Separation

She went from an active busy person quietly serving the Lord Jesus in this congregation to a person dreadfully ill, gradually robbed of motion, speech and finally life itself.

Gail has nothing more to get out of this life, and that marks one kind of separation from us.

It is easy for us to become separated from each other too.

We get wrapped up in our own activities and worries, and gradually, or maybe suddenly, go our own ways.

And we are prone to separation from God as well.

That is the definition of sin.

every one of us is busy saying to God “I don't need you; I will do it all my own way.”

Thus far all of this is bad news:

separation from Gail, from each other, and from God.

But the reason that we are together in this place is that the separation which we know is not the end of the story, but merely one chapter in it.

Paul firmly proclaims in our Second Lesson today that the basic relationship is not broken.

He says that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

When he says to Gail and to each of us baptized in the name of Jesus,

I love you; you are mine,

it is a promise that does not fade away.

To borrow the lines from the prophet Isaiah today:

I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

It is true forever, because there are no conditions attached to it by God.

Jesus does not say that his word is good so long as we are beautiful, witty, pleasant, or even just as long as we are breathing!

It is an unconditional promise which he makes: he intends to hold onto us forever.

And what a difference that makes in the other relationships which we thought were irretrievably broken also.

If the Lord Jesus continues to hold onto Gail and each of the baptized, then our relationships with Gail and each other continue also,

through God's power and not our own limited resources.

One of the key times for us to experience this is when we gather at the Lord's table.

Gail is now full-time at the heavenly end of this banquet table.

We join with her each time we come to te Communion rail to be renewed in Christ's body.

Not long ago Jane and Kathy brought that reminder and promise to John and Gail, and we all share in it again today.

Even though we may drift away or sometimes run away from each other or from God,

the Lord says, “Hey, wait! I'm not giving up on you.

I have adopted every one of you by Baptism into my family.

You are mine, and therefore you are brothers and sisters to each other, forever.

The icon that we have in front of us at the time of a funeral reminds us of this powerful truth.

Jesus breaks down the gates of death and reaches out to lift up Adam and Eve (representing all of us), and restore us to his side.

Death's power is finally and fully broken in the resurrection of our Lord.

I will not leave you orphaned, Jesus says in John's Gospel today.

I will not leave you unconnected to me or to each other.

I am the vine and you are the branches, he says in another place in John, connected to Christ Jesus and therefore connected to each other for living and bearing fruit.

Now we see it that the time of a funeral is not so much to focus on the precious things we have lost in the death of Gail,

but rather to focus on the even more precious things which continue;

for nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That is what we hold tightly when other things come to an end.

One of the wonderful things which John and various care-givers and friends did to keep Gail engaged with us was to look at photos and remember the trips and adventures that John and Gail have shared over the years.

And even when she could not speak very much, she could smile and remember the connections with so many other persons and events.

With that in mind, some might say that a funeral is a time to talk about connections broken, a time to say goodbye.

But that is not quite the right word.

Goodbye is a contraction of the phrase God be with you; it is a wish.

Goodbye is a wish, and for Gail it is not a wish but a certainty.

We really need to invent a new word which says what we mean this day:

God is with you.

A certainty: God is with you, Gail, John, family, friends, and all the baptized.

God is with you, and nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.