Funeral of Irma Bradenstein

Isaiah 61:1-3,7,9-10

December 12, 2007

“The Beauty of the Lord”

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty…and everlasting joy will be theirs…

Jean, Dale, Joyce and Judy, family and friends of Irma, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Most people do not consider funerals and the burials of their loved ones as days of beauty, as beautiful days. In some ways this is true, after all these are days of mourning and grief. Weeping seems more appropriate than the appreciation of beauty. As painful and ugly as death is, there is, during this time, a beauty of remembering. We remember the many blessings that God has given, and we remember the blessings yet to come, promised by our God and Savior.

But death is not beautiful. It is the consequence of sin. As children of Adam and Eve we suffer their fate and the judgment of God, “from dust you came and to dust you shall return. If this was all we knew about death, as we experience it as the end of our lives, it must be considered something bad, ugly, and dark. If this is all we knew, we would all be without hope.

Death does not have the final word. Our mourning today is not the end of it all. God’s Word tells us plainly that there is more to life and death than futility, pain, and suffering. If we are to be ready to for life or death we must understand them through the eyes of faith that see the beauty of God's Son, Jesus Christ, for only in Him can we find the true meaning and comfort that we seek on this day of sadness. In Christ, even a day like this becomes a thing of beauty

Today we see the beautiful fulfillment of your loved one's Christian faith. God's promise of eternal life through Christ has been fulfilled for Irma. While we yet struggle with the painful realities of this world Irma knows, now more than ever, God's promise that "all things work together for good". God alone can take the ugliness of our world and even death and make it beautiful.

Perfect hair, that is one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of Irma. Looking good, looking more than just presentable with hair, makeup and clothing, these things were always so important to her. Whether I visited her in the hospital, at Mayville nursing and Rehab or even on the day before she died, she looked like she was all dolled up and ready to go. Matter of fact, even before she went in to have her surgery, she made up her hair and put on her make up so that she would be presentable to the surgeons. She wanted to be beautiful and perfect. Some people might think this a bit unusual. I don’t think it is. Rather, it bears testimony to her life in the ministry, that’s right, her life as a pastor’s daughter. She was a daughter and woman from a different time and age, a time of greater propriety. As the daughter of Pastor Laabs, she grew up in a fish bowl, well, not exactly a fish bowl. What I mean was that her life was always under scrutiny and observation. And as we all know, pastor’s kids are somehow supposed to be better and more upright than all other kids. Pastors in those days, and even still to this day demanded as much perfection and obedience as possible from their kids. As we know, sometimes this worked and sometimes this did not. Irma learned that it was important to look good and be respectable. This is not a bad thing. But she learned a lot more than that. You see, as a pastors daughter she learned about God. She learned about Jesus her Savior. She learned about His love. By God’s Holy Spirit she loved Him back singing His praise and serving His church. She learned to love her family, Her husband Clemens, you her children, your husbands and wives and your children. In her life of love towards God and towards you she lived life with unbridled enthusiasm. God gave her a very special gift…even though she was 88 years old, she was 88 years young. When she smiled or laughed you could see the shadow of the little girl that never grew old.

Like the rest of us Irma would be quick to sing the praises of God who took a sinful woman who was a sinner and transformed her into a child of the living God. Like all of us, Irma had been separated from God because of sin. That is the way we are conceived and born and that is how we live. With Irma, we all must confess with King David, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Ps 51:5). In-spite of the ugliness of sin God made Irma and all of us in Christ beautiful again. That is what our God does. He makes us truly beautiful even through the ugliness of life. That new and eternal beauty came with a great cost. The most beautiful and holy Son of God was born in humility as a human child, then He suffered the agony and ugliness of the cross. He became total ugly so that we could be totally beautiful in the eyes of God. As St. Paul puts it, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21).

The cross on which our Lord gave his life for us was not a thing of beauty, but it is to us now. This ugly instrument of Roman execution has become the very symbol of the Christian faith. It is the sign of our hope, our life, and the beauty of our salvation.

A grave is rarely considered a thing of beauty. But on this day of mourning, we also remember the stunning beauty of an empty tomb. Jesus died on the cross. He was buried in a grave. But the grave could not keep Him in. Because of what Jesus did, the grave has no more control over Irma’s life our our lives than it did for our Savior Jesus. For as Christ has risen from the dead so, too, will all who have been buried with Christ in Baptism be raised to life in Christ's resurrection. Through the beauty of Christ's empty grave we know that death cannot, will not, shall not, have the last word today or any other day!

And what of your future, the days and weeks and years ahead? What will they be like? This much is certain: you are not going into the future alone! God will walk with you to bear you up as you experience the sorrows and, yes, the joys and beauty of this life. C. S. Lewis once said, "God whispers to us in our pleasure, but he shouts to us in our pain." God does not promise that the days will be easy, but he does promise to give us the strength we will need to face each new day. Cling to the precious means of grace, God's Word and Sacraments, for they will strengthen you and bring joy even in the face of death and in the hardships of life. God has blessed you with each other, a wonderful loving family that knows how to endure hardships and knows how to appreciate the beauty of life. And together you know the love of God and the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Remember that God is at work in the days at hand and in the days that lie ahead. In you He will work the craftsmanship of His beauty just as He did it for Irma.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die…He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Eccl 3:1-2, 11. Beauty and perfection were important to Irma. They are important to God as well. Our God demands perfection. Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Irma is perfect now. She is more beautiful now than ever before. She is in the presence of God and she is robed in the righteousness of Christ. How glorious will be her day of resurrection when her beautiful hair is adorned with a crown, the crown of life.

When I visit my people, sometimes the Spirit leads me to sing. I don’t sing often but I sang to Irma. I sang to her from the Advent Hymn, “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People”. I believe the Lord meant these words just for her as she was dying. I desire to share them with you now.

Comfort, comfort ye my people,

Speak ye peace thus saith our God;

Comfort those that sit in darkness,

Mourning neath their sorrows load.

Speak ye to Jerusalem

Of the peace that waits for them

Tell her that her sins I cover

And her warfare now is over.

Yea her sins our God will pardon,

Blotting out each dark miss-deed;

All that well deserved His anger

He no more will see or heed.

She hath suffered many a day,

Now her grief’s have passed away;

God will change her pinning sadness

Into ever springing gladness.

Amen.