Funeral for Leola Bowman

Floy Leola Bumgarner Bowman

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

When Stacey asked me to come and visit Leola last month, I was a little hesitant. Out of concern for the more vulnerable members of our congregation, I haven’t been doing in-home visits. I just haven’t wanted to risk bringing something into anyone’s home that might infect them. But I put my mask on and washed my hands and headed over to the house.

We had a nice little visit. I enjoyed taking in all of the family history on the wall - all the pictures of the different members of the family…going back several decades. Leola didn’t say much. But it seemed to me that she was eager to receive Communion…so we did. And I didn’t even make her sit through a 20-minute sermon.

We prayed and I wrapped up the visit…well, after making Stacey stand outside in the cold for far too long…but there was still a lot of unanswered questions about her upcoming procedure and getting ready to start dialysis. Let me just say, watching someone close to me go through this, that I know how hard that is on your body, and I’m so sorry that Leola had to go through that.

The two Scriptures I picked for today have special meaning for those of us gathered this morning. The first lesson from the prophet Isaiah, describes how God will set right everything that has gone wrong. In Isaiah’s time, God’s people had been conquered by their foes and scattered to lands far away from Jerusalem and the temple to their God. They couldn’t go to worship the way they had been taught, and their oppressors had kept them from keeping the traditions that God had commanded and that had been observed by their forefathers.

But despite that, God has promised to make it right. And the prophet tells the people “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” And then it describes in many ways how EVERYTHING will be set right. The blind will see and the lame will hear and the mute will shout. Even deserts will get plenty of water. And for those who walk on the highway, the Way of Holiness, it will be at peace. And in my Bible, the word “Way” is capitalized. Unquestionably, this is telling us of the Messiah, who later tells his followers “I am the Way, and the truth, and the life.” Jesus *is* the Way to the Father.

The second reading I chose for today comes from Paul’s 2nd letter to the church in Corinth. You don’t have to look very hard at this lesson to see why I chose it. Listen again to how it begins: 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.

As Christians, we believe that death is not the end. As we will confess shortly when we recite the Creed of our faith, we believe that Jesus defeated death once and for all, and that because He was resurrected from the dead, all who believe will also be resurrected on the last day and will spend eternity with God.

But before we get to that time, Paul reminds us that our earthly bodies are wasting away. Some more quickly than others. And eventually that body, that “earthly tent” will be destroyed. But God has been preparing us to be with Him through what we call “the means of grace” - His Holy Word, and His Sacraments - Baptism and Holy Communion. Each time we take Communion, it is a chance for Christ to reveal himself to us once more, to remind us of what he did for us on the cross, allowing his body to be broken and his own blood to be shed, for us, to redeem us and to claim us as his own.

In that last time I had with Leola, we shared that Holy Meal together, and I was blessed to have the chance to remind her that her future was secure. And although outwardly she was wasting away, God had in fact redeemed her and that God, as Paul says, “has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come”. I am very thankful that I had the chance to share that meal with her one last time, and remind her of God’s plan for her.

And I would encourage us all to remember this too. Death is *not* the end for us. God has made certain of that. And He did so in the most selfless way conceivable: He sent His only Son to die in our place, to pay the price for the sins of the whole world. God did this for us. That is how much He loves us. That is the length He was willing to go to make sure that we would be able to be with Him for eternity. That is how much He loves Leola.

Of course you will miss Leola. It’s perfectly ok to be sad that she is no longer with us. But in the weeks and months ahead, I hope you will all remember that God has promised to make right all that has gone wrong in the world. And that means that one day we will all be reunited with those who have gone before us, “and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

God has a plan for eternity, and it is a beautiful plan. And we will see Leola again when that day comes. Of course we will miss our sister Leola, but let us all look forward to that day when we will see her again.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.