Funeral Sermon for Helen Marie Latoski - October 2, 2009

The Church Season of Trinity
Trinity 16
Funeral Service for Helen Marie Latoski
Smith-Miner Funeral Home, Midland, MI October 2, 2009

“Comfort, Comfort My People”

Readings:
Psalm 23
Isaiah 40:31
John 14:1-4


Isaiah 40:1, 28-31

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The lord is the everlasting God the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

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Family and friends of Helen, especially Bernie, Brian, Joe, and Bonnie, Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Let us remember with thanksgiving what God has done through His servant Helen Marie Latoski who was given life by his creator and was born on November 18th, 1933, the child of Benjamin and Helen Voorhees. She received the gift of Holy Baptism and became a child of God, and later publicly confessed her faith and was a member of Our Savior Lutheran Church of Midland. She often received the precious gift of the Lord’s life giving body and blood. On September 22, 1956, she received the gift of a companion Bernie, her beloved husband, and they were married for over 53 years. Helen and Bernie were blessed with the gift of a child, Brian. On September 29th, God blessed Helen with a holy death and took her home to rest in the arms of Jesus to await the resurrection of the Lord. Blessed are they who die in the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore.

The verses I just read from Isaiah, and her sister Bonnie reminded me of these words while we sat and prayed with Helen this past week. I’ll have to say that these words of scripture not only spoke directly to Helen but also to those who gathered around her and those who had thoughts and prayers for her too. “Comfort, comfort my people, says God.”(v. 1) Certainly all who knew her in these last few years knew that she was not in a great deal of comfort. At the same time Helen was given a great deal of comfort by the people who were around her. Her husband Bernie is one of the most caring loving people I have ever met. He literally cared for her day and night, I never once heard him complain, and he always seemed to wear that great big smile on his face. Helen loved her son Brian very much too, I know that because she told me so, she was very proud of you. I’m told that you would spend hours and hours chatting on the phone, what a wonderful, close and comforting relationship you were blessed to have with each other.

Yet there is greater comfort than even those which come from the things of this world for which Helen is now eternally thankful. For 54 years ago Helen was comforted by the presence of Jesus Christ in waters of her baptism. And those baptismal waters were indeed a blessed comfort. For it was God who sent His son Jesus Christ into this world. It was Christ who was baptized by John the Baptist, and it was Christ who lived and walked among us. And because Christ came into this world, was crucified, died and buried and on the third day rose again, because of Christ death and resurrection, Helen is in heaven where she will be eternally comforted by her Lord and there she will dwell with all the saints and all who have gone before her in the faith.

It was always interesting to talk with Helen, she had a mind like a steel trap. She knew names, dates, anniversaries, and birthdays. She knew about sports and I am told that she was a very good ball player too. She worked as a stenographer at Dow and was one of the most highly respected workers in that field. And Bernie told me that she loved to dance and not a day went by when Helen didn’t have her piece of chocolate. Yet at the same time over the years we can not but know that Helen was weary of her condition.

The prophet Isaiah said in that scripture we read earlier, “The lord is the everlasting God the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak”(v. 28-29). The Lord certainly gave strength to Helen though her body may have become, over the passing of years, weary.

I already miss Helen and I know you do too. The reality of death stings. In times like this, it does seem that death is like a vulture circling above our heads waiting for us to stumble and fall. The cold reality of our impending death hovers in the lofty places of our minds. Mostly forgotten, except for days like this. When we are reminded of our mortality. St. Paul reminds us, “Death is swallowed up in victory, ‘O Death where is your sting? O Death where is your victory?’ the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ”( 1 Cor 15:55ff)

Jesus gave Helen the victory of eternal life, and He takes away all the stings of this world. He gives you His victory over sin, and death, and the devil. He welcomes you to share in His victory in His words from the Holy Scripture. He welcomes you to share in His victory in the water and Word of baptism. And when you receive his true body and true blood in Holy Communion. In his death and resurrection, Jesus conquers all things, so that your sins may be forgiven.

The final words from the verses from Isaiah are, “They will soar on wings like eagles; They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” Helen could not run these last few years, and as many of you know she could just barely walk. But each and every time we visited, she didn’t talk about such things. We would chit chat, laugh a bit, but really she desired to receive Holy Communion. Because Helen knew in the body and blood of Christ her faith was renewed, refreshed, and strengthened. We are sad for the loss of Helen, but on this day, she is having a joyful reunion with her Lord Jesus Christ and with all the saints of heaven.

One day your walk on this earth, this veil of tears, will come to an end. But you can rejoice, just like Helen and all those baptized into Christ. For all of Christ’s words, His death and resurrection are true comfort for our souls. And because He came to give us that comfort, there will be no more sorrow, nor crying, and there will be no more pain. Blessed are they who die in the Lord Jesus Christ from this time forth and evermore. Amen.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

AMEN
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