Yes, Jesus Loves You and Linda Lou, too :: 1 Peter 1:3-9 :: Funeral of Linda Lou Kennedy

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I had never realized just how profoundly wonderful our hymn of the day was until I got to know Linda Lou Kennedy. Now I know we just got done singing it, but today, I want you to hear it one more time. Please join me one more time in singing that first stanza a capella.

Jesus loves me, this I know / for the Bible tells me so. /
Little ones to him belong / they are weak but he is strong. /
Yes, Jesus loves me. / Yes, Jesus loves me. / Yes, Jesus loves me. / The Bible tells me so. 

Dear Doug ... Mike and Tina ... Elsie ... dear friends and extended family of Linda Lou Kennedy ... Blessed be God the Father. Blessed be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Blessed be God in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. ... Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

If you hear nothing else today, then hear that Jesus loves you. 

It’s what Linda would want for you.

We sometimes think of “Jesus Loves Me” as a trite or simple children’s song. It didn’t appear in our synodically approved service book until 2006. But I am glad it’s there now. To know Jesus loves you is to know that you have faith. To know that you have faith is to know that despite all your weakness, despite all your sin ... despite yourself ... you have eternal life. 

Linda Lou certainly knew. She expressed this faith in beautiful yet simple ways. She knew that the love of God was not just a feeling or a fleeting human emotion. She knew that her salvation was secure not because of anything she said or did ... not because of how she lived her life ... not because of any decision she had ever made or continued to make ... She knew that her salvation was secure precisely because ... in the light of Christmas ... in the light of his life ... in the light of Good Friday ... in the light of his three-day rest in the tomb ... in the light of his glorious descent, where he preached to the souls in perdition ... and in the light of his triumphant resurrection from the dead ... that 

YES, JESUS LOVES YOU ... AND LINDA LOU, TOO

I. The Bible tells me so.

Only the Holy Spirit can express that with deeper meaning. And he definitely did. Peter writes, Praiseworthy is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to the greatness of his mercy, has caused us to be begotten upward into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ out of the dead, into an inheritance that is uncorruptible, unstained, and unfading, kept in heaven for you all, whom by means of the power of God, are being shielded through faith into a salvation ready to be revealed (vv 3-5). 

This passage from 1 Peter chapter 1, our epistle reading for the day, is part of the last word I got to preach to Linda, the day before she died. At the time, I didn’t understand what drew me to that passage ... for that moment. But I am sure I do now. 

It is God’s way of saying how Jesus loves you and Linda Lou, too.

In his epistle to the churches in Asia, a region of the world that we call Turkey today, Peter is praising God for the marvelous blessings that belong to you and me and Linda too because Jesus lived without sin and died on account of your sin, and then was raised in victory ... the first of many victories over sin. It’s a truth that Linda’s magnificent childlike faith latched onto and sang her entire life. 

Linda Lou knew ... as Saint John proclaimed in our Gospel reading ... that ... Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, in this way it is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up in order that all who have faith in him ... trusting in him ... looking up to him ... may have eternal life. For God so loved the world ... yes, even you ... in this way: He gave the only begotten Son in order that all who have faith in him may not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world so that he may judge the world but save it [by means of Jesus] (Jn 3:14-17).

II.

Knowing that God loves you in this way made all the difference in Linda’s life, and it will make all the difference in your life too. 

This gracious woman, who not only had been adopted into the upward call from above to be a child of God but also was adopted from below ... here on earth ... to be a child of Henry and Sara Hearting ... She was a living example of the uncorruptible, unstained, and unfading hope that belongs to those who have simple faith that says Jesus loves you this I know. 

I am sure she was unshakable in that trust. All the trials in Linda’s life below were turned into triumph by our conquering Lord above. Though physically she had a weak heart for at least 15 years, God made her strong in faith. Though physically she suffered with Alzheimer’s and diabetes, God made her strong in faith. He never forgot her. So she knew Jesus loves you.

God the Father chose our dear wife, mother, sister, grandmother, great grandmother to be one of his very own before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). Born to a couple wayward parents, God ensured that Linda Lou knew how much he loved her by leading Henry and Sara into her life when she was 6 years old. Through the Heartings, he then sealed his promise of the love of God in Christ upon her in her baptism here at Trinity Lutheran Church on April 17, 1959. She confirmed her God-given faith here on June 1, 1963. And she never ventured far from it, reminding me every time I ever met with her that ... Yes, Jesus loves you, and so too does Linda Lou.

If God had no other message for us in such a time of grief ... if he did not reach out, offering us love and hope ... enabling us to look up to the cross ... we would be tempted to turn against him and blame him for the loss that has come to us. But instead, according to God’s great mercy, he has caused us to be born into the upward call of God into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (v 3). 

When Peter wrote these words, he likely was thinking of how his readers had been baptized recently. At this moment, we too should remember the miraculous new birth in Holy Baptism that God gave to Linda. 

III.

That baptism says God chose her ... and you ... from above ... that Jesus loves you and Linda Lou, too ... that his door and his way are open wide. He takes us ... the sinful people that we are ... the orphans that we are ... and draws us to himself. He unites us with the family of God in the very life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 

What comfort amid grief and sorrow it is to know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, loved you in this way. On account of him ... like Linda Lou, you have been given new life through the resurrection that will be revealed on the last day. On account of him ... like Linda Lou, God the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth. On account of him ... like Linda Lou, we now have a living hope that enables you to love him. To use Peter’s words, Though you have not seen him ... and to have faith in him ... even though you do not see him now ... and to be filled with a glorious and inexpressible joy while awaiting the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls (vv 8-9).

So sound the trumpets ... and pull out all the stops. Now we know why Linda and the whole choir of heaven, will be singing ... 

Jesus loves me, he who died / Heaven’s gates to open wide. /
He has washed away my sin. / Lets His little child come in. /
Yes, Jesus loves me. / Yes, Jesus loves me. / Yes, Jesus loves me. / The Bible tells me so. 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, ✠ and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

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