Andrew Voigt Funeral 12 January 2018

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: John 3:17
Theme: He Came To Save

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

God is infinite compassion. He is unlimited mercy. He is unconditional love. Now, if these claims were made merely based on human speculation they would carry very little weight. Wishful thinking does not determine reality. Naive conjecture does not establish truth. But these claims are made on the basis of God’s intervention into human existence. He left the lofty heights of holiness and descended to our milieu of darkness and dissidence. Positivity cannot overcome death. But Christ can; He did. When the sun rose on Easter morning He was not in the tomb.

Andrew Voight was baptised on the 1st of April 1962. April 1st is the date for Easter this year. The resurrection of Christ was no April fool’s joke, and neither was Andrew’s baptism. Baptism is a promise God makes to a believer. But it is not a casual promise expressing mere interest or fondness. It is a holy covenant a merciful God makes with a helpless sinner. It is an unmerited, life-imparting action of the Holy Spirit. It brings the spiritually dead to life. It is the basis of the ongoing identity a member of God’s family has with the Heavenly Father.

Can the blessings and inheritance of baptism be rejected? Of course! God’s love is often spurned. The beneficiary of any estate can refuse to receive his or her allotment. But the intent of the giver is not thereby jeopardized. God never fails to uphold His oath. His attitude does not change. He does not become fatigued, confused, or disinterested. God desires at all times to give life, love, and forgiveness. Jesus reintroduced life into a dying world. The Bible says, “The LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you… ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.”1

Now, if we don’t see that we all need this life-giving love of the Saviour, then we don’t really believe that we are sinners and that we are mortal. And to us the patient Lord says, "Return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.”2 The heavenly Father is always waiting with open arms. The Scripture says, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”3 But death could not hold Him.


No one can walk in another man’s shoes. Sympathy, yes. Empathy? Well, empathy implies a shared experience and the overlap of shared experience has its limits. Mortals can resonate with the experience of other mortals, they can rejoice, they can grieve but only One, the Immortal One can truly empathise. Even those of you who knew Andrew well know that you cannot live some else’s life for them. You can advise. You can support. You can pray. And you can lie awake at night fretting, but each of us has our own journey and only God knows it fully.

Grief is a pain like no other. Who dares to tell Chantelle or Preston that they know how they feel; that everything will be okay? Yes, we may say it in a rush to offer comfort, but good intentions cannot heal raw wounds. The most striking example is that of Job. Having lost everything, his friends came to comfort him. The Bible says, “They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”4 Seven days of silence. Seven days to simply reflect on the depth of grief Job was experiencing. Seven days of respect to honour the magnitude the loss. Seven days of acknowledgement that mortality is utterly beyond human control. How long did Job grieve going forward? For the rest of his life. But he did not lose hope. He looked forward to the resurrection.

If, as Christians, we don’t believe that God can raise the dead, then we don’t believe in much that’s ultimately important. The apostle Paul says it this way, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished... But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”5 A dead Christ is no good to us. History has a long list of martyrs we can venerate. But we have a living God. Death could not bind the crucified Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.”6 Again the apostle says, “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”7 And, once more, the Saviour, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”8

Life is precious. It can be filled with laughter one day and sorrow the next. Everything is finally perishable. But, one-day God will re-create and restore. Andrew is in God’s care. He left us prematurely. God must see to it. Nothing troubles him now. Our trust rests in the magnitude of God’s love. He sent His Own Son to the cross because of His love for every human soul, Andrew included. Or comfort rests on that promise. Amen.





+ In nomine Jesu +

Funeral of Andrew Voigt
12 January 2018
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 Deuteronomy 4:31-32 2 Joel 2:12-13
3 Romans 5:8 4 Job 2:13
5 1 Corinthians 15:17-18, 20 6 John 11:25
7 1 John 5:11-12 8 Revelation 1:17-18