Monday, March 21, 2016

Funeral Sermon for Joan Kitzman Monday March 21, 2016

Title: In Steadfast faith Christ’s Love Endures Forever
Text: Psalm 100 or “Joan’s joy!” As it will be for me from now on.

100 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Dear friends, family and loved ones of our beloved Joan,

It is difficult, at times like these, to be joyful and glad in the presence of the Lord. But in the midst of sadness we can and will sing praises to our loving God for the Christian life of our dear Joan.

“You tell the people back at Peace that I’m praying for them!” Those words Joan shared with me many of times on our visits where I would come, talk, laugh, and bring her the Lord’s Supper. Whether in the hospital, in rehab, or in her home, this wonderful mother, grandmother, and dear Christian friend, was committed to those she loved and to her Lord.

My dear friends, Orville and Joan Kitzman and my wife Monica and I were received into membership here at Peace together on November 11, 2001.

I’ve now had two funerals that I’ve been able to proclaim that at. What a blessing that has been for me over these last 15 years. To know the Kitzmans … is to know Jesus. Not that they were without blemish or fault, or were sanctified beyond measure to a point of great holiness … far from that for we who knew them. But that Jesus Christ was the center of their joy and life and for Joan, over these last three years, her smile, comfort, and peace, reflected Jesus to everyone she saw.

For me as a pastor, Confirmation is a joyful time. We get to see our students or Catechumens as they are called, confirm what the Lord had done for them in their Baptism, in front of the congregation. They have been taught, and instructed in the Christian faith, and now it is time for them to confess what they believed.

For a pastor the Rite of Confirmation begins:

“You have been baptized and catechized in the Christian faith according to our Lord’s bidding. Jesus said, “Whoever confesses me before men, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.” Lift up your hearts, therefore, to the God of all grace and joyfully give answer to what I now ask you in the name of the Lord.
And then just before the student’s confirms their Christian faith the pastor asks:

“Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all … even death … rather than to fall away from it?”

Well, way back in February of 1959, as a young adult in her early 20’s, Joan answered to that very same question: “Yes, with the help of God.”

Joan was a wonderful testament to the working of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer – her steadfast faith in Christ was evident to all.

The psalmist tells us what the life of the believer consists of:
3 Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, [you and me] and we are his
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Joan loved the Lord because the Lord first loved her. It was Christ himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit, who called her to faith and it was Christ in her that kept her in that one true faith … through marriage, children, grandchildren and illness; especially the trial of Orville’s illness and dementia over the last years of their marriage and family life together.

Joan said to me as I visited with her, “I guess I didn’t see some of the signs and problems associated with Orville’s illness. I guess, I was blind to it.”

That is what love is as Paul reminds us.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing … but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Cor. 13:4-7

Joan kept that love close to her heart because she knew that God’s love for her and for Orville, despite the illness and even death … never wavers.

Joan carried the love of Christ in all she did, as seen in the pictures of her life, especially with her children and grandchildren that she was so proud of!

But it didn’t stop there, her love was given to all she came in contact with, and that too includes us here … the members of her church family … and also the many friends she had including these two pastors who had the pleasure to see her and visit her.

I had the joy of seeing Joan with Pastor Merrell and our wives on March 1st. It was a time for farewell.

God comforts us … as we go to comfort others.

Joan wanted this service to be joyful and to not simply be about her but to be about Jesus Christ in her.

As things got worse for Joan from the hospital to her home and as her illness progressed she said to me, “I’m ready to go and be with Jesus and have asked him to take me home … but he keeps leaving me here.”

Jesus says:

7 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27-28

I had an opportunity to bring the Lord’s Supper to Joan on a number of occasions and to anoint her with oil as a reminder of the Holy Spirit, who lives and works in and through her. She loved the fragrance of the anointing balm of frankincense and myrrh. It brought her great comfort and I once again got to anoint her two days before the Lord called her home. She remembered me … which was nice … but more importantly the Lord always remembered her.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Today we honor Joan’s life, as we say our goodbyes. But, the grief that fills us all with loss and sorrow who knew her as beloved relative and friend will one day be replaced with our blessed reunion in heaven for all who believe.

Our loving God in Christ Jesus will wipe away every tear of sadness that we have today and in that day replace them with tears of joy, as we together rejoice in Heaven with our resurrected Lord who has come to conquer sin, death and the power of the Devil – not only for Joan - but for you and for me as well and for all who name the name of Christ!

In Christ, death is not the end for we who cling to the blessed hope. But, it is only a time of parting … for a while.

5 For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness [is] to all generations.

Heaven is now Joan’s home

You too, who trust in Christ, have this home waiting for you. The blessed Good News that Jesus died for your sins - is the wonderful Easter message Joan trusted and you too can trust. He has taken your sins to the cross and has called you to faith by the Gospel of his glorious resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit, and has given you eternal life in Christ’s blessed saving work.

There is a place that has been prepared for Joan that she has now taken possession of and there is a place waiting for you too and for all who believe by faith the Good News that:

In Steadfast faith Christ’s Love Endures Forever

Amen.




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