Sermon Tone Analysis

Remember: have in or be able to bring to one's mind an awareness of (someone or something that one has seen, known, or experienced in the past).

"I remember the screech of the horn as the car came toward me" · "no one remembered his name"

We are here today for a very specific purpose.

It is the funeral for Melva Krinke.

Our activities involve several facets of the funeral.

There was the visitation.

Friends, family, neighbors, fellow business associates gathered to comfort each other, to renew acquaintances, and to remember Melva.

These remembrances take place in the form of photographs, anecdotes, special items from her life, the reading of her obituary on the memorial card, etc.

Perhaps it is at the funeral that we our memories of someone who has passed away are the strongest.

Those who have attended the funeral of a parent can still recall strongly years later so many details about this event.

In time our memories of the person will begin to fade.

Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes that as time goes on those who did not know a person well and those who only heard about them second hand, will find it difficult to remember them well if at all in the future.

NIV12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly.

What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?

13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.

14 The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.

15 Then I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also.

What then do I gain by being wise?”

I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.”

16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten.

Like the fool, the wise too must die!

Nevertheless, it can be comforting to reminisce about those who have passed away and to cherish their memory in our hearts.

Another reason we are here today is to be reminded of and to find comfort from God’s Word about our relationship with our God.

Melva had a relationship with God.

It began at her baptism and was fostered in her youth.

She publicly confessed her faith in our God at her confirmation.

In here young adult years she shared her faith in God by teaching Sunday school.

And even though she did not continue her relationship with the church she was baptized and confirmed in, we hope and pray that she continued her relationship with God and that she was able to fulfill an encouragement that was given to her at her confirmation.

This is the time of year when many young boys and girls are confirmed in the Lutheran faith.

Although we currently have no students of that age at Salem, yesterday (the first Sunday in May), is the date we set aside for confirmation.

One thing that we do on confirmation is that each student comes to the front of the church, kneels at the altar, and the Pastor blesses them with their confirmation verse.

What was Melva’s confirmation verse?

(NIV)

1 Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—

She was encouraged to praise the Lord.

To glorify him in words and deeds.

To speak well of him to others and to honor him in her heart.

To trust in God above all things and to joyfully proclaim just how wonderful he is.

She was to keep in mind and to find comfort in who he is and what he had done to save her.

She was also encouraged to remember (“forget not all his benefits.”)

The Psalmist continues by recounting what those benefits are — what our God has done for his people — for us.

He forgives all your sins.

This is important.

Our sins separate us from God.

Without forgiveness, we would only receive God’s temporal and eternal punishment.

Death would be the start of unbearable punishment that will last for eternity.

He heals all your diseases.

This is not a guarantee that we will recover from every illness but a poetic way of saying we are forgiven.

He redeems our life from the pit.

The Christian looks to Jesus (and Jesus alone) who redeems us from hell.

St. Peter reminds us that

(NIV)

reminds us that (NIV)

18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

He crowns us with love and compassion.

Our God loves us so much that he gave his son to die on the cross to redeem us and his Holy Spirit to bring us to faith in Jesus.

He satisfies our desires with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

We need to be renewed.

A common theme in the bible about our life is that we are all headed toward death.

A common picture is that of the life of a plant.

This is used later in this Psalm as well.

As one who worked with plants, Melva would see this every year as the seasons changed.

The growing season begins with promise and the vigorous growth of plants.

As the season progresses, they mature, become old, and die.

And that is why we are here today.

Not because plants die but because people die.

Melva progressed through the stages of life as many others have done and others will do.

There is no escaping death.

But there is escaping eternal death.

Because God remembers us.

(NIV)

13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

And even though a consequence of sin is that we return to dust

(NIV)

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

God’s goal for us is that we trust in the one who had redeemed us, not forgetting him, but trusting in him all of our lives, that even though our bodies will return to dust, he will raise them from the dead on the Last Day because Jesus died and rose and again and that because he lives, we also will live.

We will be reminded of that after our luncheon today.

We will travel to the Lowell Cemetery for the committal.

At the committal we will commit the body of Melva to the grave in the sure hope of the resurrection remembering that Jesus rose from the grave and that

(NIV)

28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.

30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.