When someone you love dies, the reality of that loss comes home to you most by their absence. You wander alone through an empty house where once you had walked together with your loved one. The bed you sleep in is empty now, lonely. You are aware of the absence across the table, or in the favorite chair. Who can you talk to now? Who can you laugh with, or share your joys and fears? Who will help you sort things out? What will you do today? Absence, the absence of your loss, reminds us over and over again that life will never be the same again. You are tempted at times like this to believe that life no longer has meaning. You are filled with fear and focus on surviving just one more day.

Sometimes congregations experience this very kind of thing. We wander into empty sanctuaries that once were full. We look across aisles at half-filled pews, pews where beloved brothers and sisters in Christ used to sit. Sunday school classrooms are not bursting the seams these days. We struggle financially. We wonder who will be there to help us sort things out or help us carry out today’s ministries. Absence reminds us of our loss.

The loss of our long ago days of vibrant congregational life is like losing a parent we thought would always be there to guide us. Those days are gone and our grief tells us that life will never be the same again. We are tempted to believe that there is no meaning to our life together. We stay away, we fear for our survival. It becomes our focus.

Part of the funeral liturgy is a quote from Romans 6:3-4. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Here Paul speaks of Gods power to renew our life in Christ Jesus. But this will be a new life, not a going back to the old life. God’s grace in Christ Jesus makes our life new. In Christ our life is an on-going adventure. We move out of the old and into the new. We move from past to future as we daily live this life of Christ that is in us.

Yes, we will fall prey to our grief & fears. Yes, we will make mistakes. To be sure we will face new and ever-changing challenges. But none of this has the final word over us. God has that word. In Christ we believe that this is a word of life, not one of death. “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

As congregations of Prairie Faith, we have experiences of loss & grief. We mourn the days of our youth, days we will never see again. But we have been raised to new life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have many reasons to be hopeful at PFSM (and thankful). We are finding ways to worship & work & witness to Christ together. There are many who know the love of Jesus because we are here. Whatever shape our family of faith takes in the future; whatever ways we find to minister in Jesus’ name to those around us; we will do it in the newness of life we are given in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the end what gives us hope is Christ Jesus and our continued partnership in the Gospel. God’s grace and peace be with you all.

Pastor Emeritus Randy Gibbs