The God Of The Past, The Present, And The Future
Sermon
About A Loving God
I had an old friend once who told me, "When I go to a funeral I go to hear about a loving God." And then she added, "When it comes time to preach my funeral, don't talk about me. Just preach my funeral, don't talk about me. Just preach the Scripture and the comfort that it brings."
What comfort does the Scripture have to bring us here today?
First, it tells us that God, and God alone, is in charge of both life and death.
When it came time for Abraham to die, God promised Abraham that his descendants would inhabit the Promised Land. Though Abraham was now to lie in peace with his fathers, the world he left would have God's blessing, too.
It's no accident that the psalmist compared God's love to things he knew within the world. God is a shepherd, the psalmist said, one who made the psalmist to lie down in green pastures and to walk beside still waters.
The valley of the shadow of death in Psalm 23 was not a place the writer had made up. There was such a valley, a valley that faithful people often had to walk through to get to Jerusalem, the holy city.
God is in charge, even of that valley, the psalmist says. God is in charge of the terror and the suffering of life; he walks with us through the hard times, too. God blesses us, not just in the life to come, but in this life as well.
As I said, it's no accident that the psalmist chose everyday things to describe the Lord. It's his way of saying that we know the love and protection of God in our ordinary walks in life. We are guided through the joys and the sadness we know by a loving Savior, and though God doesn't cause the troubles we have, God is with us in our grief and sorrows.
"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies," the psalmist says. "Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows.
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
That's a promise both for * and for us. No matter what we're feeling today - and different people feel different things in the face of death - ... no matter what we're feeling, God will walk through it with us and love us in the midst of all our feelings - joy in our memories, anger, grief, despair. God will walk with us if only we will let him.
God's blessing continued with Abraham's family even after Abraham was gone, and God's blessing continues with us, even though one whom we love and care for is gone.
So the God we worship is the one God, the God of the past and present, but even more, the God of the future. Did you hear the promise of the passage from Revelation? "Then he showed me the river of the water of life," the passage says, "bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ..."
That river passes through the center of a city, Scripture tells us, and beside that river is the tree of life, which yields twelve kinds of fruit, a tree with leaves meant for the healing of the nations.
"There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him," Scripture says.
So God is the God, not just of the past and present, not just of those who sleep with their fathers and of those who are now striving in the world we know today, but God is the God of the future. Finally, God will turn all things around, and all faithful followers will spend eternity in worship of the one true living God.
Rudyard Kipling said it well in his poem "L'Envoi":
"When Earth's last picture is painted, And the tubes are twisted and dried, When the oldest colors have faded, And the youngest critic has died,
"We shall rest, and, faith we shall need it - Lie down for an aeon or two, Till the Master of All Good Workmen, Shall put us to work anew.
"And those that were good shall be happy: They shall sit in a golden chair; They shall splash at a 10 league canvas with brushes of comet's hair;
"They will have real saints to draw from - Magdalene, Peter and Paul; They shall work for an age at a sitting, And never be tired at all!
"And only the Master shall praise us, And only the Master shall blame; And no one shall work for money, And no one shall work for fame;
"But each for the joy of working, And each in his separate star, Shall draw the thing as he sees it; For the God of Things as They Me!"
And so we commit our friend * to the God who turns all grief around; the God of the past, the present, and the future; the God to whom we commit ourselves, as well.
"Let not your hearts be troubled," Jesus told his disciples as he, too, was about to go away, "believe in God, believe also in me.
"In my Father's house are many rooms ...
"And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may also be."
Take hope in that, and find your comfort in the living God.
Let Us Pray
Almighty God, we thank you for the life of ** and for the memories we have today. We thank you for the promise that you, and you alone, are God; that you are the God of the past, the present, and the future; that if we ask you, you'll watch over us.
Lord, as we go to say good-bye to *, help us find comfort in one another and in you, and help us walk with you both now and always.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
*Person's first name
**Person's full name
What comfort does the Scripture have to bring us here today?
First, it tells us that God, and God alone, is in charge of both life and death.
When it came time for Abraham to die, God promised Abraham that his descendants would inhabit the Promised Land. Though Abraham was now to lie in peace with his fathers, the world he left would have God's blessing, too.
It's no accident that the psalmist compared God's love to things he knew within the world. God is a shepherd, the psalmist said, one who made the psalmist to lie down in green pastures and to walk beside still waters.
The valley of the shadow of death in Psalm 23 was not a place the writer had made up. There was such a valley, a valley that faithful people often had to walk through to get to Jerusalem, the holy city.
God is in charge, even of that valley, the psalmist says. God is in charge of the terror and the suffering of life; he walks with us through the hard times, too. God blesses us, not just in the life to come, but in this life as well.
As I said, it's no accident that the psalmist chose everyday things to describe the Lord. It's his way of saying that we know the love and protection of God in our ordinary walks in life. We are guided through the joys and the sadness we know by a loving Savior, and though God doesn't cause the troubles we have, God is with us in our grief and sorrows.
"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies," the psalmist says. "Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows.
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
That's a promise both for * and for us. No matter what we're feeling today - and different people feel different things in the face of death - ... no matter what we're feeling, God will walk through it with us and love us in the midst of all our feelings - joy in our memories, anger, grief, despair. God will walk with us if only we will let him.
God's blessing continued with Abraham's family even after Abraham was gone, and God's blessing continues with us, even though one whom we love and care for is gone.
So the God we worship is the one God, the God of the past and present, but even more, the God of the future. Did you hear the promise of the passage from Revelation? "Then he showed me the river of the water of life," the passage says, "bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ..."
That river passes through the center of a city, Scripture tells us, and beside that river is the tree of life, which yields twelve kinds of fruit, a tree with leaves meant for the healing of the nations.
"There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him," Scripture says.
So God is the God, not just of the past and present, not just of those who sleep with their fathers and of those who are now striving in the world we know today, but God is the God of the future. Finally, God will turn all things around, and all faithful followers will spend eternity in worship of the one true living God.
Rudyard Kipling said it well in his poem "L'Envoi":
"When Earth's last picture is painted, And the tubes are twisted and dried, When the oldest colors have faded, And the youngest critic has died,
"We shall rest, and, faith we shall need it - Lie down for an aeon or two, Till the Master of All Good Workmen, Shall put us to work anew.
"And those that were good shall be happy: They shall sit in a golden chair; They shall splash at a 10 league canvas with brushes of comet's hair;
"They will have real saints to draw from - Magdalene, Peter and Paul; They shall work for an age at a sitting, And never be tired at all!
"And only the Master shall praise us, And only the Master shall blame; And no one shall work for money, And no one shall work for fame;
"But each for the joy of working, And each in his separate star, Shall draw the thing as he sees it; For the God of Things as They Me!"
And so we commit our friend * to the God who turns all grief around; the God of the past, the present, and the future; the God to whom we commit ourselves, as well.
"Let not your hearts be troubled," Jesus told his disciples as he, too, was about to go away, "believe in God, believe also in me.
"In my Father's house are many rooms ...
"And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may also be."
Take hope in that, and find your comfort in the living God.
Let Us Pray
Almighty God, we thank you for the life of ** and for the memories we have today. We thank you for the promise that you, and you alone, are God; that you are the God of the past, the present, and the future; that if we ask you, you'll watch over us.
Lord, as we go to say good-bye to *, help us find comfort in one another and in you, and help us walk with you both now and always.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
*Person's first name
**Person's full name
