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You all to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, as we remember the life of Isla Lind. The order of service is in the handout, the bulletins that were handed to you. And I would note this, and that is that I know that many of you come from different faiths and different churches, and some of you do not attend any church at all.
But for today, you're all Lutheran. So, I'm granting a special dispensation for this particular service. I think Isla would like it that way. And so, you'll note then that when we get to the parts where it's bolded, that is where you all participate, and you say those words.
So, you'll note then, that in a Lutheran church service, there is no audience. You are here to participate. And to participate, you will. So, with all of that being said, please rise. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In holy baptism, Isla Francis Lind was clothed with the robe of Christ's righteousness that covered all of her sin. Saint Paul says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
The opening hymn is Precious Lord Take My Hand. Please remain standing. Have mercy upon us. The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray. God of grace and mercy, we give thanks for your loving kindness shown to Isla Francis Lind, and all your servants who have finished their course in faith, who now rest from their labors. Grant that we also may be faithful unto death, and receive the crown of eternal life through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit.
One God, now and forever.
Amen. Amen.
We have a special reading from Molly.
Oh, yep.
If Grandma was here, she'd say, oh, just as everyone get back to work. So I'm Molly. I'm Isla's granddaughter. I have two things to read, actually. One of them is a poem I wrote, and I'll explain the other one later.
So, oh, Grandma, how we loved you. We dread seeing you go, but you're in a better place now, loved very much so. There are multiple parts of you that will very much be missed. Your life had so much meaning, full of love and full of bliss.
Your donuts will be missed the most. Yours were always the best. And you knew they were pretty good, way better than the rest. My favorite memory of you will be when you watched TV, so invested in Dr. Phil, since she had it on volume 50.
Reunited with Grandpa, your job is finally done, with your many, many children. You did great with each one. Do not worry about all of us. We will be okay. This is because we know we will see you again someday.
Say hello to Arden, for all of us still here, mowing the lawns of heaven. You sure loved your John Deere. It broke our hearts to lose you, but you did not go alone, for part of us went with you the day God called you home.
You are the strongest person I know, considering all you've been through, and that is one of the many things that I admire about you. You will always be in our hearts. We will talk about you still. You have never been forgotten, and you never will.
For there isn't a grandma even comparable to you, filled with love and laughter in everything you do. Although we cannot see you, we know you're always there, spreading love and joy, answering to us in prayer.
I wish you didn't have to leave. I still had so much to say, but I know I'll get the chance and see you again one day. A loving mother, daughter, sister, grandma, friend, and neighbor, this is not goodbye, it's just see you later.
This next thing is a tribute to Mom, written by Julie. She asked me to read it. We lost our Queen Isla on Wednesday, and England lost their Queen Elizabeth on Thursday. Mom and Queen Elizabeth are probably drinking tea, eating crumpets and donuts together by now.
We were blessed with the best. Mom was always there for us, and she was kindhearted, helped anyone in need, and would do anything for you. We were a blessed family. Mom's first job was being a hired man for her brother, Donald.
She told of her many stories that her and Donald would go to East Grand Forks to get seed potatoes, and there were two trucks. She drove one, and he drove the other. But she had told him that she had never driven stick shift, but he said to put it in gear and go.
And so she did, and she drove in the same gear all the way. She said he was good to her, because no one else would work for him. Mom loved being a farm wife, and told of her many trips to pick up parts, and the many lunches she made over the years for Dad and the boys.
Dad was not one that wanted store-bought. He only wanted homemade, homemade buns, L &M dried beef, homemade cookies, lots of sugar lumps, and his thermos of coffee. We kids were always dressed in red hooded sweatshirts, or red anything, since there were so much equipment going in and out of the farmyard.
She wanted them to be able to see us. Mom loved to mow, and she was a John Deere gal. She was very particular about her yard being mowed and looking perfect. Alan was given strict orders of where the line was for him to mow.
Her yard was her yard. In fact, Mom was mowing the week before she fell. She was so proud of her brand new John Deere rider, she got back in June. Joanie told of the time a few years back when she went with Mom to see Dr. Peterson.
He asked her how she was doing, and she said, oh, good. And then he looked at Joanie, and Joanie said, well, she does repeat herself once in a while. And Mom looked at him and said,.
Well, I have five kids.
I can't remember which one I told. And Dr. Peterson chuckled, and the story was never brought up again. Mom was known as the donut lady. She loved to treat everyone with an ice cream pail of donuts. She was so generous to all.
