The Good Way to Go - Funeral Sermon for David Hill

 

David R. Hill
Born:  April 12^th, Year of Our + Lord 1944
Baptized into Christ: the Lord knows the date.
Confirmed in Christ: March 21^st, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Died in Christ: December 15^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Soli Deo Gloria – To God Alone Be Glory

 

Audio of the Sermon is available HERE. 

   To the friends, which is also to say, to the family of David Hill: Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

  The good way to go.  David Hill went the good way.  He died the good death.  Not an easy one.  David clearly expressed that his final months living on this earth were not pleasant.  Nevertheless, David’s death was a good one, and for that we give thanks. 

    David and I never got the chance to discuss which Bible readings he would like used today.  These last few months, some topics were just too hard.  I’m always happy to work with the preferences of my members and their family as we choose readings for a funeral.  But, I also like to bring up another approach, to just use the readings from the previous Sunday, or the last special holiday that the Church has celebrated.  This helps us remember that death and a funeral fit within the bigger picture of the Church’s life, that our Lord has these things under control, even if it doesn’t seem like it.  For today, that’s what I did.  On January 1^st, the 8^th day of Christmas, we traditionally celebrate the Name and Circumcision of Our + Lord, when 8-day-old Jesus was circumcised and publicly given the name that the angel Gabriel had relayed from God: You will name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.  The Name Jesus come from the Hebrew Yehoshua, or Joshua, and it simply means “the LORD saves.”  As we face the death of our friend David, focusing on the Name of Jesus and what He has done to save us seems perfect.     

    The three readings chosen for the Name and Circumcision are all about your name, and God’s Name, and how the Holy Spirit brings the two together, today by faith, and one day soon, face to face in eternity.  We know a lot about how wonderful God’s Name is, but not nearly all of it, it runs too deep.  But, one day, all who trust in the Name will know those depths. 

   David’s soul enjoys that blessing right now, and so, even as we miss him and mourn his death, we are also filled with Christmas joy, because the Child of Bethlehem has finished another soul-rescue project.  David was named and claimed by God, clothed in Christ through the the watery gift of Holy Baptism.  He was thus adopted into God’s heavenly family by faith, a life-givng connection worked by the Holy Spirit, through His powerful Word.  God’s Word is the key, the engine, the means by which God works, for our good.  He causes His Word to be printed in the Bible, proclaimed aloud, combined with plain water in Holy Baptism, and invoked over Bread and Wine as we gather at the Lord’s table to receive the Good News of forgiveness, and the life and salvation it brings, the Gospel that we even get to eat and drink.  By the power of His Word, the Lord gives faith, and a new name to each of His children: Forgiven, Beloved, Redeemed, Christian.  

   All of the saving miracles the Holy Spirit works by His Word are empowered by the kind of death Jesus died.  That’s important: the Good News of salvation is not just human words, not just a nice idea or hopeful sentiment.  Salvation is grounded in concrete historical events, things God did, and suffered, under the governorship of Pontius Pilate.  This is why I added an extra Gospel reading this morning, from John chapter 12, in which Jesus teaches His disciples the kind of death He would die.  This is a wonderful outreach text, as some Greeks, some non-Israelites, some foreigners, had heard of and were drawn to Jesus.  “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  The team effort that is usually central to true evangelism is displayed: Philip receives this request from these Greeks, and shares it with Andrew, who in turn takes it to Jesus.  What a wonderful picture of disciples of Christ working together to connect more people to Christ.  More about such teamwork later. 

    But first, before we run too far down the outreach and evangelism road, Jesus needs to reveal the heart of the matter.  Outreach, expanding the Church, saving souls, is always and essentially about one thing, empowered by one thing, made possible by one thing: the kind of death Jesus died.  He was lifted up, that is, he was unjustly convicted and nailed to a Roman Cross, suffering not just the worst earthly punishments, but also the punishment of God against the sins of the whole world.  This is the glory of the Cross, that there Jesus drew all to Himself, opening the Way of Salvation to all sinners, which is to say, to all people.          

   This story of the Lord’s salvation, running from Bethlehem to Calvary, this news of the Good Death of Jesus is what enables us to die well, and also to live well, until the day the Lord calls us home.  And this morning it is my privilege to share with you the joy that was revealed as our resurrected Lord did His work during the last months of David’s earthly life. 

   Many times over the last five years, David and I shared the same corny joke: You see, he lived in the wrong town.  Because he was David Hill, but I was the David who lived in Hill City.  Still, it was clearly good for David to live in Custer, because it was here that the Lord worked out all things for his good.  

   Here in Custer, by God’s grace and power, David lived in community.  David lived in his Christian congregation.  Here the Lord brought Christians to love David, even when he didn’t join their particular congregation.  Here in Custer, David, who in many ways lived a very solitary life, found companionship and joy.  At the library, where David read and read, and found friends who cared for him, just because.  At the senior meals at the Catholic church, on Friday evenings listening to live music at the Custer Beacon, and here in this room, and downstairs after services, God cared for David through His Word, and through the people God put around David. 

   David had plenty of regrets.  It didn’t take much to get David to complain about this or that, from years ago in his life, or from the latest injustice of the world today.  But his troubles didn’t consume him; he kept on living, kept on going to the places he could be with other people. 

   David didn’t take care of his health as well as he could have.  No doubt five years ago when we met, David should have been having cancer screening tests.  That might have lengthened his life, and improved his health.  If you, like David, aren’t taking care of your health as well as you could, I encourage you to change that.  But let us never forget, salvation is not found in pursuing perfect health.  We should take care of these bodies the Lord has given to us, but we must also remember that death is coming.  As much as I encourage you to take take care of your physical health, I’m much more concerned that you attend to your spiritual health, because those stakes are everlasting. 

