12-09 – Funeral for Kenneth James Engelhardt
December 9, 2019
Grace, peace, and mercy be yours in Jesus’ names. Amen.
How precious are we to God? How much has He given up for us? How deep is His love for us? Scripture says:
I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
Egypt is the ransom I exchanged for you.
Sudan and Seba are the price I paid for you.1
Have you ever thought about what those words really mean? We, the whole human race, we are all God’s children. We are all descendants of Adam. We are all His children. Egypt, Sudan, Seba and others are nations that were destroyed so that God’s people would be saved. Do you think it was easy for our heavenly Father to watch His children being slaughtered like locusts? They were children who had rejected Him, children who despised Him, children who hated Him, but still His children. Yet, for the sake of the faithful, for Ken’s sake, He gave them up. Those millions of people are children that God will never see again. They were left behind. What a price that was paid for we who are saved. Who are we that God would choose us over anyone else? Yet He did choose us and because He did we sit here in faith and in hope of God’s promised salvation.
That is the true wonder of our God. We are not worthy of His grace. We are guilty of sin from the very moment of our conception.2 We are soiled, sick, stained, and sin-fulled. We are not worthy of His grace, yet He still gives it. He, through His Word and Sacraments, instills in us faith. Faith that He gives. Faith through which He saves.
There are plenty of enemies around. Enemies that have no other desire than to rip that faith from your hearts and replace it with doubt and fear. They have no goal other then to watch you suffer. They come for you with weapons that hack away at your faith. For this reason our Lord teaches us to put on the full armor of God, His Holy Word. Words that are breathed out by the Holy Spirit,3 through the hands of the prophets and apostles, and brought to your ears by the reading of the Bible.
This is the same Word that I brought to Ken each time I visited. The Word that brought strength to his faith, and fear into the enemies who would try to cause his faith to falter, and allow fear its freedom. I would bring him the Lord’s Supper which was given to us by Jesus to provide strength for the soul and forgiveness to still the worried heart.
Our time here is a struggle with sin and sin’s affect. You see sin is not just those thing we do that we’re not supposed to do. Sin is everything that falls short of God’s definition of perfection. Sin is our body failing, our mind getting old, our eyes growing dim. That is all sin’s affect and not one of us can escape it. Sin is going to get you.
It got Ken. He had trouble walking, he had trouble hearing, and all sorts of other ailments. Then there was the stroke, and the pneumonia. Sin was getting him. Not just his sin. He wasn’t being punished for some heinous infraction against the Law of God. It was just sin’s affect on creation4 that was tearing him down.
Sin was getting him the same way it will get all of us. It was wearing him down. It was attacking him. It was trying to break his faith, to make him doubt. It was trying to make him give up on God and despair. As his pastor I had the privilege of bringing to him the Lord’s Supper and God’s Word. I was able to do that while the enemy the devil prowled about looking for chinks in the armor, looking for weak links where he can focus his attack.5 He is relentless and merciless, yet for those who are faithful to the end, for those who endure the trials and troubles, salvation waits. They are set free.6
Listen to the Word of God:
They were standing in front of the throne and the Lamb. They were wearing white robes, holding palm branches in their hands.7
Palm branches, why palm branches? Those who attend church here regularly have heard me explain this. Our flag of freedom is the American Flag. We wave it high on July forth to commemorate and remember our freedom. The symbol of freedom to ancient Israel was the palm branch. That is what they waved to commemorate and remember their freedom. That is why the faithful hold palm branches before the throne of God, because that is the flag of freedom for God’s chosen people.
It is the flag that we all wave on Palm Sunday. It is the flag we will all wave on Judgment Day when Christ Jesus will return. That palm branch signifies we are no longer slaves to sin and sin’s affect. Sin, death, and the power of the devil will never touch us again. The pains and problems from sin will be, at their very best, only a distant memory.8 That freedom, that kind of freedom, is found in faith. The faith given to us at our Baptism, and held in us by the Holy Spirit who dwells not just with us but within us keeping us safe.
That faith is strengthened by God’s Holy Word. Ken Engelhardt was a child of God. In the end all he had was God’s Word. He clung to those words. He believed them. I only knew Ken a short time, but I get the feeling that he was a proud man at times, a strong man. Yet before his Lord he bowed and did not question. He humbly believed. At his end, as God’s Word declares, his angles were watching over him.9 Waiting for our Master to call him home. Angels who always see the face of our heavenly Father10 and who strive to do nothing except His will and to do nothing but to ensure our safety.
We do not fight alone.11 Our heavenly Father is called the Lord God of Armies.12 He commands a battle force of warriors that fight for us. In Ken’s last hours he was weak, feeble, and powerless. Yet there standing over him was the Lord’s army. An army obeying the Lord’s command and the Lord’s answer to prayers. Prayers like those I prayed for him, asking our God to hold Ken fast in the faith given to him. Asking God to keep from him all who would cause doubt or fear.
You see Satan is as real of our God. St. Paul wrote:
We are wrestling with rulers, authorities, the powers who govern this world of darkness, and spiritual forces that control evil in the heavenly world.13
This is no game and the battle for our souls is no small matter. Yet our God reigns.14 He gives us faith. He gave Ken faith. Then through that faith given to him by God, God saved him. It was on Saturday afternoon that Jesus woke him from his sleep, removed from him the burdens of this life, and lead him safely home.
Home where he now wears that white robe of Christ’s righteousness. Where he holds high his palm branch of freedom, and eagerly awaits that day when Christ will return to Earth again, in power and in might, to raise our body’s and dwell with us forever in a place that sin will never touch again.15
That is the wonder of our heavenly Father’s love.
That is the salvation earned for us through Christ Jesus our Lord.
That is the faith held in us by the Holy Spirit.
Cherish that precious gift. Though it cost you nothing, it was given to you at great cost.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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NOTES
1Isaiah 43:3
2Psalm 51:5 – Indeed, I was born guilty. I was a sinner when my mother conceived me.
32 Timothy 3:16 – Every Scripture passage is inspired by God. All of them are useful for teaching, pointing out errors, correcting people, and training them for a life that has God’s approval.
4Romans 8:22 – We know that all creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time.
51 Peter 5:8 – Keep your mind clear, and be alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion as he looks for someone to devour.
6Hebrews 3:14 – We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
7Revelation 7:9
8Revelation 21:4 – He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There won’t be any more death. There won’t be any grief, crying, or pain, because the first things have disappeared.
9Psalm 91:11 – He will put his angels in charge of you to protect you in all your ways.
10Matthew 18:10 – I can guarantee that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father, who is in heaven.
11Matthew 28:20 … and remember that I am always with you until the end of time.
12Isaiah 47:4 – Our defender is the Holy One of Israel. His name is the Lord of Armies.
13Ephesians 6:12
14Psalm 146:10 – The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!
15Matthew 25:31-33 – When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all his angels are with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. The people of every nation will be gathered in front of him. He will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right but the goats on his left.
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