Funeral Sermon for Rev. Michael D. Graham

Grace and peace to you, the family and friends of Michael David Graham, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ…

There is a story from history that says when the philosopher Democritus lay dying and unable to eat, his family begged him to hang-on a little while longer. They did not want him to die until the feast of the realm was over, so that they would have to mourn while everyone else was celebrating.

Knowing that the feast would end in three days, Democritus ordered that an oven be brought to him and that bread be baked in it so that he could smell the bread. As the story goes, Democritus was kept alive those three days by the smell of fresh bread in his nostrils.i

Alas, the earthly smell of bread could not keep Michael Graham alive any longer. Christians do not hang onto physical life as if it is the ultimate good. No amount of physical bread or nourishment could stop the piercing pain of death in this world. For as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned (Romans 5:12).

Our dear brother who lays before us was not exempt from sin, or sinning. The family provided me with some notes found on Pastor Graham’s computer concerning his funeral requests. Under the heading of “Sermon,” Pastor wrote: “Not about me. The only thing you have to say about me is that I was a sinner who deserved eternal death…”

Sinner, yes. Deserving of eternal death, yes. But look at the white pall that covers him. It’s a reminder that death is not his destiny. God’s water was poured on him. God’s cross marked him as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. Michael David is counted with those who stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palms of victory. By their baptism these Revelation-rejoicers are robed in the Holy Spirit. By HIS baptism, Michael lived in the borrowed garments of Christ’s perfection and holiness. So that the wages of his sin is death now, but NOT the final word.

Pastors wear robes in the Divine Service so as to cover up the man, making them useful to proclaim not themselves, but Christ and Him crucified for the rescuing of the souls and bodies of their parishioners. In a very real way, pastors are delivery-men who are called to put the word into people’s ears and hands. They do this because it is what Jesus did. He spoke His Words and He gave His gifts.

From the Gospel, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (6:27).

That the Son of Man…will GIVE to you. God is always giving. From the very start God gave Adam the breath of life. He gave Eve. He gave all the trees that were good for food, save one of those trees. Yet it was food that got the first couple into trouble. But it would be food that got them out. They would have to work for the food that perishes, but God gave them His Word…His promise…that the day would come when the true Food, the true Bread of Life would be given in full.

Foretastes of that food…that Bread of life, were given throughout God’s story. There was the manna, the showbread of the tabernacle, and of course the miraculous feedings by Jesus—not to mention every word that comes from the mouth of God (Deut 8:3; Matt 4:4). All good things given by God which point us to the ultimate thing given: Jesus Himself. Jesus living and dying and rising and ascending and coming again. It was Jesus who gave more than the smell of bread, He gave Himself. As Paul would say, He gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph 5:2). The sweet smell of His life given—with nails and rod and forsakenness—that Mike might be received into God’s presence, brought from death to life with Him.

“I AM the bread of life;” Jesus says, “whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst…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…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” (Jn 6:35-40).

Perhaps the hardest thing in all the world is to be “given to.” It’s impossible to TAKE what God has, it must be received. Luther would call this the vita passiva, the passive life.ii Luther knew that faith was a giving of God that makes us a completely different human being in the heart, mood, mind, and in all powers.iii And it was this given-to, passive-life that Mike lived in under the Gospel. Through the ordinary things of life and the really hard things too, like the illness and suffering that was laid upon him and you, his family…his congregation. The things that no earthly bread could sustain him thru.

But it was the Bread of Life and His word of pardon and forgiveness that energized Mike to his last. And knowing that about our brother, means that we can rejoice in how God’s passive and freely giving-gifts and life and salvation led Him to live a very active life as son and brother and husband and father and pastor and friend—and all the things we loved about him.

Fed and nourished by the Bread of Life in Word and Sacrament, in his quiet and wise way He fulfilled his vocations with faithfulness. The course that God gave him to run, he ran and has arrived at the finish line that God has appointed for Him in this life.

But Christianity in one word is Resurrection. God is not done with Mike Graham. The foretaste has been given. The Feast is yet to come.

Not only will earth and heaven be made new again, upon Christ’s return, but the bodies too of all those who have been partakers of the Bread of Life. As Martin Luther puts it, and I quote “We are to sleep until [Christ] comes and knocks on the grave and says, 'Dr. Martin, get up.' Then I will arise in a moment and will be eternally happy with Him… We shall be ‘happy with Him.’ What more can we say to the mourners and our own grieving spirits? Three little words, ‘ with the Lord,’ are all we need to know about heaven and be content!”iv

Mike is with the Lord in a new way now, and you are with the Lord too. God’s First Article gift of earthly bread can sustain your body. But you have more…you have Jesus’ promise to show up for you in the Supper today, which will one Day give way to the final feast.

As in today’s first reading: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world will shelter His church with His presence…They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore…For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

And so, as we eat today, smell the sweet aroma of Christ’s completed work for sinners like Mike Graham and also for the likes of us. And let us also long for the meal that we will share in the Resurrection—a meal where we will finally and eternally be together with the Lord Jesus— the Eternal Bread of Life. Amen.

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. PHILIPPIANS 4:7

Pr. J. Eggebraaten

SDG

i Cited in Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel, by Craig R. Koester, p. 102. For a fuller description of this story, see also Epidemics in Context: Greek Commentaries on Hippocrates in the Arabic Tradition, edited by Peter E. Pormann, 107.

ii See Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation, by Oswald Bayer, pp.42-43.

iii LW 35:370.

iv WA 37, 151; Quoted in The Theology of Martin Luther, by Paul Althaus, p.415.