Funeral Sermon for Elsie Schlagrait - January 12, 2011

The Church Season of Epiphany
Funeral Service for Elsie Schlagrait
Our Savior Lutheran Church,
January 12, 2011

Readings: 
    Psalm 23   
    1 Timothy 6:6-11
    John 12:23-26
   

“Fight the Good Fight of Faith”

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Friends and family of Elsie, especially Joyce and Joe, Janet and Ed, Frieda, and all the grandchildren.  Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Elsie Ione Schlagrait was born on October 16th, 1920, baptized on November 20, 1920th of the same year, and confirmed on February 13, 1944.  She was married to her beloved husband Otto on August 11, 1945 and they were married for over 62 years.  They had two children, Joyce who married Joe, and Janet who married Ed, and there are 4 grandchildren. Blessed are they who die in the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.

The text for today’s message is Elsie’s confirmation verse as recorded in 1st Timothy the sixth chapter, verse twelve.

1 Timothy 6:12

12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

The verses just read from 1 Timothy fit Elsie to a tee.  “Fight the good fight of faith.”(v. 12)  For as many of you know, these past few years have indeed been a fight for Elsie, in fact a long struggle of frustration and pain to be faced each day.  But if you’ve ever been around Elsie much, at some point or another you would hear her say something like this, “Well, I just do what I can do, and what I can’t do I don’t do.” 

We all know that there was a time when there wasn’t much Elsie couldn’t do.  She played coy when she met Otto, and held off their marriage until she thought he was out of the military.  She and Otto worked hard to provide for their girls.  Elsie and Otto worked hard so that they could vacation in Myrtle Beach.  The worked hard in being good loving parents.  The participated in the activities of the church, and I know we all will certainly miss Elsie’s beautiful singing voice.

So all those wonderful things make it all that much harder for us to understand these past two years.  For it would seem that despite her best efforts to play by the rules and lead a godly life, she ended up facing greater challenges and even more uncertainty. 

Shouldn’t we be right in crying out, ‘Couldn’t there be another way?’   Couldn’t our Lord Jesus Christ provide us with a model of how to handle these challenges in life?  Just what do you do anyhow, when you have done all that you can do, and what you can’t do is simply overwhelming?  Why can’t there be another way? Why can’t there be a way to go through life without all the suffering, why can’t we just go when we want to go.  We ask, ‘Don’t we get a pass on all this suffering because we have tried to, “Fight the good fight of the faith.”?(v.12)

Elsie and I talked about this many times.  Our Lord teaches that even in the times when it seems we can’t do what we think we can do, that is in our time of suffering. ..even in those times our suffering provides an opportunity for mercy from those who are around us.  I’ve mentioned to some how our caroling group went to sing for Elsie and in so doing we were fulfilling what God has called us to do, that is have mercy on those whom we love.  But that act of mercy could not be contained, it spilled out into a hallway, and other patients came to hear the caroling too.  Mercy can not be contained, it multiplies and overflows.  And that mercy started with Elsie in her time of suffering.

Yet with all this mercy, why does the suffering still linger? Well, that of course is the wrong question.  For the way of Christ is not the easy way.  And that doesn’t mean that all of life is suffering. In fact, a life of faith is more like a roller-coaster, it has its ups and downs, its twists and turns, its straights and bends. And during this blessed life we are to make that “good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”(v. 12)  And Elsie did that, she would be the first to ask someone why they hadn’t been in church.  She would also be a person in whom just about anyone could confide.  But you know Elsie could also confide in others too.   She knew she wasn’t perfect.  Elsie knew that she was like all the other people in this world and that is a sinner who needed God’s grace.  She knew that she could do what she could do, but conquering sin, death, and hell, that she just couldn’t do.

For as a baptized child of God, Elsie knew that only Jesus Christ can do those things that He can do.  And Christ did everything for Elsie, for Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and that would be Elsie’s sin, your sin, and mine too. 

We know that from Christ’s first words on the cross until His last, His sole concern was to do the Father’s will.  Jesus Christ was making a “good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”(v. 12) and He was doing that for you.  And at the foot of the cross we see Jesus Christ pouring Himself out for the sins of the entire world.  His is a patient love, a love that fights the good fight and then freely gives you your faith, He gave faith to Elsie and also to you. 

I know that we all miss Elsie deeply.  We know that she had a great love for Otto and to dance with him into the night.  She loved her children and grandchildren, her family, to volunteer at the hospital, to sing to the Lord.  And I know that she desired to have Holy Communion often just as Jesus had told her, “Do this often.”(1 Corinthians 11:25)  I know that because Elsie requested it often.  She knew that Christ’s body and blood were given and shed to renew, refresh and enliven her faith.  To forgive her sins and to give her strength for her weary soul, and you can always use more grace from God and He always has more for you.

I also know that Elsie was given strength by her Lord Jesus Christ.  For even in her frailest moments, I witnessed the faith given to her as she folded her hands in prayer, as she closed her eyes, as her lips moved to say the Lord’s prayer, to “12 Fight the good fight of the faith. [to]Take hold of the eternal life to which [she was]called and about which [she]made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses”(1 Timothy 6:12)  When it would seem to the world that she had very little, Elsie was given very much.  St. Paul reminds of that when he said, ”6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11)

Maybe you’ve suffered because of your own words, or actions, or inactions over the years.  If we were honest we would all admit that we are somehow, in someway all among the walking wounded of this world.  In this world people get hurt.  But just remember what we can do.  As a result of the mercy given to us, we can offer mercy to those who are around us, even if it is that they would have mercy upon us.  And what we can’t do, we don’t do, in fact we don’t need to do, for Christ, “does do all things which strengthens us”(Philippians 4:13).  He has, He does, and will do all things, just like He has done for Elsie, just like He does for all who die in the faith forever and ever.   

Blessed are they who die in the Lord Jesus Christ
from this time forth and forevermore.  Amen.

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