Funeral - The Death of His Saints (For the Saintly Woman)

Text: “The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. The Lord protects the unwary; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you… Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.” (Psalm 116:5-7, 15 NIV)

There are few passages in the Bible, which when read out of context, might seem insensitive, and one such verse is the one which I just read…

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants”

What does that mean?

Does that mean that the Lord is happy to see us overcome by this old enemy of ours?

And what does it mean when we started the service by saying we are here to celebrate?

Well, friends, let me assure you that death is never a part of God’s plans.

Humankind was created to live and to live forever…

Death is an unfortunate consequence of the disobedience of mankind and the turning away from God…

Death is ultimately the separation of God the creator from us the created…

Separation is never desired and death remains an unwanted enemy…

And it remains so today…

Yet, that is but part of the story…

because even though death entered in humankind through man’s disobedience,

God paved a way for the separation to be reversed…

God paved a way through the cross on which Jesus Christ hung so that through that ultimate sacrifice,

We have been given a way to be reconciled to God…

And because of the work on the cross, death has lost its grip on us,

death has lost its sting…

and this is what Paul wrote in the book of Romans that tell us that

“death has entered the world through one man, and death through sin…”

Yet

“through the obedience of the one man, [Jesus Christ, we have], been made righteous”

And therefore, because we who had received Jesus into our lives, have been made righteous,

We now receive the wonderful gift of reconciliation with God…

And that gift of reconciliation means the separation that was associated with death has been reversed,

The curse of death had been removed

And abundant and eternal life now resides in those who had placed their trust in the Lord…

And because Mdm Ho had received the gift of reconciliation with God,

We are assured that she has received the gift of abundant and eternal life…

And now enjoy eternal fellowship with the Lord…

That is the ultimate reality that all of us who had received this wonderful gift of eternal life…

Which is that one day,

We who have received the Lord will one day come back to the presence of God once again where we will rest from our toils in the world…

For Mdm Ho, that day has arrived…

Where we will no longer be bound by these temporary bodies that we are residing in…

Bodies that had been described by Paul as jays of clay,

Subject to decay, subject to illness, subject to pain,

But we will be given a new body free from all the ailments

and that is the state that Mdm Ho is enjoying right now,

no longer is she bound by the frailties of her tired body…

she is no longer limited by ailments that plagued her…

no longer will she be subject to pain, and fear, and sadness…

And that is why the death of the saints is precious in the eyes of the Lord,

because it is a homecoming…

because it is the ultimate reconciliation between creator God and created man,

where there is tangible presence of the Lord…

And friends, let me tell you another reason why we can celebrate…

Is that death cannot take away something very precious,

Which are the memories and the wonderful times that we are able to share with Mdm Ho…

We praise God for the many years that we have enjoyed with her…

We praise God for the legacy that she had left behind,

We thank God for how she has impacted each and everyone she came into contact with…

We thank God for how she was such a devoted disciple of God,

Going to church on the first day of every new year when she could…

Reading God’s words,

And I think that’s why many of her children and grandchildren are likewise such devoted disciples as well…

Serving so faithfully in so many ways…

We thank God for her infectious smiles and her chatty demeanour which I understood resulted in her conversion when she spoke to the fishmonger in the market

Indeed, she has impacted many lives and indeed the legacy and heritage she left behind is something that can never been stolen away from her…

And as her time on earth comes to a close,

As we look back upon her wonderful life,

We can recognise that she indeed lived a life that is pleasing to God

A life that brought joy to God’s heart…

A life that was precious to God,

and because of the fact that Mdm Ho is now in God’s loving presence, free from all the entanglements in this world as well as the fact that she has lived a wonderful fulfilling and God-centred life

that’s why, this morning,

we are able to focus not on what we have lost,

but on what we have gained through the victory of Jesus Christ

which far outweighs the lost…

through which we are holding on to a hope not with a question mark,

but a hope with an exclamation mark

and one that we are looking forward to the future in which we will be reunited once again…

In other words, we can celebrate because this separation we are experiencing now from Mdm Ho is not a permanent goodbye or farewell…

But more of a see you later…

It is the understanding of the truth that Mdm Ho has already received Christ into her life and because of that is alive, in God’s presence,

Described in Rev 21:4 as a place in which had no more tears, no more death or mourning or crying or pain, and because of that we can rejoice with Mdm Ho

and because of that, even though we are sad, because Mdm Ho had been such a big part of our lives, we can be comforted and celebrate… Amen.