Dale Krack funeral
Isa
25:6-9
1/12/22
Dale Krack was a man of service. He was also a friendly and engaging person –
the kind of person with whom you enjoyed having a conversation. I learned this almost immediately when he
became a member at Good Shepherd in Marion.
Now I knew
that Dale was an Illinois State Trooper, so it was already very clear that he
was the kind of person who was committed to the service of others. But because it was so easy to talk with him,
I learned the true depths of his commitment to service.
My son
Timothy is in the Infantry in the Illinois Army National Guard. His unit was scheduled to deploy to
Afghanistan, but literally as they were enroute the political arrangements
changed, and the U.S. military began making preparations to end operations
there. Timothy’s mission was cancelled,
and instead he ended being deployed to the Persian Gulf.
As I talked
about this with Dale, I learned that not only was he an Illinois State Trooper,
but that he had also served extensively in the Army National Guard, and had
been deployed several times, including to Kuwait. At a time when I personally was experiencing
something completely new – a son deployed on the other side of the world – it
was encouraging to talk with Dale.
Dale was
characterized by his service to his country and community. And even more so his life was defined by love
and service to his family. In his
vocation as husband and father he dedicated his life to time with Alison,
Isabel, Grant and Kate.
Dale Krack
was a great guy. And that’s not some pious platitude that one uses at a
funeral. He really was. And that fact raises all the more the painful the
question: Why are we here this morning?
Why did Dale die in such a tragic fashion?
On the one
hand, I can tell you exactly why Dale died. He died because he was a sinner. In our epistle lesson this morning the
apostle Paul says that “in Adam all die.”
That’s a very succinct way of stating what Paul told the Romans: “Therefore, just as sin came into
the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread
to all men because all sinned.”
Like Dale, we are all conceived and born as fallen
sinners. Not only are be born in sin,
but then we live in ways that put ourselves first, and God second. We live in selfish ways that don’t care for
our neighbor. We live in ways that break God’s holy will – his Law. Like the rest of us, Dale was a sinner. We
know that for sure, because we are here this morning. As Paul says in Romans
chapter six: “For the wages of sin is death.”
Dale was characterized by his love and service towards his
family, country, and community. But as
we gather here this morning, there is an aspect of his life that is more
important than any of those things. Dale
believed in Jesus Christ as his Lord. He
did, and because he did the words of the prophet Isaiah allow me to say two
things. First, I have absolutely no
idea why God chose to call Dale to be with him at this time. I can’t
explain why he died. And second, in the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we have the comfort of knowing that Dale
is with God, and we have the hope that enables us to trust in him and continue
in faith even though we don’t understand.
In Isaiah, the prophet has just written oracles of judgment
in chapters thirteen to twenty three against the pagan nations that surround
Judah. Next, in chapter twenty four, the prophet has widened and summarized
this by describing the judgment that God is going to be bring upon the world.
But here in chapter twenty five, he now speaks about the
salvation that Yahweh is going to give to his people. He says, “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a
feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow,
of aged wine well refined.” Isaiah
describes how God will provide an incredibly sumptuous feast of celebration on
Mt. Zion.
Then the prophet goes on to say, “And he will swallow up on
this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is
spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the
Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his
people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.” The prophet says that on Mt. Zion God will
swallow up death forever. He will destroy death and wipe away tears from all
faces.
Now in the Old Testament, Mt. Zion is important because it was
the location of the temple. The temple
was the place where the Ark of the Covenant was located in the Holy of
Holies. Yahweh had declared that where
the Ark was located, his glory dwelt. The Scriptures described God as being
enthroned upon the cherubim that stretched over the lid of the Ark. The temple
was the place where God had promised he was present in the midst of his people.
The temple was the located presence of God. But it was a type – something in the Old
Testament that pointed forward to what God was going to do in the future. We have just celebrated that event at
Christmas. In his Gospel, John describes
the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, as the Word. And then using language that comes from the
tabernacle and temple, he says, “And the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his
glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace
and truth.”
In Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, God provided the
fulfillment of the temple. Jesus himself
made this clear when he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up.” His opponents couldn’t understand what he meant. However,
John adds: “But he was speaking about the temple of his body.”
The temple was the located presence of God. It was also the place where the sacrifices
were offered by which God gave forgiveness to his people. Yet as Jesus’ words
indicate, both the temple and the sacrifices pointed forward to Christ – who he
is and what he has done for us. John says in his first letter, “In this the
love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into
the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not
that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to
be the propitiation for our sins.”
Jesus Christ died on the cross as the sacrifice that has taken
away sin. He won forgiveness for Dale.
He won forgiveness for you.
Through baptism and faith Dale received this forgiveness. He continued to receive it all through his
life as he heard the Gospel preached; as he received absolution from Christ;
and as he received in the Sacrament of the Altar Jesus Christ’s true body and
blood given and shed for him. Born again
of water and the Spirit, Dale was a forgiven child of God.
Sin brought death. Jesus
Christ passed through death in order to defeat it. As he said, “Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” On the third day – on Easter - Jesus rose
from the dead. Jesus lives! And because
Jesus, Dale’s Lord lives, we know that two things are true. First, Dale lives with his Lord now. And
second, Jesus will raise up Dale’s body on the Last Day. Jesus said at the tomb of Lazarus, “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.”
Dale is with the Lord, and for that we give thanks and praise to
God. But that does not mean that Jesus Christ has completed his work for Dale. Jesus rose from the dead as the beginning of
the resurrection that Dale and all believers will receive. Our Lord said, “For this is the will of my
Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in
him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Jesus Christ is not done with Dale’s body,
for when he returns on the Last Day he will raise and transform it to be like
his own. St. Paul told the Philippians,
“we await a
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly
body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him
even to subject all things to himself.”
In our text, Isaiah looks forward to that day when death will
have been swallowed up forever by the return of the risen Lord, and all tears
will have been wiped away. The people of
God will declare the he is the One for whom they have waited. He is the Lord
and so they are glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Today we mourn the loss of a son, a husband, a father, a friend,
and a congregation member. We mourn
because we simply do not understand why this has happened. The truth is that God has not given us an
answer to that.
Instead, what God gives to us is his Son, Jesus Christ, the
crucified and risen Lord. In him we find
the assurance that Dale is with Christ, and that the Lord will raise him up on
the Last Day. In him we find the ultimate
demonstration of God’s love for you, and the promise that Christ’s Spirit will
strengthen and sustain you in faith as you pass through this time.
In the resurrection of Jesus and the promise of the Last Day we
learn that what we really need is not an answer, but our Lord Jesus who is
God’s answer to every question we don’t understand. For in the resurrection of Jesus we have the
comfort of knowing that with Dale and all who believe in Jesus Christ, we will
say on the Last Day: “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him,
that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be
glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
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