Her recipe was never shared, and Joanie finally said that we can take it out of the vault and find, but we only found that there were a few different variations of the recipes. We don't know which one is the true one.
Chloe was going to have Mom teach her how to embroider. She tried many times to teach her, and every time she tried, Mom told her to tear it out and start over because it wasn't perfect. She never mastered embroidery, and actually, none of us did.
Her work was always perfect, and that's how she wanted Chloe's embroidery to be. Mom loved helping anyone she could. When she was close to 80 years old, she went to brighten the days of the residents at the old people's home, as she would call it.
So for holidays, she'd color placemats or door hangings, and we'd hand deliver them. Mind you, Mom was older than most of the residents. When we'd be driving home, she'd remark about all the old people there.
If you didn't know this about Mom, she loved to talk and visit. No. Really? Did she? If she was in the checkout line at Hugo's grocery store, she'd visit with the customer in front of her. She'd ask, what's your name, where are you from, are you farmers, how many kids do you have, et cetera, and then she'd turn around to the customer behind her and do the same thing.
But she did love people. Arlen tells the time Mom was shopping in downtown Grafton, and there was a trans system semi stopped at a red light. She walked over to the truck and asked him, do you know the Lynn boys in Oslo?
And he said, well, yes, yes I do. And she says, well, they are my boys, Arlen, Allen, and Arden. Mind you, the traffic light had turned green by then, but she didn't care, and she continued the conversation.
She loved visiting. Mom loved animals, and any stray that came to the farm never left, as they were fed daily and taken care of. And she made sure there was a heat lamp in the dog house and a heated water bowl during the winter.
Whether it was a squirrel, cat, rabbit, a deer, you name it, they were all taken care of. Her grandchildren were adored by her, and she still did everything for them. Be it riding bikes, riding the go-kart, four wheelers, et cetera, they all had their special requests, and she complied for all of them.
Mom was our mentor, our confidant, the one we could ask anything about, and she will be so very missed. But most of all, she was our best friend.
Our first reading is taken from Job chapter 19. Oh, that my words were written. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book. Oh, that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me. This is the word of the Lord.
We are going to speak Psalm 23 together by half verse. You can remain seated. The Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
Amen.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. Our second reading is taken from the book of Revelation, chapter seven, and I will begin not at verse one. Instead, I will begin at verse nine. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, and peoples, and languages, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.
And all the angels were standing around the throne, and around the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne, and they worshiped God, saying, amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be to our God forever and ever.
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, who are these clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? I said to him, sir, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.
They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
This is the word of the Lord.
Awesome one, consider worlds thy hands have made I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout this place And sings my soul, my Savior God, how great thou art My soul, my Savior God, and sings my soul, my Savior God How great thou art, and sings my soul, my Savior God to thee How great thou art, Christ shall come With shout of acclamation, and take me home What joy shall fill my heart, then I shall bow And there proclaim, my God, how great thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee How great thou art, then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee
Please rise. Alleluia, alleluia. Jesus Christ is the firstborn of the dead. The holy gospel according to Saint John chapter 11 verses 20 through 27. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.
Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, who is coming into the world. This is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
We will confess our faith together in the words of the Apostles' Creed. I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
You may be seated. Of Jesus. The world is changing. It changes a lot. And you'll note, just like in politics, they say that all politics is actually local. I tend to believe that. You'll note, then, that all changes in the world are also local.
When I paid my respects this morning, shook Alan's hand, and he said, the world, it'll never be the same. It's not intended to be. It will never be the same. And that's kind of the point. The misery that we find ourselves in is all because of our rebellion against God.
We have sinned. We have fallen short. And we need to be saved. This is most certainly true. And you'll note that Isla, man, every time I think about Isla, there's only one word that comes to mind, and the word is naughty.
She is the kind of parishioner that every pastor needs, right? And oh, she knew how to press my button. I'll give you an example. So I ended up with what was diagnosed as a long form of COVID. And in the spring, I was diagnosed with something called COVID onset hypertension.
And so my physician has told me, I need to lose weight. I need to get healthy. I need to do some things. So I was vigilant. I did what my doctor told me to do, and I started losing weight. I started losing 20 pounds.
I kid you not, Isla comes to church and she goes, is your wife not feeding you? Don't, come to my house, I'll give you a meal. And she, oh man, that's the way she was. Isla, she always had a smile. Isla always had a kind of a Cheshire cat kind of grin.
