Trusting in the Promises

by the Rev. Darrel Peterson
Assistant to the Bishop
ELCA-Southeastern Synod

Every day there is a list of deaths and obituaries. There is not a special season when deaths occur. Like breathing in and breathing out, deaths happen. The deaths of the elderly bring sadness, but are often expected. There are the sudden, shocking deaths, where an active vital person is suddenly gone. There are the gradual deaths following extended illnesses. A common denominator is that we all will experience inevitable death sometime in the future. We are all terminal.

Recently I attended a memorial service for a 50 year old who died following a several month illness. This man had been very active in his church, in business and in family and social relationships. At his service, the church was filled with a diversity of vital people whom he had worked or interacted with.

A pastor friend from the man’s faith life provided a eulogy that resounded with the promises of the Christian hope. The homily, the prayers, and the music complemented with authenticity and victory. Our ELW order of worship was there for us. The service was a witness of how we can effectively proclaim God’s promises in the face of death. I was thankful for the many who experienced this witness of the Gospel! For me, that service was a positive affirmation of the promises of Christ.

Years ago when I was in college, I was an orderly in a large university hospital. We were trained to say that patients “expired” when they died. I don’t know if they still do that in the hospitals, but I have observed that our society continues to find ways to avoid talking frankly about death. When folks die, we are likely to hear that they have “passed away” or that they have just “passed”, or perhaps they have “passed on”. Funerals and memorial services have become “celebrations of life”.

Eulogies at memorial services are some of pastors’ worst nightmares. A golfing buddy might get up and regale the worshippers with endless anecdotes and mindless trivia. Sometimes family members are moved in the moment to get up and say something, to confess something or to speak inaudibly at length. Many of these expressions are more appropriate in the context of a wake or a post funeral gathering.

I remember an elderly gentleman, as he lay in his hospital bed dying, saying to me, “I’ve trusted in the Lord all these many years. I will trust in the promises to my last breath.” In my thinking, that’s as powerful and faithful as it gets!

We live in a society, in a religious community, where there is a lot of “fuzziness” in the face of death. There is much in our culture that clearly is in denial when it comes to death.
We can do much in our ministries to be authentic and faithful as we deal with death and the dying. There is the opportunity to educate about proper funeral practices. Columbarium and memorial gardens are practical realities these days. Preparations for these installations can assist people in thinking through issues that related to death and the promises that we have.

Death is real. We are blessed to be able to trust in the promises of God!