SUMMARY
In a moving service of remembrance, Karl invites the congregation to bring their grief honestly before God, drawing on James 5 to remind us that a trembling prayer is still a prayer, and that God makes room for our sorrow. Pointing to the endurance of Job and the promises of Revelation, the sermon anchors our aching hearts in the compassion and mercy of a God who sees every tear and has promised to make all things new. Together, as a community of faith, we strengthen our hearts by remembering those we love, trusting them — and ourselves — to the same faithful, merciful God.
TRANSCRIPTION:
You know, there are days when an empty chair speaks louder than just about anything else, doesn't it? We come to worship and we remember who used to sit in that empty chair. We hear a song, and we can almost hear them singing. Someone says something funny, usually the preacher. And we laugh as we do, and we think of how they would have laughed as well.
Today we make room for those memories, those reminders. We remember the people that we have loved and who have loved us, people whose lives have been woven into the fabric of our own. And we give thanks for them. And we acknowledge to God our grace, our gratitude, and how much we miss them. Because I know in a room like this, some of us come carrying a loss that's pretty fresh, that wound that still feels deep.
Others have been living with an absence for years. And grief can be a funny thing. Can't. Can surprise us. We can do pretty well for a while.
And then all of a sudden, a song comes on or a photograph we come across. Maybe it's just a smell or a sound or just an average Tuesday. And we remember. It brings it all close again. And into that time, into those experiences, we hear the words of James, who told his church, strengthen your hearts.
Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. We've been spending a lot of time in the book of James this last month thinking together and about building a resilient faith and how that resilient faith is the kind that endures through the pressures and the difficulties that come with life. And so today, those lessons hit especially close to home, don't they? I mean, what does resilience look like when you've lost someone that you love? What does it mean to strengthen our hearts when our hearts are still hurting?
Well, James gives us a place to begin. In fact, he tells us he invites us to remember those who have endured, to live faithfully alongside one another, to encourage one another to. And to place our hope in the great compassion and mercy of God. James points the church to those that came before them, to the prophets, and even to Job. He asked them to remember those lives of faith and those lives that endured suffering.
And we need those examples, don't we? I mean, most every single one of us have learned about trusting God by watching someone else do it in real time. Maybe for some of us, it was a parent or a grandparent whose prayers kind of were the soundtrack of our experience growing up in our home. Now, for others of us, it may have been a Sunday school teacher or another trusted friend at church who knew our name. And they knew how to make us feel welcomed, like we belonged.
For some of us, it was a friend, maybe a friend at school or a friend at work, who was going through a really difficult season, yet still somehow found a way, found the space, found the courage to keep loving and inviting people into relationship. You know, their faith took shape in these ordinary, everyday moments. They showed up, they brought food, they offered a prayer, they extended an invitation to us. And so as we remember them today, we can tell the truth about their lives. We can remember their kindness and their quirks, and they had some.
We remember their gifts and we remember their struggles. And we remember that they were faithful and they were human. And that's one reason I'm really grateful that James reminds the church and points us back to the story of Job. He says this in verse 10 of chapter 5. Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke the name of the Lord.
As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You've heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Now, if you read Job's story, and if you haven't, I invite you to go back and read through it this week. You come across a man who has some pretty serious, serious questions.
You have a man who laments and he protests and he struggles trying to understand what's happening to him. In fact, he talks about things he wishes had never happened to him, as well as answers that he deeply wants to, questions that are lingering. James remembers his endurance and he points it back to us. And he makes room for us, doesn't he? I mean, some of us still have some questions lingering, don't we?
Some questions that there aren't easy answers to. And maybe they're questions that we're not even sure how to ask yet. Some of us have been praying through tears and we've discovered that grief does something to our concentration. It makes it difficult. Familiar words sound strange at times.
James says we can bring all that to God, all that before a loving and compassionate and merciful Father. You see, a trembling prayer is still a prayer. There's room for you within faith, for grief, and there's room for your grief here in our church. And so James speaks to the whole community, because this teaching is not just for us individually. He says we should strengthen our hearts because we're learning how to wait and endure together as a family.
And that matters because grief can sometimes be incredibly lonely, like even Though other people are there and they can show us care, there are still parts of losing someone that are unique to each one of us. You know the sound of an empty house.
You know which day and which hour is the hardest. You know what it feels like to have something to share and the person you most want to share it with, to not be there. And while we can't take all of that loneliness and grief away, we can enter into it and we can come alongside one another. We can keep calling. After those first few weeks, we can remember birthdays and anniversaries and those special moments and holidays.