Like she knew she was up to something no good, and she just wanted to see how far she could push the pastor. It was just brilliant. She had a wicked sense of humor, and I'm convinced that she thought that all of the world's problems could be solved with a hot dish, her lefse recipe, some donuts and some bars.
I kid you not. And that aspect of her made her, well, in my mind, a lot like the gospel. She had courage of her convictions. She stood for the truth. She was not swept away in gossip and lies. And she was somebody who was loyal, loyal to her family, loyal to her friends, loyal to her community.
And she will be missed. We can't fill her shoes. Her spot will always be empty. And that's the way it is in the world. The world changes. And so in that regard, in that regard, let us consider the greater context of our gospel text.
If you're not familiar with the gospel of John chapter 11, it says in this text that there was a friend of Jesus who lived in a town, in a town called Bethany. It's a village near Jerusalem. And his name is Lazarus.
And he had two sisters, Mary and Martha. And they had sent word to Jesus, because Jesus wasn't that far off, that Lazarus had become deathly ill. And they asked Jesus to come and to heal him. And Jesus didn't come.
In fact, when the word came to Jesus, he said, this illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. And you'll note then what ended up happening is that Jesus took, well, four days before he decided to leave for Bethany.
And in that time, one whom he loved, Lazarus, perished and died. And when Jesus arrived on the scene, he was already dead for a few days. And so we pick up then, when Jesus came then, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
And Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews who had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and she met Jesus.
Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And that's true words. Because when we look at the life of Christ, an amazing life, none other compares to his.
Because he is none other than God in human flesh. And the reason why Jesus came was to save you and to save me. Because each and every one of us, we are incapable of saving ourselves. You'll note that each and every one of us, we grow old, we get gray hair, we get wrinkles, we become weaker.
We languish, we suffer, we die. It's all sad if you think about it. But the reality is this, this is the wages of our sin. The wages of sin is death. And so death comes to us all. And I like to think of the fact that Jesus didn't come when Lazarus was ill because it kind of mirrors our lives.
Where was Jesus? We were calling out to him. When Ila went into the hospital, we got the news, we got the call and the text from Julie that she had taken a tumble, taken a fall, and that she had had a brain bleed.
And so what did we do?
We prayed.
We prayed, Lord, have mercy on Ila. And as it goes with things like this, after the accident, there was the surgery, and then there was days that were good, looked hopeful, and then things took a hard turn.
Where was Jesus in all of this? Why wasn't he answering our prayers? You'll note that when we ask a question like that, we are assuming incorrectly about God. Christ has never forsaken us. When Jesus rose from the dead, and he knows a thing or two about death, he's been there and done that, and he has the scars to prove it.
When Jesus rose from the dead, he said that all authority in heaven on earth has been given to him. He's commanded the church to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and he has promised that he will be with us always, even until the end of the age.
You'll note that when it seems like Jesus is far off, that's oftentimes when he's the closest to us, because the promises that we have in Christ are not that things will get better and better and better in this world.
Instead, no, in fact, things will get worse and worse and worse. And then when all seems lost, then Jesus will return. He will return, and he will raise all who trust in him from their graves, and they will live forever with him in a new world that he is creating.
This is all promised and assured because Christ, unlike you and I, he actually conquered death. On the third day after he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, a crucifixion and a horrible death, why would Jesus need to die?
Because he died so that you can live. He bore your sins in his body on the cross so that you would never be condemned by God, so that you can have full forgiveness, pardon, and grace. And Isla knew a thing or two about grace.
Her sins also were forgiven. But here, Jesus, he doesn't come, and now Lazarus has died, and the first thing out of Martha's mouth is, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Indeed, he wouldn't be.
But that's not the point. Even now, she says, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, well, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.
And Jesus then says these words. I am the resurrection. I am the life. Whoever believes in me, that includes you, whoever believes in me, even though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this? Now, it seems odd that a pastor would preach such a text on a day like this, because have you noticed we have Isla's remains here? On that Wednesday morning, I got a call very early in the morning to come.
In fact, when I got to Altru, I had to check in. You know, because COVID restrictions and stuff like this. And when I checked in, they knew I was coming. They didn't even make me fill out any paperwork.
They said, you need to get up there quick. She doesn't have long. It was hard. It was hard to see her that way. Each breath was a struggle as her body heaved. That's the one thing seminary never prepared me for is just how much I see death.
Most people don't see it as much as pastors do. And the only people who see it more than pastors are doctors and nurses. And so we prayed.
