LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 105

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106 MEMORIAL ADDRESS

We miss these our fellow workers in Christ. As
members of God’s holy family each one, in his or her
respective calling, touched our lives. Death in each
instance brought sorrow to many. We are here to share
their grief. By our presence, in solemn assembly this
evening, we want all the bereaved to know that their loss
is our loss also. Their sorrow is our sorrow.

But in another respect this memorial service is truly
an occasion for joy, an occasion for praise and
thanksgiving to God.

The reason is obvious. We sang the reason in the very
first line of the opening hymn: “For all the saints who
from their labors rest.” And we sang it again in the last
stanza: “To faithful warriors cometh rest.” That is why
we offer with ‘“‘allelulias” our praise and thanksgiving to
God.

By grace, through faith in God’s Son, our Lord and
Savior, “who was delivered for our offenses and was
raised again for our justification,” our departed fellow
workers have become heirs to the promise given by God
Himself in His blessed word which lies before us for
consideration: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the
people of God.”

Rest is a soothing, rich, and full-blooded word. It has
so many connotations and implications that the holy
writers of both the Old and the New Testament Scripture
employ something like 40 different expressions in
approximately 500 references to rest.

The rest promised the people of God is foreshadowed
in early Genesis when God Himself rested on the
seventh day “from all His work which He had made.”

The same promised rest is hailed as an accomplished
fact late in the Book of Revelation when a voice from
heaven is heard saying: “Write, Blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors.”

This rest embraces the Savior’s promise: “I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself
that where I am, you may be also.” Simply stated, it
means heavenly rest, rest in God, rest in eternal bliss
and glory.

1.

Rest presupposes activity, toil, conflict, tension,
frustration, heartache, pain.

Our deceased fellow members of God’s holy family
experienced their quota of all of these, as do all of us who
are still on our earthly pilgrimage. In this context we
need to remember that most of our toil and struggle and
heartache issues from within us, caused by the battle
between the flesh and the spirit. We all must confess
with the apostle Paul: “The good that I would I do not;
but the evil which I would not, that I do.” It’s a wretched
state, an unhappiness that haunts us. Often we cry out
with the apostle: “O wretched man that Iam! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?”

Then there is the conflict, tension, and frustration
which comes to us from our relationship with people
among whom we live and move. We sin against them.
They sin against us. We are slow to forgive. They are
slow to forgive. Consequently there is friction, a

clashing of wills, and discord. This wears on us until we
are well nigh exhausted.

In addition there is heartache and physical pain.
Some of our fellow pilgrims we remember this evening
died suddenly. Others closed their eyes in death after
extended illness marked by intense suffering. Often
their greatest anguish was a feeling that they were a
burden to those who cared for them. For people who are
dedicated to helping others, it is often a calamity to be
helpless themselves.

2.

But now, all praise and glory to God, our fellow
pilgrims, by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ
their Savior, have entered into the rest which awaits the
people of God.

They no longer hunger or thirst, for their every want
is satisfied.

There is no more sorrow or crying, for God wipes
away all tears.

There is no more pain or suffering or stress or
heartache or death—thanks be to God, who gave them
the victory over all these through faith in Jesus Christ,
their Savior.

Though once their heads were bowed low with thorny
problems, they now wear a crown of stars.

Though their hands were once filled with care, now
they hold a harp of God filled with the sweet music of
heaven.

Though their garments were once soiled with sin and
torn ragged with the tragic consequences of sin, they are
now eternally clothed with a righteousness that is
whiter than snow and cleaner than wool.

They are now in the presence of Jesus, their Savior,
who many times in life tenderly invited them, “Come
unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest.”

They now, eternally refreshed, cleansed, and
renewed, serve and praise their Lord in His holy temple.

They no longer grow weary—only more blessed as
they see Him as He isin all His breath-taking glory and
beauty.

Oh, how blest are they whose toils are ended, who are
at rest with their God and Savior in heaven.

How about us whose toils are not ended? Following
our text in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the
Hebrews there is a grim reminder that many of the
covenant people of God did not enter into His promised
rest because of their unbelief and disobedience. Hence
this exhortation: “Let us therefore labor to enter that
rest.”

Labor we must—and get weary and heavy laden
along the way. But our labor will not be nearly as
fatiguing and far more fruitful if it is overarched by the
one consuming labor to enter the heavenly rest God
promised the redeemed.

And the way—“I am the Way,” says Jesus; “I am the
Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh to the
Father but my Me.”

That is why Isaiah, the prophet of old, wrote of Christ
our Savior: “He hath borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows... .” He was “stricken, smitten of God, and