“Heart Trouble” Judy Rucks John 14.1-14 committal sermon…10-6-17

1.       Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Dear family and friends of Judy & Phyllis, may Jesus our Good Shepherd comfort you in his loving arms and give you His help in your time of need.  May you know that because Jesus died and rose again from the dead, all who believe in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.  This is the faith that Judy and Phyllis believed in.

2.       For those who knew Judy they would say that “she fought the good fight, she finished the race.”  Especially with all her years of fighting against MS.    The words of St. Paul from 2 Timothy 4:7 come to mind, “7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. “  Back in 2013, Judy fought off death when she had a severe heart attack.  And yet, in the midst of Judy’s battles against her illnesses, she always managed to keep a smile on her face and keep a good attitude.  Judy was truly a wonderful woman who showed true patience in the midst of suffering.  Her family remembers that she was slow to speak and quick to listen.  She loved to read and take care of her dogs and other animals. Judy was also active with her children, Brad and Kim.  In her younger years, she would work with the horses in the summer with Kim, and be present at Brad’s sporting events.  Judy was also someone who showed what it means to be content with your present situation in life.  As her Pastor these last three years, I looked forward to seeing Judy’s smiling face and her desire to confess her sins and receive from our God in Jesus Christ forgiveness for her sin.  Judy also showed a desire to receive the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis, because she knew that in receiving our Lord’s body and blood she received the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation that Jesus promises to all who receive His sacrament worthily. 

3.       But, those of us who are gathered here today know that all wasn’t well with Judy.  Her heart and her whole body were shutting down.  Judy knew that this was because of the effect of sin that all of us have.  St. Paul writes in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” She knew that Jesus was her only cure and payment for her sin.  Heart trouble! That was Jesus, our Great Physician’s diagnosis of what really distressed His disciples in John chapter 14. He had just told them that He would soon leave them and they couldn’t follow where He was going. The thought of separation after many months of close companionship, especially after this night of fellowship with Him, was a source of grief and pain to them.  That’s what we’re feeling right now as well, as Judy and Phyllis have died, and we know we can’t see them while we’re still on this earth.

4.       The disciples’ hearts were troubled. And so, in His infinite wisdom and compassion, Jesus chose words to soothe their sorrows and silence their fears. Martin Luther says of the words we’re about to read: “Here we find the best and most comforting sermon preached by Christ while on this earth … a jewel and treasure not purchasable with the world’s goods” (AE 24: 7). May God grant us believing hearts that this treasure, which can’t be purchased with gold and silver, may be ours by simple, trusting faith.

5.       Jesus says in John 14:1-14, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”

6.       Heart trouble! Who among God’s children hasn’t had his share of heart troubles! Who among us hasn’t had his share of anxious, trying hours; hours of sickness, hours of death; sleepless nights; lonely hours; moments when that lump in our throat began to swell and that teardrop in our eye refused to be hidden; hours when our debts seemed greater than our God, when our enemies seemed closer than our Savior; days when our heart was troubled, and we cried to God for help.  No doubt, Judy and Phyllis faced times like these, just as we are right now dealing with their deaths.  But, our Lord doesn’t leave us as orphans to deal with sin, death, and the devil all to ourselves.

7.       It was then the divine prescription of our Savior for hearts in trouble provided the only healing cure. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says. But He also tells us why: “In My Father’s house are many rooms…. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.”

8.       All sorrows, heartaches, and disappointments, all griefs, and heart troubles lose their bitterness in the sweetness of our Savior Jesus’ promise: “I will come again.” I will come again to turn your sorrows into joy, your heartaches into gladness, and your griefs into heavenly reunions in My Father’s house above.

9.       In the healing light of that heavenly assurance, Jesus our Great Physician has given us the cure for all our griefs and sorrows. He whose love brought Him to Calvary’s cross to open the doors of His Father’s house to a world that had rejected His every pleading—He will come again to lead us, His children, across the threshold into the eternal mansions, prepared by Him for all who love Him. What a glorious promise!   Jesus reminds us also in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”  Let us find daily strength and joy in that blessed assurance.  Amen.

10.   Prayer—O Lord, give to the family of Judy & Phyllis and to all who mourn comfort in their grief and a sure confidence in Your loving care that, casting all their sorrow on You, they may know the consolation of Your love.   Give courage and faith to the Rucks family, Lord, that within the fellowship of Your Church they may have strength to meet the days ahead in the assurance of a holy and certain hope and in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love who have departed in the faith.  Help us, O Lord, we pray, in the midst of things we can’t understand, to believe and find comfort in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  Receive our thanks for Judy & Phyllis and for all the blessings You bestowed on them in their earthly lives. Bring us at last to our heavenly home that with them we may see You face to face in the joys of paradise.  Finally, O God of all grace, You sent Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to bring life and immortality to light. We give You thanks that by His death He destroyed the power of death and by His resurrection He opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Strengthen us in the confidence that because He lives we shall live also, and that neither death nor life nor things present nor things to come will be able to separate us from Your love, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.