Knowing full well she has faith in Christ, I always loved the fact that Isla, when she liked my sermon, she'd say, I liked your sermon, pastor. In fact, for a while there, she had a hard time hearing it.
So she'd always tell me if she had a hard time hearing my sermon, she'd say, I need you to talk a little louder.
Okay.
No problem. And then for a while, when I would get the right volume, she would say, I heard you today, pastor.
I heard you.
And so as naughty as she was, she totally trusted in Jesus. And so we commended her to the Lord. And then shortly after that, she breathed her last. And Julie said that it was peaceful. And that is the peace that can only come when somebody is in Christ.
Because Jesus says the one who believes in him shall never die. And I would know it. I believe Jesus. How do I, why do I believe him? Because he rose from the dead. So whatever it is that Isla experienced on Wednesday, it wasn't death in the truest sense.
She's now with Arden. She's now with her husband. She's now with the saints who have gone before her, who used to attend Kongsvinger, and are now joining us out in the graveyard. And as I pointed out to Joni, she's also seeing the face of Jesus, right?
And isn't that the big payoff? She sees her Lord. And so whatever death is for a Christian, it is not truly death. In fact, I can say definitively that because Isla trusted in Christ, in her baptism, she was buried with Christ.
She was raised with Christ. I could legitimately say, I know there's a date on that urn over there, but she's still alive. She absolutely is still alive. And the joy that she is experiencing, I can say definitively, her great desire is that you also have that same joy, when you finally breathe your last on this planet.
And that's why I chose the text that I did from the book of Revelation, because it's this beautiful picture of those who have departed this earth, this veil of tears, this shadow of death, this difficult world of suffering and grief and pain.
It is a picture of those who've gone before us and where they are presently. It reads in Revelation, after this I looked, and behold, there was a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages.
I guess that would include Norwegians too, right? They were standing before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
And that's where Isla is right now. And those are her words. She has joined her voice with this great multitude from every nation, and now she proclaims and cries out that salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
And with such a proclamation of biblical truth and of the glory of Jesus Christ, the angels who were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, in hearing these words, they fell on their faces before the throne, and they worshiped God, saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and forever.
And then one of the elders addressed John, saying, who are these clothed in white robes? Where have they come? I said to him, sir, you know. He said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And that's the whole point. We are not able to save ourselves, and sin over and again in scripture is described in terms of filth.
It's described in terms of stain and dirt, and it's dirt and a stain that you cannot wash out. Tide will not get it out. Oxyclean won't even come close. The only thing that can get this stain out is the blood of Jesus Christ shed for you on the cross.
Therefore, this great multitude, they are before the throne of God. That is where Isla is right now, before the throne of God. She is now serving God day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne, he will shelter them in his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. The sun shall not strike them, nor scorching heat, and the Lamb, Jesus, in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
We mourn now today. I would note that oftentimes people have a hard time with the mourning thing. It's this weird thing, as if somehow a death hasn't occurred, but a death has. It's okay to mourn. Mourning is the residue of love.
It shows that you had deep love, and that that hole cannot be filled again, and it's not intended to be. So feel free to mourn. It shows your great love for Isla. And note, she is well. She's very well.
But I left off in our story, Jesus here talking with Martha makes it clear that anyone who believes in him will never die, and he asks, do you believe this? And I have to ask you, do you believe this?
It's true.
It's true because Christ has risen from the dead. It's true that God loves you. Scripture says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.
No one needs to perish. All who trust in Jesus are forgiven and reconciled. And so Martha responds to Jesus's question. She says, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ. You're the Messiah. You're the son of God who is coming into the world.
And what happens next in this text is spectacular. When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, the teacher is here to call you. And when she heard it, she rose quickly, and she went to him.
And Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. And when the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
And then when Mary came to where Jesus was, and she saw him, she fell at his feet, saying, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit.
And the Greek here, deeply moved in his spirit, it's a weird word, embramaomai. And it discusses and kind of hints at this idea that Jesus moved in his spirit, was kind of moved with anger. But he's not angry at Mary, nor is he angry at Martha.
You know what Jesus is angry about? What the devil has done to our world. You'll remember all the way back in the Garden of Eden, when God had made everything, he declared that it was tovmaod, it was very good.
And sin has come into the world through the temptation of the devil and death as a result of it. And Jesus here, deeply moved, basically is rolling up his sleeves, and he's about to do something about death.
So he was deeply moved in his spirit, he was greatly troubled. And so he asked, where have you laid Lazarus? They said to him, Lord, come and see. And here then Jesus wept. You'll note that Jesus doesn't scold us like our mother.
