Bertha Akiiki - Funeral Sermon
Love and Joy through Suffering and Perseverance.
We aren’t just meant to survive the hard times, we are meant to become more through them. Jesus Christ, as he died on the cross, the worst death humanity could create, he came through that death and showed us a transformed life, Beyond the suffering, beyond the loss, beyond the struggle, there is more in Christ than we can imagine. Our hope that God has and will overcome all things is grounded in the simple fact that Jesus has already overcome everything in His life, death, and resurrection. What do we have to be afraid of? If the worst pain and death have already been conquered. What can weigh us down? If Jesus already took it all upon himself as He died on that cross. The only things that can scare us or weigh us down are what we unnaturally give that power to. Even our mourning is transformed because Jesus overcame death and we know he will do the same in us. A goodbye becomes a see you soon. And so death is not an end, it is only a new beginning in Jesus Christ.
Looking back on Bertha’s life, you can see that there are definitive moments where she believed this and emulated it. I can barely imagine what being widowed and left alone with 3 children at such a young age would have felt like. Imagine the courage and faith she would have needed to step out every day and do the hard work. Yet, she went further, because she didn’t just do the work, she passed on the faith, the love, the joy, because she could see it all around her. She was never shy of sharing her love, of making a friend, of laughing, and of making herself known. To do all of this when lesser struggles would have brought many down, means that Bertha needed to be grounded in something much bigger than herself, much bigger than her struggles, much bigger, even than death.
Bertha knew that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life. She knew that if she followed that way, if she followed Jesus she would see the truth of his love and joy in every moment. She knew that as she followed Jesus, she would be brought to a life beyond what could have been imagined. I know she tried to instill this in her kids as well. I know that church wasn’t an option, that worship was a special time, and that working to serve God in the church was a privilege, not a chore. Though I am sure the fact she would buy you a pop, would help your love for church, I know you got excited for church even without it.
Many of the psalms speak of a deep and rich relationship with Jesus, which is something we should all desire. In Psalm 121, we hear that God is our every present help. The one we should turn to in all of our struggles and our joys. I know how much prayer was important to Bertha, I can practically hear her say: “My help comes from the Lord. He will watch over you. He will not let you be overcome”. In another psalm, 139, we get this vision of God’s deep purposefulness in creating us and how he knit us together in our mother’s womb, how he knows our going out and our coming in, our lying down and our getting up, he knows our thoughts even before they cross our lips. That is wild to think that God knows us so well, yet we should want to know him that well too. The psalmist responds to this idea by saying, your thoughts oh God are too great, too wonderful to me. Think about both of the psalms together, the great purposefulness and care of God, and also the deep commitment to draw close and act on our behalf. No wonder Bertha was committed to prayer. She knew a God that acted and worked through prayer in marvelous ways, even if it wasn’t always what she or we wanted.
Yet, in the midst of God’s mighty love, we still come face to face with hard times. Death still feels like it holds sway, at least to our mortal and limited minds. Suffering, cancer, and hurt still can feel like too much. The Bible, Christians and God are not ignorant of this, we don’t ignore it. We face the hard times, we face the death and yet in trust, we step through it knowing that God will do more.
Lamentations is this beautifully sad book of the bible, where a man laments in his hurt and sadness for 5 chapters, except for one moment. Through all of the bitterness and hurt, the writer brings one thing to mind and so all that hurt is overcome by hope. It is God’s love that upholds us even in the hard times, it is his love that stops us from being consumed. His compassion never fails, because it is his compassion that saves us from the worst we could endure. God’s compassions are new every morning. All you have to do is wake up tomorrow and God’s loving compassion will work a new in your life. The Lord is my portion. The Lord, the creator of heaven and earth, the source of love, joy, and peace, is my portion, he is the one I will be fed by, sustained by and I will have him. Sometimes the best thing we can do is wait, because he will give us Himself, which means we gain everything else too.
We will suffer in our life, we will mourn, we still wait for God’s Kingdom to be fully known in this world, but in the meantime, we are not overcome, in fact, we are more than conquerors. In Jesus Christ, we can and have overcome everything: all sin, suffering, and death. And instead, God replaces that with himself, He gives us his way, his truth, and his life. There is nothing better because it comes with the best. Let us seek him out as Bertha did in prayer, and let us be strengthened by his love, even while we wait for His great and glorious coming. AMEN