   And David did attend to his spiritual health.  With the Holy Spirit’s help, overcoming his resistance from time to time, David stayed connected to God through Jesus Christ, who forgave his sins, day by day, to the end.

   Which was necessary, because David was a sinner.  He certainly made no bones about that; David was refreshingly honest about his faults.  He had doubts and struggles about what God thought of him, to the very end.  I wish that David, after he learned of his terminal cancer, wouldn’t have talked about wanting the .45 caliber pistol he used to own, so that he could end it.  I’m sure many of you heard him say the same.  And that’s not o.k. 

   I wish David hadn’t thought such things.  But, since he did, it was better for him to be honest.  It’s better for you to be honest and speak such thoughts, when you have them, so that your pastor, or some other Christian friend, can apply God’s Word to your error, your sin.  Sin that is hidden festers.  Sin in the light of day can be forgiven and washed away, by speaking the truth of Jesus, by speaking of the the kind of death He died, for us. 

   As death drew near, David struggled with past sins.  The same will likely happen to you and to me, if it isn’t happening already.  The Devil loves to dredge up old sins, and approaching death is his most powerful shovel.  But what the Devil meant for evil, God used for good.  It was my privilege to hear David speak of his sins, multiple times, hearing him confess things he was ashamed of, things he feared.  Into his doubt, each time I was privileged to proclaim:  “Yes, David, you have sinned.  But the blood of Jesus washes away all sin.  And so, in the stead and by the command of Jesus, I forgive you.”   

   The last time we talked, on the day he transferred to Hospice House, David was upset, and nervous, about moving, about dying.  I preached the Gospel again at the table in the dining room at Assisted Living, reminding him that Jesus would not leave him or forsake him, that the One who shed His blood for David would see him through.  “David, your sins are forgiven, and your future, your eternity, is wonderful, because Jesus is your Savior.”  David looked at me and said: “That’s really good.”  Yes, indeed, the very best.   

   This is what we Christians are here on this earth to do, first and foremost.  Oh yes, Christians are called to avoid sin, to flee from evil, to live lives of love and good works.  Your good works are very important to God, they are a necessary fruit of faith.  But faith doesn’t depend on our works.  Rather, saving faith clings to one thing.  Faith clings to the kind of death Jesus died, His substitutionary death on the Cross of Calvary, to pay for and wash away the sins of the whole world.  And so we Christians, pastors as the central task of their vocation, but also all Christians, should be speaking words of forgiveness, to each other, and to our neighbors, whenever and wherever the Holy Spirit provides opportunity. 

   And then, where forgiveness reigns, love follows.  This blessing has been very clear in these last few months.  On a Friday in August, I learned David was hospitalized.  I was able to stop in to see him.  Then after service the next Sunday, I headed over to the hospital again.  As I pulled up, one of our members here, Allen Canete, parked next to me.  As we headed to the ER entrance, we ran into Bob and Lisa Parsons, who were also there to see David.  Later, also in David’s hospital room, I met Cheri Hartman and her husband Mark.  And I met other friends of David at the hospital, all there to encourage him.  A couple of my members took time to tell me that David had spoken to them about his regret over selling his .45.  Members from Our Redeemer and friends from Custer, most especially Cheri, helped David transition to Assisted Living, and get out of his apartment.  His vehicles were taken care of.  I want to highlight Bobby and the staff at Assisted Living, who treated David with great kindness and respect, as they do for so many precious souls.   And all along, Christian friends were speaking words of encouragement and peace, from Jesus, to David.     

   It is a sadness to have no family at the end of life.  It is clearly painful to die of cancer.  But no matter, David died a good death, with a family that flowed from his place in this community and his place in Christ’s Church.  Many biological families fail to show the care that David received.  It has been an honor to be in the midst of all of you as you loved David to the end.  

   All of the care David received was wonderful to see.  Thank you.  But that isn’t the best part, nor the most important.  The love shared, the services rendered, the mercy shown, these were humbling for me to see.  Humbling, and awesome, because they all flowed from that most important thing: that God’s Son, at just the right time, was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those condemned by the law, so that in Jesus, we might receive adoption from God, that we might be declared sons and daughters of the eternal King.  And trusting in Christ Jesus, this is what you are.  And that is the greatest thing of all. 

   Jesus fulfilled His Name, “the Lord saves,” all the way to the kind of death He died, for us sinners.  Jesus also fulfilled this work in David’s life, for he was firmly connected to the crucified and resurrected Jesus, firmly bound to His forgiveness and His victory.  David was connected to Jesus, through His Word, through His Church, attending the Sunday service here at Our Redeemer for the last time on Dec. 7^th.  He heard God’s Good News proclaimed, and he called upon the Name of the Lord.  David took up the cup of salvation, the very Blood of Jesus, poured out for his forgiveness.  David communed with Christ and His Church one last time on earth, right over there, in the back, where we brought the Supper to him, because David was too weak to come forward to the rail. 

   On Dec. 7^th David gathered with the saints here at Our Redeemer, to be forgiven, strengthened and blessed by Jesus.  On Dec. 11^th he transferred to Hospice House in Rapid City, where, by God’s grace, his friend Lisa Parsons happened to on duty, there to welcome him.  Thank you, Holy Spirit.  On Dec. 15^th, the Lord ended his struggle and gathered David’s soul to Himself, to the heavenly congregation of all the Saints, gathered around the throne, and around the Lamb.  The good way to go, indeed.      

   As you go forth, as you live in community, as you struggle, with the injustices of life in this fallen world and with your own sins, remember the kind of death Jesus has died.  For in Him, there is forgiveness, eternal life and limitless joy, for all people, including David, and including you. 

    Finally, as Aaron blessed ancient Israel, I offer you the Benediction: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace,” in the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.