Don Carver Funeral Sermon (January 5, 2023)
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
Revelation 7:9-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; John 11:7-27
Don Carver Funeral Sermon
January 5, 2023
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting, that is, eternal life in the next world to come, after the Last Day, is what we confess in both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. This is what the universal Church, the Church Catholic has confessed for over 1700 years. The Creeds are, of course, not in the Bible but they are formal statements that summarize the Christians faith. They are simple creeds. They confess the faith taught by Holy Scripture.
Next to the doctrine of Justification, which teaches we are justified—made righteous and holy by God—by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and other teachings such as the Holy Trinity—that God is three Person in one God—and the Incarnation—Jesus is God and man in one person, the Resurrection of the body and Life Everlasting is just as important and crucial to our Faith. Whenever we gather here for worship or whenever Divine Service is held, whether that is here in this church building or even at the Vinton Lutheran Home, we confess the Resurrection of the Body as something that will happen at the last.
The Resurrection of the Body, the resurrection of this body, Don’s body, these bodies, is just as comforting as being declared sinless and righteous because of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. If we did not believe and confess the Resurrection, if there was no Resurrection, there would be no hope for us. Death would still have power over us. The grave would still hold its victory. Even now, on this side of the Last Day, it still seems as though this is the case. But we must not be afraid. Yes, we mourn. For there is a time for everything. But there is also time, even now, to mock the devil and to mock death because Jesus lives. He has been raised from the dead. Because Jesus lives, so will Don. So will we.
The Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting is foreshadowed, quite a bit in Holy Scripture, whether it’s by Christ’s miracles, or St. Paul’s letters to the Church, or even the Apostle John’s vision in Revelation.
Jesus says that He is the Resurrection and the Life. He says this to Martha because her brother, His friend Lazarus, died. In John’s Gospel we read, “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ But when Jesus heard it he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.’ After saying these things, he said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’”
The Lord’s own resurrection is foreshadowed in Lazarus being raised from the dead. John continues in his Gospel, “Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’”
Then of course, as many of you know, Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb and out he came, alive.
Jesus has power over death and the devil and we see a glimpse of this in Lazarus being raised. So the question becomes, as Jesus asks Martha, I ask you now, “Do you believe this?” Do you believe in the resurrection of the body? Don has died but he will live and even now is given eternal life. Do you desire to know what is required in order to be granted eternal life? Do you want to know? If you must know, it is faith. It doesn’t matter if you think you’re good enough or nice enough or worthy enough. It is faith. Faith in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who has taken up your flesh and become a man, who has redeemed you, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won you from sins, and from death, and from the power of the devil. He did not win you with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. This is the faith of the Christian Church. Do you believe this?
Because Don did. He believed it. He confessed it. He taught this very faith to his family. All men will be raised on the Last Day, but only those with faith in Jesus Christ—the faith confessed by Don throughout his life, even in these last waning years when his health was failing him—only those with this faith, the belief that Jesus Christ loves sinners and calls them to Himself, will be given eternal life.
As the hymns says, “Death is just a gloomy portal.” And so it is that death is how God calls His saints home to Him. We receive a foretaste of heaven in the Divine Service, to be sure, but through death, our perishable bodies will put on the imperishable and we who are mortals become immortal. For the trumpet will sound on the Last Day and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will all be changed. Then, says St. Paul, shall come to pass the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” Come the Resurrection of the Body, we will mock death, even as we can now in this fragile state. Because just as death no longer has power over Christ, it does and will have no power over us who have been baptized into Christ.
Thus, it is fitting to hear Jesus’ words from John, chapter 11, “Your brother, your father, your grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend, Donald Alvern Carver will rise again. For I am the Resurrection and the life.” Says Jesus. “He who believe in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Now as a quick aside, I want to tie two last things together that I was told about and experienced while meeting with Don’s family over these last few days. The first, it’s mentioned in the obituary, but his daughters also mentioned to me a few times that one of the greatest gifts that their father gave to them was instilling a love of Jesus Christ and bringing them to this place so that their faith would be strengthened.
The second thing is that I have been told by the family and even witnessed it in conversation and observation is that one thing that was always commonplace in the Carver household was laughter. “There is a time for everything,” writes King Solomon in Ecclesiastes. Now is certainly a time for mourning and sorrow. However, I’m sure that there will still be much laughter, even as we can laugh at death and the devil today. Because even though Don died, yet, does he live. Because he lives with Jesus.
Now you might ask, “How are these things related?” Well, it really is obvious. St. John writes in Revelation of this great multitude, which he sees standing before God and before the throne in heaven after the Last Day. John writes, “Therefore, they—that is, those who have died with faith in Jesus Christ—are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and (notice this) God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” God will wipe away every tear away from the eyes of those who have died with faith in Him. So in speaking of laughter, it would be reasonable to say that since they are not suffering or crying or weeping anymore, instead they are joyful; they are happy; they are praising God; they’re laughing. Their laughter fills the heavens evermore because they are with Jesus.
This is what awaits us. Do you believe this? This is what awaits the faithful—those who have faith and are baptized into Jesus Christ. It’s where Don is now and it is where we hope, one day, to be.
In +Jesus’ name.
