Memorial Service for Lois E. Winters

The church’s best hymns are timeless.  Regardless of when they were written, they speak to our condition today.  The hymn we just sang, “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright” was written by a Lutheran Pastor, Philipp Nicolai, in 1597.  Though it’s 420 years old, it’s just as fresh and applicable today as it was when Pastor Nicolai wrote it.  His hymn speaks to our condition today: “Now, though daily earth’s deep sadness may perplex us and distress us, yet with heavenly joy You bless us.”  Certainly life gives us many perplexing distresses, not the least of which is death.  We are here today in memory of our dear sister in Christ, Lois.  Certainly her death is part of earth’s deep sadness, one of those things we wish just wasn’t.  Though death brings us sadness, for us as Christians it also brings a second emotion: joy.  Remember what you just sang: “Yet with heavenly joy You bless us.” As we remember Lois, we remember what St. Paul said to the Thessalonians in today’s Epistle: we do not mourn as those who have no hope.  Rather, we mark today with tears, but also confidence and joy because just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so will Lois also be raised because she is Baptized into Christ.

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