1 Corinthians 15:51-57

Now I know we’ve come together with a variety of spiritual beliefs this afternoon. We come with a variety of beliefs about death and about life. Nonetheless we’ve gathered, because there’s actually a lot we do agree on: that the death of someone we love is a poignant time. Memorials are what the Celts would call “thin places,” where meaning and transcendence are so close you can almost reach out and touch them.

We’ve gathered because we’re agreed that we want to honor Mary, because we recognize that she is a wholly unique person, unrepeatable, herself. Now, Mary’s not the first person I’ve been told loved her children and her grandchildren, travelling and cooking. But she is the only person whose family has told me, “she loved gardening and she loved the casino.” And God bless her. Someone who loves to play and loves plants is someone I can enjoy.

We’ve gathered not only because we recognize this is a poignant time, not only to honor Mary, but also to seek comfort together. Tyler, David, and Sarah – and all of Mary’s family – we really are sorry for your loss. The rest of us have gathered, in large part, to assure you that you are not alone in this. You are not the only ones grieving. You are not the only ones who miss Mary, who loved her.

In these days, when we gather together to seek comfort in the face of death, I would encourage all of you to speak truly and specifically about what gives you hope. True, we have different beliefs, and we won’t all always agree. But when we shy away in generic blandness, we rob one another of some of the hope we might offer. So I would encourage you to share with one another in the coming days what you do believe about life and death and hope for the future. You never know what it is that you believe that might be exactly what someone else needs to hear.

I’m told Mary wanted to have her memorial in this church one day, so I’d like to share what we, for our part, as Christians, believe about death and hope. Really, it’s all right here in the passage I read just now: “‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

As Christians, we believe that death is the enemy, but we also believe that Jesus has conquered this enemy. In fact, we believe that He conquered death by dying on the cross. When death swallowed Jesus, He slew it from the inside. We believe that He rose from the dead, and that the same God who raised Him from the dead will one day raise us in the very same way.

As the passage says, the sting of death is sin. The worst thing about death isn’t that we’re leaving behind a perfect world – we’re not – it’s that we go to face a holy God. And when we come to death, when our last card is played, and we look back on our years, we have good reason to fear that our lives would not win God’s approval. But that’s why it says that God has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, that thanks to Jesus, death has no sting anymore: because the resurrection of Jesus is the proof that death cannot hold us if he would liberate us, and the grace of Jesus is the proof that God will not condemn us if we have confessed and committed to him.

So we believe that death is not the big man he makes himself out to be. Jesus Christ has already struck the decisive blow against him, and He will plunder death and raise the dead in the end, that all His people might live with Him forever. As theologian Ernst Fuchs wrote, “Death at the grave mocks the survivors. [He says to us] ‘Now you speak!’ And to this one must answer: ‘Love is the victor.’” Death will not have the final word. Jesus Christ, Love himself, has won, and our hope for the future, into the ages of ages, is sure.

That’s why we cling so closely to Him, why you hear us so often inviting others to draw near to Him as well. For our closing hymn, I’ve chosen a song that’s dear to me and to many people around the world: Amazing Grace. It’s a celebration of the good news that our hope rests not on our achievements or worthiness but on the love, on the power, on the grace of Jesus Christ. I invite you to sing along if you like, or to sit and listen, holding onto that gratitude for Mary and our hope for the future.

Alex Kato ministers to the sick, dying, and bereaved as the Care Pastor at Crossroads Bible Church in Bellevue, WA, and he teaches preaching at Seattle Pacific Seminary.