Janet
Lochner – John 3:16 – January 30th, 2016
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
Jack,
Larry and Chrissy, and Kathy, Karen, Irene, Mary, Lori, Helene, Jay,
Pat, and the rest of the many family and friends of our sister in
Christ Janet, grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father
and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Love.
In the weeks before she died, Janet and I talked often about what she
wanted the theme of her funeral to be – and she was thinking and
planning and flitting and fretting in her Janet way – wanting to
make sure things were taken care of, to make sure that you folks here
listening were taken care of, wanting to make sure I as the guy who
had to preach the thing was taken care of. Because that's what Janet
did. She loved. She took the love that she had received from her
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and she in turn showed that love to the
people that Jesus put into her life – whether that's the family
she's known all her life, the husband God was good enough to provide
her with, or even a Johnny-come lately into her life like me. People
needed to be cared for and loved and blankety-blank, Janet was going
to make sure that you got that love.
That's
why we just heard John 3:16 – that's what she picked, that famous
verse on Love. She wanted this time to be a bit of a focus, a talk
on what love is – which is highly appropriate, because Janet got
this, understood it – indeed, she understands it incredibly well
right now. You see, today in America, we don't talk about love the
way they did in the Bible, the word doesn't mean the same thing. We
hear love, and we think first and foremost of feelings. That's not
the main point in the Scriptures. Of course there's emotion, but the
big thing with love in the Scriptures is that love is action. Love is
a verb. Love means you aren't just going to sit around, you are
going to get up and do something to show love, to help, to care for
someone. And Janet knew that, and Janet demonstrated that. That's
why we mourn today – because Janet was a tangible, real blessing to
us. She showed us real love – she acted, she spoke, she did stuff
for our good, for our benefit. And we knew it. That's why we mourn.
Janet's love wasn't just a fond thought – it was tangible, it was
real, and it often got down in the dirt and muck with us, met us
where we were at, even when we were at our lowest.
The
love Janet showed you was Christ's love. Listen again to that old
familiar verse – For God so loved the world that He gave His
only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
eternal life.
God saw us at our lowest. He saw us at our worst, our meanest, our
sinful-iest. He saw us even when the impact of that sinfulness
brought us frailty, saw us when death came crawling near. From all
eternity, God saw His Janet, even in these last few weeks, and God
Himself said, “blankety-blank, I'm not going to sit by and just let
this happen.” And so He acted. He showed love. He sent Christ
Jesus into this world, into this world full of pain and suffering and
death, and Jesus stepped willingly, boldly into death – carried His
own Cross to His own death – because there was no way in hell (and
I mean that literally, we just confessed that He descended into hell)
that He was going to let Death just have and keep His Janet. And so
Jesus, in order to show His love to Janet, to you, to me, stepped on
into death itself, and tore it open, tore it a new one, ripped down
the gates of hell with His pierced hands, broke open His own tomb and
strode forth alive and said, “There, now my Janet, whom I claimed
as My own in Holy Baptism, whose sins I forgave over and over again
in Holy Absolution, who received My own Body and Blood in My Supper –
now she will not perish but instead will have eternal life because I
died for her. Now she will rise because I rose for her – and now
she'll get to just enjoy heaven with Me until we both come again
together come the last day.” That's Christ's love for Janet –
and that's His love for you. And His love for Janet was so strong
that it filled her up – her cup of Christ's love overflowed and
spilled out on to all of us.
And Christ will continue to love you, to pour His love
into you. For a time, we don't get to receive this via Janet any
more – but Jesus still loves you, still pours in His love and
forgiveness into you through His Church, through His Supper – He
still puts His brothers and sisters into your lives to care for you –
indeed, He puts you into each other's lives so that you give His love
to each other. Exactly what He did for Janet and through Janet –
that's still for you and through you. And because He loved Janet,
because He loved you so that He went to Cross and died and rose –
we're going to see Janet again. No power, not sin, not death, not
Satan himself is going to keep her from rising, because Jesus loves
her, loves us – and we will see her risen, see her with Christ
Jesus our Lord – and that will be a good day.
Until
then, we wait and we live in love, Christ's love. That's the point.
That's what Janet knew and understood – that she was a forgiven
child of God who got to pour out forgiveness and love to all of us
here. Now, she gets to rest, relax a bit with her Lord – and
that's good for her. And you know what – since we'll see her
again, it's even good for us, because we all here are still well and
thoroughly taken care of by Christ Jesus our Lord, and since He's
decided in His wisdom to let us hang around here a bit longer and
stick around in the business of showing His love, we know that He
will be with us and strengthen us not only in faith towards Him but
in fervent love for one another. Just as He did for Janet. Because
that's how God shows us love, so that along with Janet and all who
believe we would not perish but have eternal life. In the Name of
Christ Jesus, the Light of the World + Amen.
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