Funeral for June Amos – April 16, 2003
Opening remarks: 2 Timothy 4:6-7
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Look at the word "departure." That word was used with many meanings. It was a term that sailors used. It was a term for the unmooring of a ship. When a ship would set sail, the departure of that ship is the word that the Apostle Paul used here. Now when a ship would go out of the harbor, people would stand in that harbor and they would watch that ship sail over the horizon. Have you ever done that and seen a ship just slip over the horizon? So the people in that harbor say as the ship embarks and goes over the horizon, there she goes. But somewhere, there’s another harbor and that ship appears on the horizon and they say, Here she comes. Now, not only was it a nautical term, it was a military term. When soldiers would fold up their tent and move on to another campaign, the very taking down of the tent, the very folding up of the tent was the same word that is used here, to depart. Not only was it a term that sailors used, and not only was it a term that soldiers used, but it was also a term that politicians used. It was a political term. It was used for the setting free of a prisoner. When a prisoner was released from jail, this same word was used, a departure. One more thing: it was a farmer’s word. When the farmer would unburden the ox at the end of the day, when he would take the yoke from off the oxen, when he would lay aside that yoke, he used this same word. It was the departure or a laying aside of the yoke.
So, like that ship, June has sailed into another port. And like that soldier, June has pulled up the tent pegs. And like that prisoner, June has been set free. And like that oxen, June has laid down the burden. June has gone home with God.
Message: Philippians 1:20-24
“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”
I just want to spend a few minutes today in verse 21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
When the Apostle Paul originally wrote this letter to the church in the town of Phillipi, the circumstances of his life weren’t exactly ideal. He was in prison - under house arrest in Rome – chained to a Roman soldier as his guard. Paul was a prisoner and yet this entire letter shouts with triumph. It is filled with the words “joy” and “rejoicing”. The Christian experience is meant to be the life and mind of Christ working their way into our lives, whatever our circumstances might be. June lived the last years of her life a prisoner in a body that was filled with sickness. Yet she seemed to show joy and to rejoice in her affliction. Someone described her as “well within herself even when other things weren’t.”
You see, God has a purpose for life – for His glory. For Paul, life was not about getting things, or being happy with our situations. For Paul, life was about pointing others to God. For him life was all about Jesus. It was about giving God the glory for everything. For good times, because they are a blessing. For bad times, too, because God uses them to make us stronger. God has a purpose for each of our lives. We are not floating on a rubber raft in the ocean, just nowhere to go and not knowing how to get there. Life has been described as propping a ladder against a wall, and spending all your years climbing it. Too many people will climb all their lives, only to get to the top and realize they were climbing the wrong wall. God has a purpose for each of us, and June seemed to tap into it. Helping others through teaching school, helping others by being a good housewife, a good mother, and a good grandmother, helping her community, helping her church.
But the time came in June’s life to become sick, just a few years ago. Her life kept slipping away until the day came for this earthly life to give way for her heavenly life. And, just as God has a purpose for life – that is, for His glory – God has a purpose for death – for our gain. The writer Paul struggled with wanting to remain alive and point people to God, or wanting to die and gain a heavenly reward.
For the Christian, death is gain. For June, leaving behind this old world and trading it for a new one was an advance, was profit. In heaven we gain so many things.
1. We gain a better body – a glorified, immortalized, resurrected body.
In this present body of clay we’re subject to all the sorrows and tears that life deals out. Age, sickness, and finally death are the inevitable end of this house made of the dust of the earth. But in death and the resurrection we gain a better body, one that can never grow old, know disease, suffer pain, and can never die. No more cough, no more cancer, and no more consumption. We gain a better body.
2. We gain a better home.
However the beauty and the embellishments of any house we may possess in this world, it is nothing compared with our mansion in the beautiful city of God. Look at the promise of out Lord in John 14:1-3.
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
3. We gain a better inheritance. Our final reward is not here – it is in Heaven. Living for God on earth has its advantages. A clean conscience, freedom, purpose, meaning, hope. But the full value of the Christian life will be seen in heaven.
4. We gain a better fellowship with Jesus. The Christian life on earth was one of faith, believing before seeing. But heaven works different from that. We will see the Lord face to face. “What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, when I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace. When He takes me by the hand, and leads me through the promised land, what a day, glorious day, that will be.”
God’s purpose for our lives is His glory. God’s purpose for our deaths is our gain. June lived for God on earth, and she is reaping the fruits of her faith even as we speak.
(Both thoughts were taken from others sources, but I can’t find the references.)
