In Memory of Lucia Roman
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The focus of this part of our service is hope
Hope in an unchangeable God
Even in the face of death
In the valley of the shadow of death
In the presence of your enemies
God does not fail or falter
It may feel like your world is collapsing at the loss of Lucia
But take hope, God is still on His throne
And He is still at work in this world
His presence is still near
Death completely upends the pattern of life
it thrusts the reality of how fragile life is to the front of our mind
and life without Lucia feels unbearable
And I am so sorry for the pain her loss causes
It is in times like these we direct our attention to the reality of God’s stability in this tumultuous world
That is the reason we read earlier
See reveals the character of God in two primary ways
First, that He is our Shepherd
He gives guidance and comfort
He leads us in the face of threats
The deepest of darknesses do not overcome us
In fact, the dark becomes evidence of the Lord’s faithfulness
He is with us
and that He is our heavenly host, whose house we shall dwell in
Second, He is our heavenly host,
He provides a table and joy in the face of threats and weariness
Resulting in kindness, not enemies, as our reality
He is the host in who’s house we shall dwell
Later in the Bible, in , Jesus spoke about this heavenly house;
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 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.
Jesus prepared a room for Lucia
and just as He had promised, He came and took her to Himself
so that she is with Him, in His heavenly home
I know that because I personally asked her
multiple times, do you believe in God?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord?
Every time, she said yes
and I had the joyous privilege of getting to baptize her
Therefore, because she believes in God
because she believes also in Christ
She is now with Him, in the rooms He had prepared for her in His heavenly home
So, as Jesus said here in
Let not your hearts be troubled
How do we keep trouble from our hearts in this time?
We look to Christ in our need
We cry out to God in our sorrow
God is trustworthy
especially in the area of comfort
the Bible describes Him as the God of all comfort!
As I shared earlier, we read earlier because it reveals the character of God
But there are many parts of the Bible that reveal the character of God
is special, because Lucia would pray nearly every day
And it is such an appropriate Psalm for her to pray because you could almost overlay her life with the journey of this Psalm
Lucia had moved in with her daughter and son-in-law, Rosita and Ed Harrington 8 years ago
At that time, there was a lack of joy
There was no hope
Just lots and lots of anger
And I began working with Ed a little over three years ago
In that time, I heard from him the
for many of the days we were at work together
At that time, the Lord was still her Shepherd
She just didn’t have the intimacy with Him
If you look at again
The author of is King David
David declares that the Lord is his shepherd
look at how communicates how the Lord shepherds His sheep;
He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
Beautiful shepherd imagery
But, you will notice the Psalm not only starts with the Lord
The Psalm goes through an intriguing progression
Before coming full circle ending with The Lord
Notice the first half of the Psalm, David talks about the Lord
Notice the first half of the Psalm, David talks about the Lord
The Lord is my Shepherd
He makes me lie down
He leads me
He restores
Then David gets to the pivot point in vs. 4
the heart of this Psalm
the valley of the shadow of death
the deepest, darkest valley
a place of great darkness
Then suddenly, David no longer talks about the Lord
At the end of this vs, he says You are with me
and that is the key
That the Lord is with us
Once David was reminded of this realization
He no longer talked about the Lord
He began talking directly to Him
Your rod
Your staff
Comfort me
You prepare a table before me
You anoint my head with oil
And that is Lucia’s story
When Lucia’s health dropped off rapidly a little over a year ago
She was stripped of everything
Even her independence
relegated to a chair and the care of her daughter and son-in-law
Lucia was in the valley of the shadow of death
The darkest of dark valleys
But it was in that valley where Lucia acknowledged that the Lord was with her
That the Lord’s rod and staff
His support
comforted her
That the Lord prepared a table for her in the presence of enemies
He provided for her in the face of opposition
And He anointed her head with oil to the point that her cup overflows
He spoiled her
Another way vs. 6 has been translated to English says
Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me
That is what happened with Lucia
goodness and faithful love pursued her
many times it was through the channel of her daughter and son-in-law
sometimes it was through the channel of her aid or friends or family
But the Lord was always the source
It was the Lord’s pursuit after her
He pursued her with goodness and love
and she is now in the presence of Jesus in the room that He had prepared for her
but it isn’t only Lucia that the Lord pursues with goodness and love
He pursues after every one of us with goodness and love
that is what Jesus’s death on the cross proves
He pursues you with goodness and love at all costs
even to the point of death on the cross
You see, after Lucia believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior
she was very apologetic to people
She asked for forgiveness from many people
Why?
Because she realized she had sinned in her past
But she learned Jesus took care of her sin on the cross
and she was now forgiven by God
So she wanted to seek forgiveness from others
She didn’t suddenly become perfect but she had been transformed
she wanted to come to church
she talked about being a missionary
she asked to be baptized, multiple times
She wanted her story to be told
Because her story is God’s story in her
The story of God pursuing her with goodness and love
All she had to do was believe God’s story to be true and confess that Jesus is Lord
and she did
Praise God she did
Now the same is true for you today
Like Lucia you have wronged some people in your life
you have made some mistakes
you aren’t living life perfectly
that is what the Bible calls sinning
and that is what Jesus paid to make right with His life on the cross
Jesus revealed He was the Lord, in a way that connects to when, in , he proclaimed;
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
All you have to do is believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior
and confess that with your mouth
and when you depart this world
you will join Lucia and Jesus in the room that Jesus is preparing for you
in His heavenly dwelling place
And that is Good News!
At the same time, I realize it may be very hard to try to think about or talk about good news at a time like this
Because you are in the midst of grief
and that is good
Grief is a gift that God gives us
Grieving allows us to express that emotional build-up that accompanies the experience of loss
God has made us relational beings
so when we are separated from a relationship of someone we love
Grief is to not only be expected, but embraced
Death is not the way it should be
God did not make us so that we could die
death is a reminder that there is brokenness in our world
brokenness that has come as a result of sin in our world
Yet is a Psalm of trust
as most Psalms of trust do
This trust developed from a lament
The valley of the shadow of death conveys some type of crisis in the background
But with this crisis in David’s past
He offers praise to God who has demonstrated trustworthiness
He looks back on his trouble and He praises God in the face of difficulty
He is inviting others to join in trusting the Lord
It speaks of God’s powerful protection
keeping fear at bay
It communicates that God is our source of refreshment
so that, being with God, means we grieve differently
Grief is appropriate, Jesus grieved at the tomb of a friend He loved by crying
But our grief does not have to be confused grief or hopeless grief
Grieving with hope means we take hold of God’s promises
the promises we looked at of a heavenly home
Promises He gives us that though we experience physical death
we live for all eternity
that we will be reunited with the ones that death has separated us from
Because Jesus rose from the dead, showing that death is only temporary
but eternal life gives us the ultimate victory over death
serves to evoke an outpouring of praise and trust
Our relationship with the Lord is central to
He is the giver of life, the basis of trust
even in the face of trouble, turmoil, and loss
Allow the trust this Psalm evokes to nurture hope in your grief
At this time, I’d like to invite Rosita up, she has expressed a desire to share
and after she shares, we will open up a time of sharing
all are welcomed to share some memories, a story, words of encouragement, a prayer, some Scripture
whatever is laid on your heart
you don’t have to come up either, I will have a microphone
you can just lift your hand and I will come to you
Rosita