+ RIP Stella Mable Gesell +

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

In our gospel lesson for this day, Jesus invites us, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” What a glorious promise and comfort this is! For we all labor and are heavy laden with the cares of this world and life.

We labor under great burdens every day. The stresses of family, work, finances, and politics place great demands upon our time and energy. It sometimes takes all we have to keep going, one foot in front of another. There always seems to be one more project to finish, one more load of laundry, one more sports practice, one more bill to pay.

All these things weigh us down, and they can serve to distract us from God and His Word. The devil likes to heap upon us great amounts of care and worry, so that we are tempted to doubt God's care and seek to shoulder our burdens alone. But that only makes matters worse, because that puts all the weight on our necks!

That weight keeps increasing more and more, until we are crushed by all our failings, frailties, and sins. The devil wants us to be run into the ground, then buried with despair. He wants us never to see the light of day.

But his is not the victory! The victory belongs to Christ Jesus alone! He only is our Savior. He only has removed the crushing burden from us by shouldering the load Himself and nailing it to the cross. He only has given us His holy and precious life through His Holy Spirit. He has cleansed us through the waters of Holy Baptism. He has fed us with the heavenly food of His Body and Blood in His Sacrament.

Cleansed by water and Word and fed with heavenly food, we then come to Jesus and He puts His burden upon us and at the same time gives us rest. His burden is light because His burden is the knowledge of God the Father given us through Jesus. His rest comes to us because our strivings and toilings are ended in Him, because our salvation is found only in Him, and not in our own labors and dealings.

We have all received these things by faith here on earth in this life, as did Mable. But rejoice, believers! Our sister Mable has now received these things not by faith, but in truth. Her burden of this mortal life has been taken away, and she has received all the blessings of eternal life before the glorious throne of God above. Her Lord has brought her to Himself, put His yoke upon her, and given her rest eternal.

Now, as we lay these earthly remains into the grave, we know that this is but a bed-chamber while Mable rests in peace. From thence will our Lord call her, as He will call each of us, into the Glory of God on the Last Day.

As certainly as our Lord has died, is risen, and is ascended, He is faithful – He will do this! Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Amen.

Rev. Ryan McDermott

Howard Cemetery

Elma, IA

Committal of Stella Mable Gesell

7 August 2010