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“Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
᛭ INI ᛭
Inspired Moses says, “The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years.” (Ps 90) What could you say, then, about your mom? 104 years! Moses knew something about longevity, too. “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.” (Dt 34:7) Sounds a bit like your mom. At 104 you’re prepared for today, lots of things prepared, but you’re never really ready.
“By reason of strength” “the days of our lives” “are seventy years,” “eighty years.” “By reason of strength” Moses’ were 120. “By reason of strength” Florence’s were 104. But whose strength accounts for such a thing? Your mom’s confirmation verse gives a clue. It isn’t that Moses was sufficient, nor was your mom sufficient to live out that many days in and of herself. Her sufficiency, her strength was from the LORD. “I will strengthen you.”
He strengthens you to live out yours days: be they 70, 80, or even 104! “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts) He strengthens you to live out as many days as He appointed for you. As inspired David says, “And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.” (Ps 139) And when such days, months, years are past, He sends forth His Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, and He says, “Return O children of man!” (Ps 90)
Throughout all those days the Lord isn’t just supplying strength to our mortal bodies. No, Christ isn’t just giving us outer strength, but inner strength, the only strength that counts for anything, the only strength that carries us through all the number of our days: He gives us the strength of faith. Jesus sends forth His Spirit not only to give bodily life, but to create and sustain our faith, our hope, our trust in Jesus.
This is part of Christ’s resurrection and baptismal promise. “Fear not, for I am with you.” “I am with you always.” The blessing on Jesus’ tongue after He instituted the life-giving waters of Baptism. Waters Florence passed through on March 21, 1920. There the Lord made good on the life He promises His people. For He came “that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” (Jn 14) That is He came “to give His life as a ransom for many.” To redeem us from sin, and the wages we all deserve because of sin—death. “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin,” the thing that gets sin’s motor going, “is the Law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Now we get you to the strength that ultimately matters on a day like today. It’s the strength that the Lord will supply when His promise to be with you always gets flipped around and you will be raised to live forever with Him. That’s the strength that matters for you Carol and Don and Janice. It’s the strength that matters for all of here. The strength that mattered to your mom. It’s the very strength the Lord supplies! His gift, for He says, “I will strengthen you.”
THE LORD STRENGTHENS YOU THAT YOU LIVE UNTO LIFE EVERLASTING.
THE LORD STRENGTHENS YOU THAT YOU LIVE UNTO LIFE EVERLASTING.
Jesus sends you the Spirit to accomplish it. “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11) You were strengthened with that same Spirit through the water and Word of Baptism, for there you received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the downpayment of our eternal inheritance (Eph 1)
It is the promise of His body and blood, too. It is for the forgiveness of sins. It clears out sin, gives you the redemption price for its wages—death. So, Christ can say, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will resurrect him on the Last Day.” (Jn 6) So, you are blessed with these words after eating of that medicine of eternal life: “This body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you unto life everlasting. Depart in peace.”
“Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Maybe that means 70 years, maybe 80, maybe 104 years like Florence. Whatever it is, it’s always too short, but in a sense Florence, among so many others we know, has outlived us, for she has passed from death to eternal life with Christ!
The Lord worked much vitality and vigor in Florence. She was suprisingly spry at times, and I hope the Lord blesses me with some measure of spring in my step that your mom had when eventually reach half her age! [Needle on the floor story.]
But the true strength we’re all waiting for is the very strength Lord promises us all in His own death and resurrection, promised at the font, promised in His Supper, is the day we’ll be raised. We await the day that never ends when the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. When we’ll all “go out leaping like calves from the stall.” (Mal 4:2 ESV) Right out of our graves to be with Christ, our Father, and the Holy Spirit forever and ever.
On that day, “No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old.” (Is 65:20) In fact, “there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev 21:4)
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