Unveiling Life :: Isaiah 25:6-9 :: Funeral of Elizabeth June Barnett
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there is no tip-toeing around this: Death is our enemy. We don’t want it to be. We devise ways to deny it, to whitewash it, to wish it away. We create euphemisms to deal with it. We like to say our loved ones passed away or that they fought the good fight, anything to soften the reality of death.
We do that because death is our enemy.
It bothers us and chases us and harasses us. We can’t escape it.
It scares us and afflicts us and plagues us. It disrupts our lives.
There is no stopping it, eluding it, or wishing it away.
Death is our enemy.
So today ... my dear brothers and sisters in Christ ... as we mourn the death of our beloved mother, and grandmother, great grandmother ... our sister and friend, Elizabeth June Barnett ... I want to draw your attention to our reading from Isaiah chapter 25, where we hear one of the great promises of the Lord God Almighty, the creator and redeemer and sanctifier of all things in heaven and on earth and in between.
Isaiah writes ... יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת ... the Lord of hosts ... will swallow on this mountain the covering that is enwraps all peoples, the veil that has been woven over all nations. He will swallow death forever. And אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה ... that is, my Lord YHWH ... will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for YHWH has spoken (vv 7-8).
Isaiah recognizes the weighty threat of death that lingers around us, leaving all of us confused about how to handle it. So he paints a magnificent image of the coming reality.
Death with all its sad symbols, the pall and the veil that covers us all ...
Death which swallows men and women alike under the earth and in marble tombs ...
Death which shreds our closest human ties and causes tears of loneliness ...
Death will be swallowed up and destroyed by the giver of life.
The death of death is drawing near.
1.
I am sure that couldn’t make your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandmother, your sister, Betty Barnett, happier. If she could, today, I am sure she’d lead the charge today to scare death away.
Betty loved taking care of us, looking after us, nursing us, nourishing us. She spent her life doing that very thing. Betty would do anything to protect you from death, to nurse you back into health. She loved taking care of people, protecting people, coming to the aid of people, especially the elderly. As a nurse and a nursing home inspector, she was a fierce advocate for the protection of life. And she fought death to the end.
But how quickly she was gone.
2.
Although today is a day of sadness, today our joy is greater. Together with all the saints who have died in the faith, Betty has been taken from this veil of tears, taken from this world of trouble. Her body which fought hard against death is at rest awaiting the resurrection of the dead.
Saint Paul knew this well. In our epistle reading, Paul writes: Behold I tell you a mystery. We will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I have no doubt that Betty has that victory. Betty is, after all, a baptized child of God. Through baptism on July 30, 1949, God gave her new life, eternal life. We know this because baptism saves. It does this because the water and the Word sanctifies us, it makes us holy, just as Christ is holy ... so that having been justified by grace through Jesus Christ, we might become an heir to eternal life and receive a seat at the Lord’s table the feast we celebrate every week.
That is the great comfort we have.
That was Betty’s comfort.
She knew, as Isaiah said, that ... On this mountain, the Lord of Hosts will make for all peoples ... that means for Betty and you and me ... a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine, well refined.
What an honor it is to receive such a gift that is so full of praise for the richness of God’s grace in the supper he gives to his children! And what a relief it is!
Jesus does what we cannot do. He gives his own eternal life to you. He has redeemed you. And now he is risen for you. His life is your life. Death is being swallowed forever.
Then it will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is our Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation ... In the precious name of Jesus.
Obituary of Elizabeth June Barnett
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Let us remember with thanksgiving what God has done through his servant Betty.
Elizabeth June Barnett was given life by her creator and was born June 28, 1949, the daughter of Dr Walter H Schubert and Lucille Knight Schubert in Missouri. On July 30, 1949, she received the gift of Holy Baptism and became a child of God. On June 9, 1963, she publicly confessed her faith and was admitted to the altar to receive the true life-giving body and blood of the Lord in Holy Communion. In marriage with Gerald William Walters, she was blessed with the birth of one daughter, Stacey Ann Phillips. God blessed Betty’s life with many special people as she served God in her vocations as a mother, grandmother, great-mother, wife, and nurse, as well as those in her church and community. Finally, on December 12, 2025, God blessed Elizabeth with a holy death and took her to rest and await the resurrection of the dead.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We give thanks to God our Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord, for our sister, Elizabeth June.