Saints Triumphant Sermon

Several weeks ago, for Saints Triumphant Sunday, Missionary Brad Krause preached a funeral sermon at the mission congregation Cristo Resucitado (Resurrected Christ) in Leon, Mexico. He spoke as if he himself had passed away.

Preaching a sermon on your own death may be a sobering thought, but Missionary Krause had a strong motivating factor behind it. Not long before, he had attended a funeral service in Mexico. "There was a complete lack of Biblical truth or comfort throughout the sermon," he recalls. "I thought, 'It would be nice if people could hear a biblical, Lutheran sermon to see the true comfort that God gives us in His Word.'"

Krause had also come across confusion regarding what happens after death. "Many believe you need to pray for the deceased person so that God will receive them into heaven, and if you don't pray for them, their spirit will stay around and haunt you and make your life difficult," he explains.

Another popular belief involves focusing on the good things the person who has passed away carried out during his or her time on Earth. This type of comfort doesn't work for two reasons, says Krause. First and foremost, it's false doctrine. Second, those sitting in the pew know the person better than the priest and know all of the sins in that particular person's life.

The funeral sermon Krause shared was a good opportunity to proclaim the Christian's hope and confidence. It focused on the perfect life, innocent death and resurrection of Christ. It also spoke of how God made Krause His child in baptism, how Christ gave him his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins in the Lord's Supper, and how God's law and Gospel strengthened him in the faith of Jesus Christ. "We find comfort in God's actions for us, not in our actions for God," he says.

In addition to preaching the sermon on Sunday, Krause distributed copies of it to about 70 people. "That opened the door for questions they might have had."

Thanks for the sermon, Missionary Krause, and we pray that more in Mexico may learn of the blessed Christian hope we have for life after death, thanks to Jesus Christ.