Nicole's Funeral

Prelude

Good afternoon and welcome. Today we remember the life of Nicole Twigg while we mourn her recent death. Although death is common and is something we all will face ourselves one day, it is no easier for us to deal with when we see it before us. That being the case, it is a time when grief and a sense of loss are necessary as we overcome the painful reality of death. However, that does not make death hopeless, and indeed in Nicole’s case we know it certainly is not hopeless. While on the outside it may seem like death won the day, in reality Jesus Christ defeated death for Nicole when he rose from the grave. When she embraced him by faith, she recieved his victory over death and just as he rose from the dead, she too will rise in him. This is true for any who come to him in faith.

That being the case, we indeed mourn today, but we need not mourn as those who have no hope. Nicole passed from this life into what is true life in Christ. She rests in the arms of a loving Saviour, and it is to him that we must turn our sorrow today in faith that every tear may be wiped from our eyes in due time. We are reminded of this hope in our opening hymn, In Christ Alone.

Introduction

Today we gather to remember Nicole Twigg, to embrace the healthy stages to grief, to celebrate her life, and to remember the reality of death. Nicole was person more full of life that many, perhaps more full of life than most people still alive today. Her willingness to get involved, to know and understand, to impact people’s lives showed more of a flare of life on a consistent basis than many have for their whole lifetime. And so it is even more bitter, even more unexplainable, when her life was taken shortly after she seemed to be recovering from her battle with cancer. If death can take someone so full of life as her, what hope do the rest of us have?

Thankfully, we are not without hope. Our text today comes from the Gospel of John 11:25-26.

“I am the Resurrection and the Life”

In this text is one of the most hopeful and helpful passages for us in such a time as this. Martha, the sister of Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus who had just died, mourns the question that often comes up as we deal with the difficulty and sorrow of death, “if only.” If only Jesus had been there, if only I had said this or done that, things would have been better. Jesus’ response to these thoughts is the encouragement that he would rise again. But lest we should think that this rising is something we can pull off by ourselves, Jesus connects himself with this promise and makes himself the hope. This does not make Christ’s words unfeeling or lacking in compassion, because later in verse 35 we read that, knowing he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, Jesus wept. Jesus’ words don’t take away the darkness of mourning and loss, but it does provide a hope at the end of it, a beam of sun on a horizon of hope.