SermonStudio

Death of an Infant
Laurence A. Wagley

The voice on the phone was __________ brother. He seemed able to say only a few words. ________ and ___________ had found the baby in the crib suffocating. ____________ held her while the life drained away. Then they had rushed out to the hospital.

It took a long time to get across the city and out to the far edge where ___________ and ___________ had moved, and I was too late. The nurse had a hard time telling me the baby was dead, and then she pointed out the door. "They've already gone." I ran out the door and down the ramp. Two figures, huddled back into their coats, were at the far end of the hospital making their way into the parking lot. I shouted, but there was no response. They just slowed their walk. I ran down the ramp. When I reached them, I was completely out of breath. It didn't matter. I had nothing to say.

For two days now all of us gathered here have been taking turns getting ____________ and ____________ attention. There have been tears and hugs and some awkward attempts at condolences. We have nothing to say.

We have gathered here today around this tiny casket hoping that by our presence we can say something that we cannot say with words. That's the first clue to coping with death - being present to one another. So it is that family and friends have gathered here today.

There is more presence here than the total of our concern. As we are present to one another, God is present here. The silence and grief of God are present here too.

You know the story, how God sent his only son into a cruel and purposeless world. The sign of the cross reminds us that God knows and understands the grief of a parent. This caring God who suffered the death of a child is here with us in our grief.

In our gathering there is a sense of impotence, of helplessness. We reach out to ________ and ________, but we also turn away in the agony of knowing there is nothing we can do or say to put things right again. Who can do battle with death?

Who indeed! Yes, it is a word to speak today! In the midst of our helplessness there is a parent God who comes to be with us and to share our grief, but this is also the God who has done battle with death and who has overcome it! Let the Church gathered here witness to the Good News that even this ultimate enemy, the enemy of death, has been vanquished by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Once there was a father who came to get help from Jesus because his little girl was sick. As he asked, the messenger came who said, "Don't bother. She is dead." It was to be a sign of the whole ministry of Jesus Christ that he went with that man, took the little girl by the hand, and said to her, "Talitha cum - Arise my child."

The real presence of this Christ is here with us today. He will understand and support us in our grief. He will also give us an assurance that death will not have the last word. While we are silent in the face of this death, Christ speaks. While we are helpless before this tragedy, Christ acts to assure us of eternal life. While we are afraid before the tombs of death, Christ comes forth as the Resurrection!

I remember that when ______ and ____________ were married, some people said no good could come of it. There were people who said that the marriage of a black man and a white woman could only lead to tragedy. They seemed to be particularly afraid of a child of the marriage - a little child. It would be tragic, they said, if a child were born of a black man and a white woman.

They were afraid of little tragedies - of a few taunts, of some people's prejudice. Little did they know. The tragedy was not to be the life, but the death of the little child.

Now we are met here to get our perspectives straight. ____________ and ___________ and this child have helped us. Oh, how we need such children. Children to remind us we are all children of the one parent God. What a tragic loss it is to lose this child! We all mourn because we are coming to know how much we need the life of such a child.

Now we know. The silent grief of God demolishes the prejudices that thought the life of this child a tragedy. The death of such a child reveals the true tragedies of this world. The community that hesitated to celebrate the wedding now mourns together.

So God comes again. This gracious God embraces us. The Infinite grieves with us. This parent God lifts this little child from the fragile embrace of death and gives her new life in an eternal realm. In the death of this child, our eyes are opened. In the death of Jesus Christ, we are brought to newness of life. And so, people of God, gather around this miracle today. God has entered into our battle against the death of this child, and in this death we suddenly see the world in a new way. Be sure that the death we see here will not have the last word. Christ will bring this little child, too, to resurrection. Thanks be to God! Amen!