget His promise that nothing would separate her from Him, not death nor life, angels nor rulers, things present nor things to come, nor power, nor height nor depth, not anything else in all creation, not even dementia.  As the Psalmist says, the dead do not praise the Lord. Because of Christ, Evelyn lives. Death is defeated. She continues to praise the Lord even now. And she will rise again when Christ returns.

The Lord remembers you. He knows you. He knows your fears, your sadness, your joys.  He knows your sin. And what He remembers is that He sent His Son to die so that you might live, that your sins be forgiven, that you be placed into His nail pierced hands to be remembered forever.  He remembers the promises made at your baptism, as we spoke already this morning from Romans 6, “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” 

Gone but not forgotten, indeed.  Today, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us by sending His Son, Jesus, into the world for us.