The Resurrection and Our Loved Ones

The below text is the Eulogy I delivered at my grandmother's funeral on Saturday April 15, 2006. I have posted in case some of the family members wanted a copy of my remarks. It is a long post.

Piece of Mind

We all have memories of Grandmother. Many of them we share, like her biscuits; they were the best you could ever eat. Also her banana pudding was absolutely the best. Even today I can’t eat banana pudding in a restaurant. I’m afraid I’ll embarrass myself and my family by taking one bite, spiting it out on the table and blurt out, “Good God, that’s awful!”
The memories that all of us who knew Grandmother will carry with us (and most of us will agree are the most profound and long lasting) are the ones where she gave us a piece of her mind, which was any time you talked to her. Do you remember the last time she gave you a piece of her mind? I do, it was on the phone a couple of weeks ago when she had gotten her “peacemaker.” With grandmother you always fell into one of two groups, the person she was aiming her piece of mind at, or the adjacent splatter zone. This particular time I was in the latter group. She was letting me know that, “no matter what them doctors say about an operation, it’s always worse than they let on with ya.”
I began to think about how, that one second after she crossed from this life to the next she had a perfect mind, able to understand all the fullness of the Holy God of all time and space. How she, in one second, knew more about God than all of us in this room can amass in our whole lifetimes together. Then it occurred to me. As often as she gave all of us a piece of her mind, can you imagine how much of a piece of her mind she had saved up in 89 years of living to give God? I also realized that in her perfect mind that all those things she wanted to tell God became irrelevant and not worth saying the moment she had her perfect mind. I don’t think it is fair that God didn’t have to listen to her like all of us did. I have to admit though that it does show the divine brilliance of our creator. Don’t want to listen to Grandmother give you a piece of her mind? No problem, just give her a perfect mind and make it a nonissue.
If that is the end of how we view her death then we have fallen short of a right perspective of this moment in our history. How do we view Penola Smith’s death? There are two very different attitudes we can take. One is expressed by Dylan Thomas in his poem Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night.

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The second is expressed by Sarah Edwards. She was the wife of Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest minds and theologians ever produced by America. He was one of the leaders of the Great Awakening in the early 1700’s and became the President of Princeton College in 1758. He died suddenly only one month after achieving what many would call the greatest achievement of a lifetime, the Presidency of a College when Colleges where few and highly prestigious. On the day he died Sarah Edwards wrote their daughter to tell her of her father’s death. This is what she wrote.

My very dear Child, What shall I say! A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands upon our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness, that we had [your father] so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband and your father has left us! We are given to God; and there I am and love to be. Your affectionate mother, Sarah Edwards

Grandmother was not a learned woman. She may not have been able to articulate it the way Sarah Edwards did; but Grandmother, given the choice, would have cast her lot with Sarah Edwards and given Dylan Thomas a piece of her mind. The reason she would have stood with Sarah Edwards on her view of death is because she believed in the promise given to all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ: the promise given by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians.

I Thess. 4:16-18
16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Jesus had a Friday, but He also had a Sunday. Grandmother had a Thursday, but she’s gonna have a Some Day! Some Day Jesus will return and she will be resurrected just like the Bible promises. How do we know this? Because Jesus promised it himself. In John 11:23-26 he said to Martha when her brother Lazarus had died;

John 11:23-26
23Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
24Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Do you believe this? We all are going to have a One Day. The one day we cross from this life to the next. If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and His death, burial and resurrection you will also have a Some Day. If not, make today Your Day to put your faith in Christ before it is your One Day.

So where does this faith in Christ leave us with understanding Grandmother’s death? With the understanding this is not the end but only the beginning. We are not separated from her forever, but we will be reunited with her again because of the promise. We will be with her again, but instead of getting a piece of her mind we will join her in singing praise to the Holy God of heaven and earth!
For my devotional each day I read Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers of all Christian history. Yesterday this is what I read:
The verse of mediation was Isaiah 3:10 “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him.” Spurgeon writes, “It is well with the righteous always. If the prophet had said, ‘Say ye to the righteous that it is well with him in his prosperity,’ we would be thankful for so great a blessing. If the verse had been written ‘It is well with him when under persecution,’ we would be thankful for the sustaining assurance because persecution is hard to bear. Since no time is mentioned, however, all time is included. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, from the first gathering of evening shadows until the morning star shines, in all conditions, and under all circumstances, it will be well with the righteous. He is well fed because he feeds upon the flesh and blood of Jesus. He is well clothed because he wears the righteousness of Christ. He is well housed because he dwells in God. He is well married for his soul is knit in bonds of marriage union to Christ. He is well provided for because the Lord is his Shepherd. He is well endowed for heaven is his inheritance. It is well with the righteous - well upon divine authority. The mouth of God speaks the comforting assurance. Even if ten thousand devils declare our circumstances to be hopeless, we will laugh them all to scorn. Praise God for a faith which enables us to believe God when the circumstances contradict Him. It is at all times well with you, the righteous one. If you cannot see it, believe God’s Word instead of your sight. The one whom God blesses is blessed indeed.”
I’m with Spurgeon. These circumstances say, “Rage, Rage against the dying of the light.” God’s promise says, “We are given to God; and there I am and love to be.” I’m with Sarah Edwards and Grandmother, not Dylan Thomas. By God’s grace and faith in Jesus Christ, we all who have faith in Christ’s work on the cross, will be with her again! And that’s a piece of my mind.