"The Lord Kept Sharon in the Faith" (Funeral sermon on Psalm 121; John 6:35-40)

Dear family members, church members, I must confess, you have an advantage on me: You’ve known Sharon a lot longer than I have. Family members--you, her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren--you have known Sharon literally your entire life. Church members, many of you have known her for ten, fifteen, twenty years or more. Me? I’ve only known Sharon for just one year. So you all have the advantage on me on that. You have a lot more memories to share with one another than I have. But, in serving as her pastor for the last year of her life, and in talking with you her fellow members of Grace Lutheran Church, I do have one very important thing about Sharon that I want to share with you today. And it is this: “The Lord Kept Sharon in the Faith.”

Yes, the good Lord kept our sister Sharon in the one true faith, through the ups and downs of her life and right until the end. This is good. This is comforting. And this is good news for all of us. The Lord keeps his children in the faith. He is committed to our care. He will stay with us throughout our life, always calling us back when we stray from him.

I’m told there were stretches, sometimes long stretches, when Sharon had strayed from the path, not showing up in church for months, even years, at a time. But God had a habit of always bringing her back. Pastor Steve Flo, Sharon’s pastor for many years before I arrived, told me yesterday that he thought of Sharon as “the Comeback Kid,” because of how Sharon would always come back to church after being gone for a while.

The Lord was always bringing her back, sometimes in surprising ways. And sometimes God used other people to help bring her back. It was exactly one year ago this week that I first met Sharon Blakely. Her good friend Judy Meyer had contacted me and asked if I would bring Holy Communion to her and Sharon at Sharon’s home. Which is what I did. That’s how I first got to know Sharon. And I would visit the two of them, Judy and Sharon, like that for the next few months.

Then, one Sunday morning, whom do I see coming through the church door when I least expected it? Sharon Blakely! She had driven to church on her own, and she had made the effort to walk in, even though she wasn’t walking very well. Well, I rejoiced when I saw that, and I thanked God that the Word and Sacrament I had shared with Sharon the last few months had awakened her desire to come back to church.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed Sharon back at church. People could see the difficulty she was having getting around on her feet. So it wasn’t too long before one of our faithful members, Starr Carroll, asked “Mrs. Blakely,” as Starr respectfully called her--Starr asked Sharon if she could pick her up on Sunday mornings and give her a ride to church. Which she did. And so you would see Sharon sitting in the pew with Starr and her kids--it was like Lizzie and Jewel got an instant grandma. And when I would see Starr helping Sharon down the aisle and up to the Communion rail, I thought what a beautiful sight that was.

Starr even started bringing Sharon to our catechism class on Tuesday nights! And Sharon enjoyed it and got into it! The last catechism class Sharon attended was in late July, right before I went on vacation for a couple of weeks. After the class, Sharon wanted to talk with me. She said she thought she might be dying soon. I told her in a lighthearted way, “Sharon, I forbid you from dying until I get back from vacation!” But I also gave her the comfort of the gospel, how we need not fear death, since Christ Jesus our Savior has won forgiveness and eternal life for us by his death on the cross and his victorious resurrection.

Well, Sharon honored my wish and did not die until I got back from vacation. And then, when it happened, it happened quickly. And so here we are today.

Now here’s the really important thing I want to tell you about Sharon’s story: The Lord kept Sharon in the faith. You see, God was committed to bringing Sharon safely home. The good Lord had put his name on Sharon when she was baptized, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That was saying, Sharon belongs to the Lord! The heavenly Father claimed Sharon as his own dear child. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, joined Sharon to himself. The blood Jesus shed on the cross washed away all her sins. The life he now lives, risen from the dead, became Sharon’s life, too. The Holy Spirit was given to her to keep her in the faith her whole life long. It was like what Sharon heard in our catechism class: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

In Psalm 121 today, we heard this wonderful promise: “The LORD is your keeper. . . . The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” This promise held true in Sharon’s life. The Lord was Sharon’s keeper. He kept her in the one true faith. Oh, she might drift away for a while, but God kept calling her back. By God’s grace, Sharon really was “the Comeback Kid.” Sharon’s eternal inheritance was kept safe and secure for her in heaven, and she was guarded by faith for the salvation that she now has entered into.

God’s Son, Jesus Christ--Jesus, who went to the cross for our salvation; who rose from the dead to give us eternal life; who will come again to raise up our lifeless bodies and restore all of creation--Jesus says to each one of us today the same promise he made to Sharon: “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Psalm 121 (ESV; spoken in unison)

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

John 6:35-40 (ESV)

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

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