Thursday, December 6, 2018

Funeral of Clarence Joppich (4 December 2018)

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

Text: John 11:25
Theme: The Resurrection and the Life

Dear family, friends, and loved ones of Clarrie; Christine, Lynn, Paul, Denise, Elizabethand especially you, Melva

Words, even human words, can be powerful. They can be devastating (“I’m sorry, your cancer is terminal”), or they can be revitalizing (Congratulations, you have a healthy baby girl!”). Still, human words are a medium with limited facility. Divine words, however, have the capacity to command and create what they convey. And those are the words we are interested in at this hour. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”1 That’s exactly what the Saviour said to Clarrie last Tuesday. Clarrie is at peace. He has been crowned with life. Jesus also said, “My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”2 And Clarrie will be there too, at the bodily resurrection on that spectacular final day. Thanks be to God for His immeasurable love!

As we reflect on Clarrie’s call to glory its fitting that we reflect on our own mortality. To do that constructively requires considering our own status before God. Words of confession are also powerful when they correspond to truth. Only particular words will prove true. When it comes to being worthy to live in God’s presence all of us must say, “I am not,” otherwise we are arrogant, naïve, or in denial. I am not sinless. I am not faithful. I am not flawless. I am not blameless. I’m not a model husband. I’m not a perfect mother. I’m not a devoted friend. I do not, and cannot, and will not ever meet the standard of holiness necessary to impress the Almighty. That cold hard truth doesn’t leave us in a comfortable position before God. Clarrie was also one of the “am nots”. He understood. Sin is no trivial or temporary predicament.

But there was One, and One only, who is not included among the “am nots”. Jesus said, “I am.” I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”3 “I am the living bread that come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.”4 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”5 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”6 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.”7

Clarrie Joppich believed those words of the Saviour. Clarrie had determination. (Some might use even stronger descriptions) Anyone who didn’t know that didn’t know him very well. He wasn’t afraid to voice his opinion. He had a passion to share God’s word, recording many worship services and other seminars and distributing them. He was a faithful attender in God’s house right up until the end. In his daily prayers Clarrie regularly offered to the Father in heaven those words given to us by the Son, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”8. God’s will has now come to fulfillment. It was not His desire that Clarrie spend another Christmas here. It was His will that Clarrie begin his eternal celebration of Easter. Like all of us, Clarrie was challenged by God’s will many times in his life. No one loses a daughter at the tender age of ten and isn’t gutted by grief.

Melva, Clarrie’s remains will be laid to rest not far from here. Undoubtedly his gravesite will become a focal point of your grieving. Legitimately so. Yet, as members of Him who is the God of the living, not of the dead9, you can be no nearer to Clarrie than when you partake of Holy Communion. In the mystery of that blessing believers share in the holy things of God unhindered by time and space. The sacrament is a meal that gives us a foretaste of eternity. It takes us to the boundary of earth and heaven. When we kneel before the altar we intrude on the easement of Christ’s kingdom. Yet, we are not trespassing, we are honoured guests, more than that, we are heirs. Clarrie was promised a baptismal inheritance. God will not disappoint him.

Dear friends, it’s often coldest right before dawn. The length of night takes its toll on the warmth of the day, draining it of its strength. Yet when the sun breaks over the horizon, the fear of night is quickly dispelled. And so, it is in our journey in this life. The shadows of our mortality lengthen, the darkness encroaches, our vitality is spent. Yet, in an instant the Son of righteousness shines upon us. The Spirit says, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperisahble.”10 And then He who is the resurrection and the life will animate us with peace and joy beyond imagination. Our resurrected bodies won’t be unfamiliar to us, but our capacity to appreciate the Holy Trinity will be profound.

I had the privilege of speaking the Word of God to Clarrie shortly before he drew his last breath. Some might say that’s the moment of truth, the end of the journey when mortality is faced with no strength or capacity to stave it off any longer. Confession, conviction, hope, fear, mystery; all are validated or eviscerated. But it’s not necessary to collapse all the drama into that point. Yes, Satan is busy casting shadows of darkness and doubt, but God doesn’t forsake His beloved in the hour of need. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”11 It isn’t necessary to collapse all the drama into that moment, because faithful Christians build immunity to the threats of Satan right throughout their baptismal live. It’s part and parcel with the Spirit’s work.

The Son of God shed His blood on the cross for Clarence Joppich, for you, for me, for every person. He cancelled our debt of sin. He rested a short time in the grave before rising to life. Believers need not fear closing their eyes the final time. In a moment we are in the brightness of the eternal day. Weakness is turned to strength, sorrow is turned to joy, sickness is replaced by health. Fear of what may lie beyond disappears in the experience of comfort and peace. In the presence of the Saviour we will be utterly in awe but completely at ease. In the presence of the Trinity we will be enthralled beyond description, but we will be fully relaxed. All paradoxes will be resolved, and all mysteries will be revealed. Let us rejoice that the Lord has called Clarrie home! Amen.

