Funeral for Florence Benter
Funeral Sermon, Florence Benter, 1 Corinthians 15:10, Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, 11
Date December 1, 2007
God’s Grace Goes with Us
Introduction: Carl, Kathy, Julie, Chris, family and friends of Florence Benter, grace to you and peace form God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we celebrate the life and faith of Florence, and the great love and grace that was shown to her by our God and our Savior Jesus Christ. While we celebrate, we also grieve and we remember. May our dear Lord, who knows your needs, comfort you and give you strength and faith to uphold one another.
Whenever people gather for a Christian funeral, there are two basic reasons for the worship service: first, to demonstrate by our presence the respect we have for the loved one, a life given as a trust from God; and second, to contemplate the meaning of our relationship to God and to other people for time and eternity.
For this consideration, our text is most appropriate, for it takes note of our individuality and relates our lives to the grace of God.
There is no more meaningful or beautiful concept for human beings to contemplate than the grace of God. It emphasizes that God is not only great but also good. Our life on earth is uncertain and precarious. We don’t always know where God will lead, or how. But still we know for certain that we have His grace and unmerited favor. We have his unfailing love. We see the grace of God, not only in how he sustains us by every breath we draw, but also in the knowledge that we are in his hands, He knows the number of the hairs on our heads and He knows and has numbered our days.
As a family, you have experienced the grace of God in many ways. I believe you understand this now, more than ever as you celebrate and thank God that He has taken care of Carl and sustained His life with us. As you have seen His love and care so intimately, you may also have a renewed understanding of His love for His mother. We may not know why He allowed your mother to live so long, when , to us it might have seemed that it would have been better for her to go to be with the Lord. But you know that your gracious and merciful God knew what He is doing, and cared for Florence every day of her life. Her life had purpose, even the past 19 years as God allowed her to be cared for by the people around her. Rather than serving, as she did for many years as a faithful wife, mother and grandmother, He ordained that Florence be the object of service and love. Through her, God gave us, in this life, the opportunity to show Christian love and care. He gave us the opportunity to exhibit His grace and love. Now, because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross, God’s grace and love is known all the more as HE has taken Florence home. Though her life was broken by sin, her sins have been forgiven and heavens door has been opened.
We know the Grace of God, like Florence, we too, by faith share in that grace with her. That grace is known clearly in these words of our Lord Jesus, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Whether we celebrate birth or marriage, whether we experience success or failure, whether we struggle with illness or rejoice in our health, whether we gather as families to feast at Thanksgiving or to mourn at a funeral, whether we live for a long time or only for a short time, whatever our situation, we find life’s fullest and final meaning in God’s grace given to us in Jesus.
It is only fitting that we should today gratefully testify that the grace of God was also the greatest thing in the life of the Florence. There are many things to be grateful for: years of life, family, working side by side with your father, the special memories of life, the works of her hands, her love for you. All of these stem from the gift of God that Paul calls grace. For Florence this was also true. Florence recognized God’s grace as witnessed by her church attendance and the actions and attitudes of life. She understood her own weaknesses and sins. She understood and believed that these were overcome by God’s grace in Jesus Christ. For her, as for all Christians, her Baptism, hearing the Gospel, receiving the Lord’s Supper, finding daily strength, knowing the personal blessings of God, having the blessed hope of heaven were all recognized as special gifts from God and His grace. She raised you to understand the importance of these things.
She knew also that we live in a world of trouble because of sin. The Psalmist wrote, 9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. 10 The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away… Have compassion on your servants. 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. 16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. 17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us-- yes, establish the work of our hands.
The Lord has established the work of her hands, of her life and of her heart. Her work has been accomplished in you. It is for her family that a mother works and strives all the days of her life.
As Florence was contemplating her own death and her own funeral her only notes were about a couple beloved hymns and the words of Ecclesiastes, the 3 chapter. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
That last sentence says it all. That last sentence gives us meaning for our lives. The Lord has made everything beautiful in it’s time. For your mother, it was time. While Florence may have been beautiful to you in this life, because she has been brought through death to eternal life she is even more beautiful now. She has been made completely perfect, holy and right with God because of our Savior and hers, Jesus Christ. The Lord has taken Florence to be with Himself, on this day when you lay her to rest, you can be comforted by the promise of eternal life.
The amount of comfort and hope given by the grace of God is never more clearly evident than when a Christian’s life comes to an end on earth. The Apostle Paul reminds us of the hope and assurance we have because of God’s grace in Christ. Paul rests all evidence of our eternal hope on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins, rose again to assure us that the victory is won.
It is this confidence in the grace of God that brings peace and comfort to you now. That confidence will help you even more than the good memories you hold. The grace of God will sustain you, as it did the Florence.
Conclusion: The apostle Paul wrote these words to the Christians of His day, words of comfort for us now, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (v 58). Under the sun there is a time to be born and a time to die, there is a time for labor and there is a time for rest. The Lord has given rest to His servant Florence. She has been made eternally beautiful in His time. Now you can be at peace. Amen.
