Excerpt from the funeral for Brian Wilkening

…For Brian, the joy in being in and around family, the joy of conversation, the joy of telling about all of the great memories and parts of life that we had as well as sharing in that grace and work of God in confession and absolution in the Lord's supper in the time in which we were able to pray together, he even though he was very weak, still speaking clearly in praying, "Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name."

There are a number of ways in which we can hallow the name of God, make His name holy. Some of them are through words. Some of them are by deed. And all of them come out of that love, that perfect love, that self-sacrificial love that is at the heart of who we are as God's people. And in the first hymn verse that we have today, when we talk about walking with Jesus and following his example, that love and care and putting the needs of others before our own is something that is critical to understand the nature of who God is, what He has done for us, and the blessing it is to have people in our life that model the same thing.

That leads all of us to be able to walk in the footsteps of Christ with an eye towards eternity, with an eye towards the certain and sure hope that we have in Christ, in His death and His resurrection from the dead, We also share in faithfulness, whether to family, whether to country, faithfulness and enjoying the gifts and abilities that God gave Brian, including family, friends, cars, engines, and all sorts of things that God had given him to live out and fulfill his days and his vocations. Through all of that, faithfulness was a part of who he was and is now today.

And that's a point that we don't want to overlook. That is part of the reason why our reading from Revelation 2 is so important for us as the church to hear, even in a funeral, because the One who precedes us into death is also the One who precedes us into life that is eternal. All the promises that we will hear over the course of the service, over the course of our lives, are predicated upon this fact that the words that are spoken to you and me are the words of the First and the Last, who died and who came to life. 

Through this, we will have tribulation. Certainly, cancer is one of those tribulations. But even at the very end, there was no uncertainty in receiving Christ in His true body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine. There was no uncertainty in praying the Lord's Prayer and confessing the Apostles’ Creed.

And there certainly was testing, but he now for sure has that crown of life as one who is faithful unto death, as one who walked with his Savior, in living and in dying.

Death will sting. I guarantee that, you, family will have moments today, tomorrow, throughout your lives, like the ones you've already had, where the smallest things that you don't even think are going to be a trigger are going to cause a flood of memory: grief, sorrow, and joy.

But that's where for us as God's people, and it may seem strange to say this, but we can and will gladly die with Jesus. That doesn't mean that sorrow won't be there. It doesn't mean that grief won't rule the day from time to time. But we know and are certain, that in Jesus, death has been conquered. We have been freed from eternal destruction. We have hope in the resurrection of the dead.

Even as we will approach the grave later today out at the veteran cemetery, we know that the grave will not hold him down. But as we sang and confessed in our hymn, “that grave that shuts us in shall but prove the gate to heaven. Jesus, here with you I die, there to live with you on high.”

It was very clear listening to Pam, reading his obituary, and just getting to know Brian that he lived and lived well. We can be very thankful for that. We can be very grateful to our Lord for blessing us with his presence. But we also know that the certainty of verse 4 of our hymn is true. That even now, here today, this is true for him and will be for all of us who have been redeemed by Christ in His death and risen to new life in His resurrection from the dead. We can and should also live with Jesus because He has risen from the dead and we are awakened to life that is eternal.

We, the people of God here today, know and see that our Lord, the God of the universe, the one who speaks all things into existence, cares enough for each one of us that He is deeply moved in His spirit for Brian, even as he was for Lazarus and that He weeps at the result of sin and death in this world. Yet, He has done something about it in annihilating death through His death and resurrection from the dead. That is why even now today we have joy and hope in the midst of sorrow and grief.

Even now, today, in the midst of death, we know that we are still in life. We know that Brian, all the saints who have gone before us, and you and I, when we hear the words of our Lord on the last day to come out of our graves, that we will do so. We will rise again to newness of life.

And again, all of this is guaranteed because of the words of the First and the Last. The One who promises that we who are faithful unto death will receive that crown of life, and so we have.

 This is where we go forth from here today. We live as a people with hope. We live as a people who know and understand that although death is the enemy and that death stings, it will not be forever. That no matter what we suffer, what joys we have, no matter what we experience in this life, we endure and share in everything for the sake of Christ Jesus, who is faithful in all things, who is that embodiment of that perfect self-sacrificial love that goes before us into death and goes before us out of death into newness of life.

The words of St. Paul in 2 Timothy two are true today for Brian and are true today for us. I want you to hear them one more time. “If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him.” Brian endured. Brian is reigning with all the saints who have gone before us, awaiting the hope of the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, receiving that perfect love, grace, and life that is for now and is perfectly revealed in eternity. Amen.