MARLENE GETS A BEAUTIFUL, NEW
HOME.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-10
In
the name + of Jesus.
Marlene Kackmann wanted to go home. She wanted to be free from the ICU in Rochester. A regular room at Mayo was a better option than ICU, but not the preferred option. She wanted to go home. She ended up at Lake City Care Center—closer to home, but not home. Marlene and Bob had moved into a new place recently. They were barely settled when all this happened. Marlene had hoped that she could be discharged so that she could enjoy her new home. God had other plans for her. And eventually, Marlene welcomed the idea that God’s plan was to bring her home. Marlene gets a beautiful, new home—a perfect and permanent home in Paradise.
Everyone’s residence in this world is
temporary. At some point, we will all
depart. Marlene knew that death was
coming, but death takes us whether we know it is coming or not. Death is cruel. It does not care about your feelings or your
plans. St. Paul alerts us to what will
come after death: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so
that each one may receive what is due for what he did while in the body,
whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Marlene was loved by many. It is no wonder that you would have fond
memories of her. You might even think
that her heavenly home is a sure thing because what a wonderful woman she
was. She was a devoted wife of 64
years. Bob, you cannot help but give
thanks for that. She was a loving
mother. Dale & Renae, John and
Diane, you won’t ever forget that. She
loved her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was faithful at church, even singing in
the choir. She had a full, lively life.
God’s assessment of us all rests on the
same standard: “Be holy, because I, the LORD your
God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Of course, none of us lives up to that. Marlene did not pretend to. When we visited, she did not want me to tell
her how good she was. She wanted to hear
how loving and gracious her Savior is. God
commands, “Be holy,” and Jesus has supplied the holiness Marlene needs to stand
without fear before the judgment throne.
Jesus’ holy life was wrapped around her in her baptism. This is what allows her to enter the heavenly
home where only holiness may dwell.
Marlene gets a beautiful, new home.
While it is true that Marlene wanted to
glorify Jesus with her life, it is more important to recognize that Jesus lived
and died to win glory for Marlene. Jesus’
holy life was lived for her. Jesus’
innocent death was died for her. He lived
and died for us all. And then Jesus rose
from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection
guarantees that Marlene will have a resurrection to eternal life as well.
Jesus’ resurrection supplies us with
endless comfort in the difficulties of life and especially in the face of
death. Marlene’s life was not without
its difficulties, especially in the past few months. Her health declined. Her body weakened. Finally, it gave out. Marlene identified with St. Paul’s words: “To
be sure, while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do
not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal may be
swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4).
Marlene yearned for what is better.
God creates us with bodies that are agile and strong, but bodies eventually
wear out because they have been corrupted by sin. Nor can these sin-stained bodies enter
heaven. That is why our bodies are
temporary, like a tent that eventually gets tattered and torn. But that is not the end.
St. Paul wrote, “Now we know that if
the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, an
eternal home in heaven, which is not made by human hands. In fact, the reason we groan is that we long
to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.
…Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us
the Spirit as the down payment” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2,5). When Marlene was baptized, she received the
gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
dwelt in her as a down payment of the glory that will come to all who believe
and are baptized. In baptism, we are
made children of God. In this world, it
may not look like it. We believe that we
are children of God because God says so.
We hold to the promise by faith.
Marlene has now been granted her place in God’s mansion. She enjoys the glory which was promised—no
longer by faith, but by sight. Marlene
gets a beautiful, new home.
The tent of Marlene’s body has failed, but
God’s promises do not. Marlene will get
a beautiful, new home—a resurrected body.
This is because our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to secure for
us all a resurrection from the dead. St.
John tells us how Jesus united himself to us.
He wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelled—literally, ‘tented’—among
us” (John 1:14). Jesus put on the
tent of human flesh in order to rescue our flesh from mortality and restore it to
immortality, from weakness to glory, from frail and failing to incorruptibility. At the resurrection of all flesh, Marlene will
be raised up. She will not merely trust
that she is a child of God by faith, but we will all see it by sight. She will shine in glory. Jesus will transform her body so that it will
be like Jesus’ risen body. The temporary,
earthly tent will be converted to a permanent home—a glorious, incorruptible,
immortal body. And in that perfect,
glorious state, Marlene and all the saints will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Marlene’s confirmation verse is from Psalm
26. “LORD, I
love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells” (Psalm
26:8).
Marlene regularly came to God’s house because she was eager to receive
his blessings and his mercy. She heard
the word preached. She received a pardon
for all her sins. She feasted on Jesus’
living body and blood to strengthen and keep her in the one, true faith until
life everlasting.
“LORD, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells” (Psalm 26:8). Marlene’s soul now dwells in the heavenly house where the Lord dwells in glory. She not only gazes at his glory, she participates in it. The Lord has glorified her. He has given her a place at the eternal feast of the Lamb. Meanwhile, her body awaits the resurrection, where body and soul will be reunited. Then, Marlene will live as God has always intended us to live—in a glorious body and in a perfect Paradise, forever with the Lord.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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