Funeral homily

In the name of the triune God, amen.

Bradley Coates was a great man in this world.  Beloved husband, loving father, cherished friend, ardent benefactor of charities around the city.  Bradley Coates was a great man.

Bradley Coates was a man who understood that he was a sinner.  It was with tears in his eyes that he met with me last week proclaiming the depth of his despair.  He delineated a list of transgressions against his wife, his children, his friends and even his enemies.  Bradley Coates had discovered the blackness of sin in his heart.

Bradley was baptized in 1946 as an infant in Dublin.  When he moved to the United States as a youth, he attended Roman Catholic mass until he was old enough to leave home.  By his own admission, Bradley Coates had not been back to Church, any church, since 1964, that is, he had not returned until last week.  So many have asked me these questions: is there really a life after death, is there a heaven and a hell, where will Bradley be, and will we see him again?  These are important questions, questions that deserve answers to the best of my ability.

Let me begin with Baptism, briefly.  As an infant, Bradley was brought into covenant community with Christ Jesus.  Remember the words of our Baptism: he is marked as Christ’s own forever.  While Bradley may not have darkened the doors of any church for decades, clearly he was a repentant sinner who received absolution and the grace of God in salvation through the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross.  This is a theme on which many of you have heard me preach many times over the years.  Therefore, while his path was one lacking in the fellowship and communion of faith over the preponderance of his life, Kaitlin, you should have some assurance that Bradley is in communion with his Lord and Savior as we speak.

What of death?  If a man such as Bradley, who appeared among us in the Church so rarely can be said to have received the gift of salvation, what, then, does death matter?  Let us remember the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans: Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— Romans (5:12)

And so death is the result of sin.  Some of you might assume that death is the natural course of events.  Death is the only outcome of this life that any of us has ever experienced in others, and the only outcome that we expect for ourselves.  God said to Adam after his disobedience in the Garden of Eden: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19 ESV)

Clearly death is a penalty for sin, and Bradley knew that he was a sinner.  But is death the end?  Let us turn to the words of Christ Jesus in John.  “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36 ESV) If Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, where shall we find it?  If we are all members now of the Kingdom of God through Christ and His baptism, and His Kingdom is not of this world, where shall we find it?  Jesus says to the thief on the cross next to him who recognizes Him in His glory, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43 ESV)

There is no doubt that both the thief and Jesus Christ our Lord died bodily on that day.  And yet, Jesus speaks of being with the thief in Paradise that very day.  How can this be?  We all know what happened to Jesus, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time. (1 Corinthians 15:4-6a ESV) Jesus was bodily raised from the dead.  Can we assume that we will all follow in Jesus’ footsteps?  Is there resurrection for Bradley so that he may join our Lord? 

Let me answer with the words of Paul to the saints in Corinth:

“I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. So we do not lose heart. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 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.  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. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.  So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage. (2 Corinthians 4:13b-14, 16-18a, 5:1-8a ESV)

            Kaitlin, be then of good courage.  I believe that Bradley did truly repent of his sin and understand his need for salvation through faith and thanksgiving as given to him by the Spirit through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  I believe that he did truly receive the gift of this saving faith.  I believe that like those saints of Corinth, Bradley has been given his new house, his new body, that is eternal in the heavens.  I believe that Bradley is in paradise with His Lord and Savior this very day.  May it be that we all have that saving faith that was given to Bradley, so one day, when it is our turn, we may join also in communion with Jesus Christ in His eternal kingdom.

            Amen.

These are fictional people.  The exercise was to discuss death, resurrection and heaven in a funeral homily.