We can remember their name and ask for a story. Or we can be willing to just sit and be silent and just be present. And that's part of what we're doing here today. In just a moment, we're going to read the names of those that we love who have gone to be with Christ. When we do that, when we say that, what we're saying to one another is we remember.
We remember this life, that their life mattered. It mattered to us, and it matters to you. And that your sorrow, your grief, it has a place here. And so we're giving thanks for the ways that their lives have continued to shape ours, that the love that they practice, we can actually bear it out and it bears fruit in us as we love other people, and that the care that we receive from them can become the care that we extend to another. You see, God has strengthened many of our hearts through the names that we're going to read together in just a moment.
But God is also continuing to strengthen our hearts in our community here today. And so James says, our God is a God of compassion and mercy. I love how John takes this image and he shows us where this loving God who is compassionate and merciful, walking where it's all heading. That in Revelation, we're told, John sees a new heaven and a new earth coming down. He sees this God dwelling with his people, and every tear is wiped away.
And death will be no more. No more mourning or crying, no more pain or sadness. What a tender promise that John expresses to us, that God sees our tears and that the grief we sometimes struggle to understand, it's fully known to God, and he is present with us. And that future that he promises is that he will be our God and that he will be with us. And so this is the hope that gives our waiting purpose.
We await the God who will make all things new. And so we believe the promise that because we belong to Jesus, as Jordan reminded us, just a moment ago that Jesus entered into our suffering and he went through death himself. And because he is risen, our hope for not only those that we love, but for ourselves as well. Those who've died are held in his resurrection. And so we still feel the ache of their absence.
We still will have days in the coming weeks and months and years that we will feel their loss. But we entrust them to God because He is faithful and he is compassionate and he is merciful. And so we too entrust ourselves to the same loving, merciful, compassionate God as we continue our lives before us. In a few moments, I'll speak the name of each name that we have gathered on our remembrance list, knowing and realizing that every name represents a life, and it represents a story, and it represents relationships and memories that reach far beyond anything that I could name, even here this morning. So as we remember, we give thanks to God for the ways that his faithfulness became visible to us in their lives.
And we give thanks to God that we can make space here in our community for our sorrow. Let me give thanks to God that we can look forward to the future that he's promised for all. That he will be our God and we will be his people, and that he will dwell with us. And until that day, we will keep praying and we will keep loving and we will keep strengthening our hearts together. Oh, God, may your compassion and mercy be real for us this day.
As we take this time now to offer the names to you of those that we love who have gone to be with you, would you sustain us as we remember together today? Amen. Let us remember with thanksgiving those who have gone before us in faith, those who have lived among us, loved us and shaped us by their example. We give thanks for their lives and for the hope that we share in Christ. We remember especially those who have departed this last year.
So we remember and give thanks for the life of Joan Rose Shaw.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Joyce Branham.
We remember in and give thanks for the life of Keith Smith.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Charles Mannis.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Candy Kuykendall.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Nelson Paul Carlisle.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Mary Graham.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Larry Christian.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Billy Gene Richards.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Gladys Ellis.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Dianne Samelson.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Linda Stell.
We remember and give thanks for the life of John Baccus.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Kay Fleming.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Gladys Clark.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Nancy Forsythe.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Nancy Carlisle.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Rebecca Talley.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Paula Fairchild.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Evelyn Whitmire.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Marge Hood.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Marshall Parham.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Russell Hubach.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Sally Lawson.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Paula Felty.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Bettie Lou Baker Mills.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Ron Reed.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Mary Jo Brittell.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Jeanine M. Connolly Heth.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Jennifer Magers.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Sue Jane Sullivan.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Danny Williams.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Nelda Talley.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Wanda Trent.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Myra Nell Lambert.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Gregg Gossett.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Jim Bartee.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Arturo Silva.
We remember and give thanks for the life of William Blair.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Wynona Montgomery.
We remember and give thanks for the life of Martin Duncan.
We also remember all who rest in your eternal care, O God, known and unknown, but all precious in your sight. May their memory be a blessing and their witness inspire us to faith and love.
With them we await the day when every tear is wiped away and all creation is made new in Christ. Thanks be to God who gives us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us pray.
O God of life and eternity. You are our refuge in every generation. You comfort us in sorrow and you promise that death shall not have the final word. So we bring before you those who mourn that they may be comforted by your promise and strengthened by your presence on this day of remembrance. We thank you for the lives of those who have gone before us, for their faith, their love and their example.
God, we pray for your church that we may live as people of resurrection, bearing light in a world of shadows. We pray that, strengthened by the great cloud of witnesses who surround us, that we may run with perseverance the race before us until we rest in your eternal peace. May your spirit strengthen us to live in the hope, trusting that in Christ we will all be made alive. And it is in our hope that we offer this prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.