+ In nomine Jesu +

Christian Burial of Clarence Martin Joppich
4 December 2018
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 Luke 23:43 2 John 6:40
3 John 10:11 4 John 6:51
5 John 8:12 6 John 14:6
7 John 11:25-26 8 Matthew 6:10
9 See Mark 12:27 10 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
11 John 1:5

Monday, December 3, 2018

First Sunday of Advent (C) 2018

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

Text: Luke 21:33
Theme: Advent Promises

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

The One who first came in humility will come again in glory. Advent means ‘coming’. Advent is a time for preparation. It is a time for repentance. It is a time for renewal and refocus. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”1
The business of advent gets in your face and won’t be brushed aside. It’s foolish to compartmentalise the Second Coming into a separate section of your beliefs. Denial won’t distance you from the reality. The imminent return of Christ must shape, and reshape, your entire worldview.

Today the Saviour issues a clear warning about the false sense of security that can build when we become over-occupied with the busyness of this world. But complacency is not easily overcome by the re-introduction of self-discipline. Precedent is a powerful mentor. Constancy teaches the mind that things will continue to be as they always have. When the evidence seems lacking that change will come abruptly it’s difficult to stay prepared. The challenge is not unique to the current times. “Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation."2 Is the attitude of the culture any different today?

No wonder the Lord Himself is so diligent about calling us to remain spiritually sober. He says, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot-they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all- so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”3

And so, it will be in our times. Looking back, it will be said, “They were eating and drinking, not for necessity but for indulgence. They were occupied with making money, building reputations, establishing legacies; they debased marriage, practiced sexual immorality, even lost track of their gender. They devalued the life of the unborn, the aged, and the otherwise, unwanted. Some of these things they did out of selfishness and arrogance, others with high-minded intention of promoting liberty and progress, and then… judgment came. Judgment will come and woe to those who think that by their own virtue they will be able to stand in the judgment! No one is holy. Not one is righteous.

The announcement of advent is that God intervenes for the benefit of sinners. The Righteous One comes for the unrighteous. He brings forgiveness, hope, and salvation. He transforms hearts, bends wills, and changes minds. He doesn’t pass through for a visit but stays with His people. The Holy Spirit’s work never ceases in this life. He continually attends to us through the word and sacraments, not simply to educate our minds, but to cleanse our souls. Luther says it is the Holy Spirit’s work “daily to dispense forgiveness, until we attain to that life where there will be no more forgiveness, but only perfectly pure and holy people, full of godliness and righteousness, removed and free from sin, death, and all evil, in a new, immortal, and glorified body.”4 Imagine it, the life where the need for forgiveness will be obsolete! We will be freed from all the constraints, limitations, and punishments of this fallen existence. The coming Saviour promises these blessings to us. He has secured them.

Dear friends, one of the marks of our times is crisis a regarding the source and reliability of truth. The secular world has largely turned to scientism. Science has been made into an idol. But science properly understood, is just the investigation of God’s wonderful creation. Science has nothing to say about spiritual and eternal things. Nevertheless, there is much confusion. Yet, the gospel is never characterised by ambiguity. Any redefinition or reinterpretation is a falsification. The Scripture says, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”5 The Scriptures warn us regularly to be aware of false prophets and false teachings.

Governments around the world constantly employ new measures to prevent their currencies from being counterfeited. It’s often not easy to tell the difference between a fake and the real thing. The US Department of Treasury estimates there is about 70 million US dollars’ worth of counterfeit money in circulation. It’s a small percentage of the total. Since the creation of the Euro, counterfeiting has been a much bigger problem there.

The same danger faces us with the gospel. The best way to identify fake money is to know the real thing very well. Constant immersion in the Word of God is the best way to determine a falsified gospel. The Holy Spirit equips us for that task through regular contact with the truth. Anything that calls into question the integrity of the Holy Scriptures will, sooner or later, cast doubt on the teachings found therein. We’ve been seeing the results in the West for a long time now.

The gospel itself cannot be preserved apart from the authority of the Bible. People will question again, as they have in the past “Was Jesus really the Son of God? Was He able to die for my sins? Did He really rise physically from the grave? Is sin really so terrible that I face eternal condemnation for it anyway?” When niggling doubt turns to open scepticism faith is lost. Advent is a season for the renewal of faith. Today it is the beginning of a new Church Year. The One whose birth in the manger we will celebrate in coming weeks is the same Messiah who will come again in glory. He died on the cross. He rose again from the grave. This magnificent news has not changed, and people still need it- we need it- as much as ever.

The divine wrath has been appeased. The debt of sin has been relieved not by any process of negotiations or contribution from sinners. Jesus, the incarnate Son of God gave Himself, willingly, freely, and fully to atone for all your transgressions. You were washed with baptismal water, cleansing your soul from every guilt, spot, and stain. You are children of the Father, fed at His holy table. The Holy Spirit dwells in, with, and among you. He is your companion, your advocate, and your intercessor. Satan cannot control you. Death need cause you no anxiety. All of the menacing, or residual darkness and doubt of this mortal life will vanish like a shadow when the light of His immortal face beams upon you. Advent makes to us some powerful promises. Not one of them will fail. Amen.

+ In nomine Jesu +

First Sunday of Advent
2 December 2018
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 Luke 21:33 2 2 Peter 3:3-4
3 Luke 17:26-30 4 Large Catechism
5 Galatians 1:8