Blessed In Him :: Ephesians 1:3-14 :: Funeral of Anita Darlene Hearting

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Dear JonEtta and Frank, Diane and Thomas, Mary and Kent, Lisa and Buck; dear friends and extended family of Darlene; dear brothers and sisters in Christ ... Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text for our meditation today comes to you from our epistle reading, Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians ... especially where we read, Blessed is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who blessed us.  

If you ever met Darlene, if you ever sat with her for any time at all, you know ... Anita Darlene Hearting was blessed. I am so blessed, she said every time I ever visited with her. 

She was blessed with a strong faith in Christ. She was blessed with a long life. She had been blessed with a loving husband. She was blessed with loving children. She was blessed on the farm. She was blessed in the church. She was blessed by our Lord. And she wanted more than anything to share that blessing with anyone she met ... especially all of you ... even in death. 

Don’t talk about me, she said in the months leading up to this day. Tell them about how we are blessed. That’s Darlene for you.

Like all of us who were blessed by knowing Darlene, she didn’t always understand why she was blessed. As she told me a few months ago, she didn’t think she was worthy of being blessed. She was just thankful she was. “I’m not worthy enough for Jesus to die on that horrible cross.” 

We all struggle sometimes with that reality. But it doesn’t mean you are any less blessed. Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who blessed us.  

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This is the truth of our reading from Ephesians. It’s a long reading, but you can never read it too often. So I will read it again. It shows you ... reminds you ... proclaims to you ... not only how Darlene was blessed, but how God blesses you. 

As I read this, listen especially to the verbs ... and listen to who is doing what. 

Blessed is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who blessed us in all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ ... He chose us in him ... that is Christ ... before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love ... He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ into him, according to the good pleasure of his will ... [He did this for] the praise of the glory of his grace, with which he graced us in the Beloved ... [In Christ,] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished into us in all wisdom and understanding. [He made known] to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he set forth in him in ... the fullness of time, to bring all together in Christ, both the things upon the heavens and the things upon the earth. ... In him we also have obtained an inheritance that was predestined according to the purpose of his will [so that we] who hope in Christ [would be] the praise of his glory. ... [And,] having heard the word of the truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in which you have believed, you were sealed in the promise of the Holy Spirit, who is our guarantee into the redemption of God’s possession to the praise of his glory (Eph 1:3-14).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what God did for Darlene ... and you. You who are baptized ... you are blessed. God chose Darlene ... and you ... He predestined her ... He adopted her ... He redeemed her with the blood he shed for the world on the cross. ... He lavished his grace upon her, washing her clean in Holy Baptism, making her holy just as he is holy. ... He united himself with her, giving her faith in Christ, at this font on September 1, 1957. He then began revealing to her the mystery of salvation of how Jesus lived the perfect life for us, died the perfect death for us, and rose into eternal life for us for our justification. More than that, he fed and nourished that faith he gave her with the Lord’s Supper. And through these means of grace he guaranteed her that we will receive his inheritance when he comes again to give new life to all who rest from their labors awaiting the final resurrection. Talk about being blessed!

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Did you notice how ... specifically and unequivocally ... it is God is doing all of this? And that this promise is for you too? 

Darlene knew that. That is the truth of God’s blessing that Darlene longed for you to know too. It was God who chose her ... not the other way around ... as the world so often teaches. It was God who decided that she ... and all of you who believe .... that we belong to him. It was God who gave her faith in her Lord Jesus ... not the other way around. And he saved her through that faith ... not by works so that she couldn’t boast. From the day of her Baptism, God nourished that faith in her, and she clung to her Lord’s promise that he would keep her for all eternity. 

The Lord blessed Darlene with all the help she would ever need, no matter the circumstances. She was instructed in his Word. She received his Sacraments for the forgiveness of sins. The Lord helped her see her need for this deliverance, and gave her courage to lead her children in this too. Talk about a blessing! That blessing is now reaching her children’s children. 

With God’s promise of forgiveness and adoption as his child and an heir of his kingdom given to her in her Baptism, by the assurance of forgiveness through repentance and absolution, and through the nourishing and strengthening of her God-given faith in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, Darlene has known the security and joy that the Lord is your keeper (Ps 121:7) ... That no one can ever snatch them out of his hand (Jn 10:28).

IN CHRIST, SHE WAS INDEED BLESSED.

What a joy and comfort we have today knowing that she was kept by her Lord for more than 91 years on this earth and now is with her Lord awaiting the resurrection of her body and the life everlasting. Darlene was truly blessed with the faith in “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” As our Lord Jesus told Thomas, and yes, even all of us, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (Jn 20:29).

Remember that joy and comfort all the days of your lives. That’s the hope Darlene had for you. The Lord has promised us the same joy of knowing this: Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore (Pss 121:8). In Jesus’ name.

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