This was my final Introduction to Preaching sermon, an occasional service sermon based on 1 Peter 1:3-9. In my case, a funeral sermon, preached as if I had delivered the homily for a 2-year-old girl I wrote about, many years ago, who died of leukemia. Rest in Peace, Chelsea.
We gather here today, filled with a mix of emotions. Mostly sadness and a collective community grief, for Bob and Kim and their families and friends. We had hoped things would turn out differently.
• We had hoped that Chelsea’s leukemia would have stayed in remission.
• We had hoped that the bone-marrow transplant would have taken.
• We had hoped that this beautiful, blonde-haired toddler would not have left us so soon.
Perhaps you have other emotions, too. The disbelief that Chelsea is really gone, that so many dreams for her future will never transpire. That mix of pain, confusion and anger that wells up when we try to understand why little children get cancer or die under tragic circumstances. The wonder of this family’s faith, that they asked that today be a celebration – a celebration of the birth of their daughter into everlasting life, rejoicing in the midst of their mourning.
No words or ritual today are going to remove or resolve the many conflicting emotions present within us. And I want to reassure you – all of these emotions are OK. Not only OK, but holy as an outcome of our love for one another. Our sadness, our pain, our anger, our questions, and even the joy and laughter when it bursts through the others. Grief is a strange visitor: quick to arrive, and oh, so VERY slow to leave. The best any of us can do is capture the communal longing, the breadth of concern for the Hodous family, and share in the hope we have in the good news of Jesus Christ.
There’s a reason that this text, read on many Easter mornings, is also read at memorial services. All of our emotions stemming from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are lifted up in this passage -- the suffering, the testing, mixed with our joy in our daily life together and eternal life to come. This letter was written to encourage groups of new believers as they dealt with trials and persecution in their communities in the latter part of the first century.
“In this you (not just you, but ‘y’all,’ the entire community) rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials…”
Trials. We’ve all read about the trials this family has been through, the trips to Phoenix Children’s Hospital for the diagnosis, the two times remission was achieved and then slipped away, the encouragement that Ryan’s bone marrow was a match, and the trip to the Mayo Clinic. Faith communities all over the Verde Valley prayed for Chelsea’s healing continuously for 14 months.
Never once did I hear Bob or Kim utter a “Why, us?” or “Where is God in this?” Bob and Kim testified that God was right beside them and their daughter every minute of her illness. Our God who knew the suffering of a child, who felt Jesus’ tears and pain, who shuddered at the cruelty of Jesus’ crucifixion. That same God was present at Chelsea’s birth, was in the room during every test and procedure, and was right beside them as Chelsea drew her final breath. And God is present with us now, helping us to deal with the paradox of grief at Chelsea’s death and rejoicing at her homecoming with Jesus.
None of us in this room has been face to face with Jesus. We have only our beliefs and our imagination of what that day will look like. Yet, by turning Chelsea’s memorial today into a brightly colored celebration of her birth into new life, they have modeled a Living Hope, a trust that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foretelling of the new life Chelsea and all of us are promised.
So, while our hearts are broken today as we gather with this family, we can share that Living Hope. And today, or perhaps in the days ahead, God’s Spirit will help guide us all through the mourning to joy in the hope we share in Jesus Christ. Or as today’s reading concludes: “Although you have not seen Jesus, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Amen.
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