1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are all here today, with our various backgrounds, because we have been drawn by a common tragedy: the death of Christopher Herte, a beloved son, father, and friend. We are here because we have a single purpose. We want to share our comfort with Chris’ family struck by this tragedy. We want to remember this man who touched our lives in different ways, whose death has touched us all the same, with shock and sadness.
2. In the name of Jesus, who lived and died for us and rose again, I greet all of you who are here today. I greet you as fellow pilgrims who are traveling through this life toward a life to come. I especially greet you members of the bereaved family and friends, especially Larry and Sandy, Alyssa, Jordyn, and Mekenzie, Lynnze and Leigh. I pray that you may receive a special measure of God’s mercy, grace, and peace in these days. I know that God will grant that, for his promises are sure. I join all of you in this time to seek words of comfort from our gracious God and to remember with you, Christopher, a son, a brother, a friend, a man full of life. We are here to remember Christopher, who was a gift from God to us.
3. When tragedy enters the life of a believer in Christ, the Christian turns immediately to God and his Word, for only in the eternal love of God can understanding and comfort and strength be found. We turn to God today because he loves us forever, and we know that he alone can provide the patience, comfort, and strength we so desperately need. God alone can provide comfort in our times of sorrow because through baptism He connects us to Christ.
4. If God had no message for us in such a time of disaster and grief—if he didn’t reach out, offering us love and hope—we would be tempted to turn against God and blame him for the anguish that has come to us. I suppose when all of us heard the shocking news of Christopher’s death, we immediately asked the age-old question “Why?” Why did God let this kind of thing happen? Why didn’t he stop the process?
5. Such questions will never be answered fully on this side of eternity, because we can never understand what goes on in a person’s mind, especially in the extremity of death. In a time of confusion such as this, it is good that we not become preoccupied with God’s governance or the reasons behind what has happened. Nor should we ever assume guilt that is not ours by thinking something we said or did might have made the difference, or that something we didn’t say or do would have changed the outcome. This kind of assumed guilt is not fair to ourselves, or to the memory of Christopher.
6. Instead, we ought to concentrate on the fact that Christopher was a gift from God that was given to us, the over 40 years of his life far outweigh the event that took place a few weeks ago. Let the fact that Christopher was God’s gift fill your hearts and your minds this day. As long as you live, be thankful to God for the years that Christopher walked with us.
7. You can bear the burden of this sorrow if you remember God’s Word to us today: The Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:3, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3). When Peter wrote these words, he likely was thinking of how his readers recently had been baptized. At this moment, we think of the miraculous new birth in Holy Baptism that God gave to Christopher on November 18th, 1973, at All Saints Lutheran Church in Oak Creek.
8. Baptism says God has chosen us, and his arms are open wide to us. He takes us—sinful people that we are—and draws us into the very life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. All that Jesus did for us becomes ours in Baptism. In Baptism, God connects us with Christ, both His death and His resurrection. Now to say that Baptism “connects us to Christ” is to say that prior to our Baptism, we were disconnected from Christ. Scripture confirms this. In fact, “disconnected” might be an understatement. In Ephesians 2, Paul describes our condition prior to Christ as being “dead in our trespasses” (Eph 2:5). He also describes us by nature as being “children of wrath” (Eph 2:3)—in other words, by our very nature, as we are conceived and born, we are under the wrath of God because of our sin. To say that we were disconnected from God by our nature is definitely an understatement.
9. That’s why God is at work in Baptism to connect us to Christ. First, God connects us to Christ’s death in and through Baptism. Paul writes in Romans 6:3-4, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” We are so closely connected with Christ’s death in our Baptism, that it’s as if we’ve traveled back nearly 2000 years and are there with Christ, in the tomb with him. Dead with Jesus on Good Friday as the sun is going down and the preparation of his body for burial comes to a close for the day. And every time we baptize a child or an adult, God is at work joining that person, young or old, to the death of Christ.
10. But God doesn’t leave us in Christ’s tomb! In Baptism, just as he figuratively buries us with Christ, so he also raises us with Christ to new life. Paul writes in Romans 6:4, “in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Notice, this “newness of life” is something we are walking in right now. It’s not something we have to wait for our death to experience; we have it right here and now through God’s action in our lives in our Baptism.
11. Jesus died in our place to pay the penalty for our sins. His death counts for us. Then he rose from the dead, and he shares with us his life with God, which doesn’t stop at the grave. The new birth in Baptism is birth to a life of hope, because it unites us with Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead. That’s why Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:3, “He has caused us to be born again to a living hope.” That hope transcends this earth and fills all eternity with glory. That hope of salvation belongs to all baptized believers. God’s grace is powerful enough to forgive each of us who trusts in Christ, regardless of our circumstances. If we didn’t believe that, none of us could sleep at night.
12. Now hear this again: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Pet 1:3). These words are all the more remarkable because they were originally spoken not in days of sunshine, but in days when the persecuted Church faced darkness, suffering, and anguish. It’s a miracle of faith when an afflicted person speaks such words during a time of trouble and uncertainty.
13. God helped those persecuted believers to praise him. And he will help you say those words as you recall that God has touched you with his love through the life of Christopher at least four major times: when God gave Christopher life and he was born, when God brought Christopher into the family of his Church by giving him the new birth of salvation and the forgiveness of sins in Holy Baptism back in November of 1973 at All Saints Lutheran, when God’s Spirit led Christopher to confess Christ publicly in his confirmation vows in June of 1987 at Trinity Lutheran Church in South Milwaukee, and now, these past few weeks, when God used Christopher’s death to bring you closer to one another and to himself. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
14. We must not forget that our connection with Christ in Baptism has future blessings for us and for all Christians. Paul writes in Romans 6:5, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” There is still more to come! Just as Christ was raised from the dead, physically, bodily, raised from the dead, so will we be raised from the dead! So will all who are connected to Christ and his resurrection through Baptism.
15. This is the sure and certain hope we have as the baptized children of God. Death is not the end. Death doesn’t have the final say. Death is but a doorway into an eternal life in the presence of God with all who have gone before us and all who will come after us.
16. And with those who have gone before us into the presence of the Lord, we await that day when Christ—the one with whom we were buried and raised to new life in our Baptism—will return. He will not return in humility as he came to be with us the first time. He will come in all power, glory, and majesty.
17. On that day, our bodies will be raised, just as his body was raised. On that day, our bodies will be changed to be like Jesus’ glorious body. Our bodies will be, to quote Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, “incorruptible, imperishable, and immortal.” In other words, our bodies will no longer suffer any of the effects of sin. No arthritis, no cancer, no high blood pressure, no heart attacks. And our bodies will no longer be subject to death, for death itself, the penalty for sin, will be no more.
18. And on that day, all of humanity will stand before Christ. On that day, the books will be opened. But not to fear. Through Holy Baptism Your name is written in God’s Book of Life. Then, you will be eternally as you are today: connected to Christ. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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