In fact, I'm kind of glad about that. Jesus doesn't sit there and go, well, you know, this is quite the mess you got yourself into. You know, if only your parents hadn't eaten from that fruit of the tree, like I told them not to, you wouldn't be experiencing all this misery like you're experiencing now.
Now get in there and clean your room, right? No, Jesus isn't like that at all. No, Jesus came and he got into the mess with us. And here Jesus, seeing how sin has wrecked us, he now weeps. Tears of great compassion.
This is not how he intended this to go down. Death and the mourning that goes with it and the loss that goes with it. Mothers were never intended to be taken from their children and children were never intended to be taken from their mothers in death.
Where have you laid him? Rolling up his sleeves at this point. Jesus is gonna do something about this. So they said, see how he loved him? Some of them said, well, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind have also kept this man from dying?
So then Jesus deeply moved. He came to the tomb and it was a cave. A stone lay against it. And Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha and the sister of the dead man said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor.
I love how the King James put it. But Lord, he stinketh, right?
Love that word.
He's been dead for four days. And Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? And that's, note here, that's also for us. If you believe, you too will see the glory of God.
Jesus is coming again, by the way. He's coming again with glory to judge the living and the dead. And all who are in Christ are already forgiven and pardoned and they have nothing to fear from Jesus. So you who believe, you too will see the glory of God.
So they took away the stone. Jesus lifted up his eyes and he said, Father, I thank you. I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me. But I said this on account of the people standing around so that they may believe that you sent me.
And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. And when Jesus calls you by name, even if you're dead, and he tells you to come out, you know what you're going to do?
You're going to come out. And so the man who had died came out. His hands and his feet were bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said to them, you unbind him and you let him go.
Jesus went to the mouth of the tomb as if death itself had a throat. And he reached in with his words and he grabbed Lazarus out of the throat of death and he raised him again alive. And the reality is this, when Jesus returns, he's going to call Isla Francis Lind from the grave.
He's going to call Arden Lind from the grave. All who are in Christ, he will call them from the grave and the dead in Christ will rise. Death doesn't get the last say. We're not here to claim that death has had victory over Isla, far from it.
Death couldn't hold Jesus. Isla is in Christ. Isla is coming back when Jesus returns. And all who are in Christ will also come back as well. And Christ will raise them from the dead and even death itself will be thrown into the lake of fire to trouble us no more.
And as we heard in the book of Revelation, and God himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes. So brothers and sisters, it is okay to mourn. The hole in our lives left by the departure of our sister, Isla, is a big one.
No one can fill that hole. No one's supposed to. And it's okay to miss her and it's okay to cry. It's okay to want her back. But know this, all who are in Christ will have her back. They will have Arden back.
They will have Jesus forever in a world without end. And I guarantee you, when that world finally comes, her lefse recipe will be award winning throughout the new earth. In the name of Jesus, amen. Please rise for the prayers of the church.
Now note, at the end of each of my petitions, I will say these words. Lord, in your mercy, and when I say those words, your response is here our prayer. So let us pray to the Lord, our God and Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.
Almighty God, you have knit your chosen people together into one communion, into the mystical body of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Give to your whole church in heaven and on earth your light and your peace.
Lord, in your mercy. Grant that all who have been baptized into Christ's death and resurrection may die to sin and rise to newness of life and so pass with him through the gate of death and the grave to our joyful resurrection.
Lord, in your mercy. Grant that all who have been nourished by the holy body and blood of your son may be raised to immortality and incorruption to be seated with him at your heavenly banquet. Lord, in your mercy.
Give to the family of Isla Linde and all who mourn comfort in their grief and assure confidence in your loving care that casting all their sorrow on you, they may know the consolation of your love. Lord, in your mercy.
Give courage and faith to the bereaved that within the communion of your church they may have strength to meet the days ahead in the assurance of a holy and certain hope in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love who have departed in the faith.
Lord, in your mercy. Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand to believe and to find comfort in the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Lord, in your mercy.
In your mercy.
And now taught by our Lord and trusting in his promises, we are bold to pray the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me, he will never die. To servant, go in peace. Your word has been fulfilled.
My own eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of every people. A light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. The Lord be with you.
Let us pray. Lord God, our shepherd, you gather the lambs of your flock into the arms of your mercy and you bring them home. Comfort us with a certain hope of the resurrection to everlasting life and a joyful reunion with those we love who have died in the faith through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Let us bless the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace.
Remain standing for the final hymn.