Sermon for a Double Funeral for a 33 Year Old Husband and 24 Year Old Wife, Both Died

Sermon for a double funeral for a 33 year old husband and 24 year old wife, both died in an apartment fire

Luke 13:4, 5

Matthew 11:28-30

God has promised that He would never grow the fruit of sorrow on limbs too weak to bear it.
Our corporate prayer today is that even though you may be bowed, you will not be broken.
While we gladly offer you our hearts, hands, and handkerchief, we all know that we do not have ways or words to truly take away your hurt - no “verbal magic bullet” to kill your pain.
Knowing such, we go directly and quickly to the only source of strength and support that can help in such a time as this.
We’ve had a tragedy – “we” meaning you primarily – but a wider-ranging tragedy…our church and city.
Can we be trusted with a tragedy?
Apparently, our Lord does trust us.
There is a parallel in Luke 13:4, 5. We can listen to it to lean from our losses.
Tragedy struck in the city of Siloam in what appears to be a sudden and unexpected manner which left the entire city struggling to deal with their grief.
A tower had fallen on eighteen people, killing all of them.
It appears to have been an accident. Dealing with it had pushed everyone to their intellectual and emotional limits.
Why did this happen?
Here?
Is there something wrong with this place?
With us?
Were those eighteen such bad sinners that they all deserved such an untimely, tragic death?
In verse 5 of chapter 13, Jesus says an emphatic, unmistakable NO! Ten thousand times NO!
Jesus said this is NOT punishment upon the deceased or those continuing to live.
I can
Believe that they would have liked for Jesus to have logged on to the divine data bank and handed everyone a printout detailing an exhaustive explanation of every little part of the big WHY?
If He had, do you really think that it would have removed their hurt? Reversed the realities?
Jesus, in Matthew 11:28-30 – “come unto me – learn of me…” We can learn of Him – from Him – because He was a “learner.”
Jesus Himself asked some unanswered Whys (especially on the cross.) He knew that attempting to answer all their whys was impossible. Not because He couldn’t, not because He didn’t have the answers - because they couldn’t comprehend the answers.
Something like what Job refers to in Job 26 after using all the superlatives in his vocabulary to picture God finally says: all we can know are the “edges of His ways” the “fringe of His force.”
Our perspective is not
Broad enough – no way for us to know the wide range of positive effect this will have, or how many (have touched, are touching, will get touched)
High enough – under, over, embracing
Close enough – inside them – between them and Him
Long enough – terms of time. “Cast a pebble in a pond and in an instant it is gone, but a hundred thousand ripples will roll on and on and on.”
Jesus gave a tender answer to a tough question in John 13:7. What I do, you know not, but you will know hereafter.
What Jesus did help them focus on was what they could do something about! (Verse 4 – think ye?) Learn from your losses! Have we lost (deceased)? Lost (deceased’s wife)? Go to the Ball Hill Cemetery – to the grave. Take custody of the bodies – that’s all we have. The soul and the spirit went home to the Lord. They were His anyway. They belong to Him!
Live to the limit every day! Appreciate more.
Here are words from an 85 year old gentleman: If I had my life to live over again, I’d take more chances, I’d take more trips, climb more mountains, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets. If I had it to do over again, I’d start going barefoot earlier in the Spring, and stay that way later in the Fall. I’d ride more merry-go-rounds, watch more sunrises – if I had my life to live over again… But, I don’t.
The act of dying is not really as important as the act (art) of living.
love to the limit: every day, today. You will have everything you want if you help enough other people get what they want. Do not take family and friends for granted! “Show and tell”; a pat on the back; an atta boy; an I Love You.
“Happy is the person, and happy they alone – they who can call today their own; they who, secure within can say, tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today!” Live to the limit, love to the limit.
Learn to the limit – every day
Lean that this life must be lived within limits – the “cycles of life.” What are they teaching us? “With every ending, plan a new beginning!” Plan = preparation!
Learn that there is life beyond limits! Life is like a surreal movie with an unresolved ending. “It just can’t end like this!” It hasn’t (supernatural). And, there is a scriptural sequel…”and after this!” Oh yes, there is an “after this” and an “after these things!”