Introduction

This is a funeral homily I preached at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb., on Monday, Sept. 27, 2010, for the husband of the woman whose funeral I conducted a little over a year ago. Her funeral homily was entitled Second Birth.

Readings

Ezekiel 37:1–14
Psalm 23
2 Corinthians 5:1–10
John 14:18–24

Message

One of the good four-letter words is “home.”
This word was often on the lips of Harry Gartner.
Towards the end of his life,
he spoke many times of wanting to go home, to be at home.

And in one sense, because of his hospice care,
he realized that desire,
as he was able to spend his final days
in the comfort of his own home,
receiving Janet’s care and support,
surrounded by the love of family and friends,
amid his familiar belongings,
under the same roof as his beloved Studebaker.

But in the deeper, more profound, spiritual sense,
Harry was already and always at home,
not because of where he was,
but simply because of whose he was.

Harry was a Christian,
a man baptized into the body of Christ, the Church.
And so it was for him as it is for you and me:
We are at home because our Lord makes his home with us.
As Jesus told his disciple, the other Judas,
“Those who love me will keep my word,
and my Father will love them,
and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
(John 14:23, NRSV)
This gives us great freedom, because we are not tied down.
Whether, like Harry, we live in town,
or serve our country in distant lands,
or travel for work,
or vacation in the land of winter sunshine,
we are always at home, even when we are on the road,
because our Lord is with us, no matter where we are.

And when the journeys of our lives run long,
and confront us with their bumps and detours,
including illness and disease,
then the Lord who makes his home with us
reminds us of our ultimate home security,
his loving and protecting arms.

That’s why St. Paul can tell the Corinthians and us,
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,
we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1, NRSV)

This is our sure and certain hope,
the promise God our Father has made with us,
sealed by the resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ,
poured out upon us through their Holy Spirit.

There are days when our trust in this promise
may seem vain and fragile,
our faith troubled and tenuous.
But truly, because our Lord makes his home with us,
we know the answer to the question
the Lord GOD posed to Elijah in the valley of the bones.
He asked, “Mortal, can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3, NRSV)

His own answer calls forth from the empty tomb of his Son,
from the promise of a homecoming he has given to Harry,
and from the assurance his servant, St. Paul, shares with us:
“He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,
who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” Amen. (2 Corinthians 5:5, NRSV)