Daphne Wagner Funeral Sermon - Matthew 5:14–16 September 7th 2024 / Let Your Light Shine

Daphne Cathrine Wagner Graveside Funeral Sermon / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Saturday September 7th 2024: Season of Pentecost / Matthew 5:14–16 “Let Your Light Shine”

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends and family of Daphne Wagner; Jesus encourages His disciples, and by extension you and I, when He said to them “You are the light of the world ... let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Daphne was a little ray of sunshine yet she was not the source of her own light she knew where that Light came from and it was not produced by her own power. Jesus in the gospel of Saint John says of Himself, “I Am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.”[1] She knew that the light lit in her heart was the Light of Christ.

The Gospel Light that shone in the works of Daphne’s hands for those in need was the Light of Christ Jesus. In that same Gospel of Saint John Jesus says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”[2] Daphne would not want you to think that the many kind and good things she was blessed to do in this life were ever done apart from the Light of Christ Jesus. When Jesus says of the Christian “You are the light of the world,” He’s pointing to the time which was to come, the time that came after His Good Friday Cross and Passion, after His crucifixion and death upon that cross, after His silent rest in the tomb on Holy Saturday, after His Easter morning resurrection from the dead, after His bodily ascension to the Father’s Right Hand in heaven forty days after Easter; to a time which was to come, a time when the Christian would be called and encouraged daily to be His hands and feet in the world, His voice and lips in the ears of the world. This Jesus is “the Light of men.” [Saint John likewise says] “The Light [who is Jesus] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”[3] True humility doesn’t seek to get in the way of that Light; it is the selfish and bitter heart that seeks to put the Light of Christ under a basket in favour of the false light of the world.

So when we hear the words from our Gospel today, “let your Light shine before others,” we can hear it like this, ‘let your Jesus shine before others.” This true and loving Light of Christ that shines forth in the life of the Christian has certain qualities. We see them in this passage from Saint Paul, now this is used often at weddings but it was written simply to illustrate the Light of Christ which shines forth out of Christian love, Saint Paul writes, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”[4] In those words do you see Daphne? In those words do you see Christ, the Light of the world, shining forth in Daphne? Daphne didn’t credit the work of her hands as her own, she didn’t count her God pleasing thoughts words or deeds as a credit to herself or a means of her own salvation, no she trusted that Jesus’ love for her is what saved her from her sin and from the darkness of this world.

Her desire to have the love of the Light of Christ shine in the darkness put her hands and feet in motion to help and care for many people she never even met in this life, people she may, by the grace of God, meet in Christ Jesus now as she rests in Him and in the new heavens and the new earth of the promised life which is to come beyond The Last Day. What a treasure it will be to meet someone in heaven who felt the warmth of the love of the Light of Christ through a blanket her hands were set in motion to make, a blanket delivered to them far in the north or around the corner or half way around the world in the darkness of their suffering. The riches Daphne had in this life, the riches she has in Christ stored up in heaven are more precious than any that can be attained apart from Christ Jesus.

Dear ones Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

[He then continues to say,] “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, [Jesus warns] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”[5] And so we come back to where we began, the Light in Daphne was not darkness, the Light in Daphne was is and ever shall be Christ Jesus the only begotten Son of God the Father. I leave you with these words of encouragement from Saint John, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”[6]

Living in that forgiveness the words of the hymn we will sing a little later ring true in Daphne, “take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine; take my heart, it is Thine own, it shall be Thy royal throne, it shall be Thy royal throne.” The love of the Light of Christ Jesus that shone out of the lamp of Daphne’s heart was not her own, we were blessed to have that Light shine on us. Nothing would make Daphne happier than for us to thank Jesus and give glory to His heavenly Father and not to her for all the wonderful things the Lord accomplished by her hands in her life of faith. Amen.    

Let us pray: Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] John 8:12
[2] John 15:4
[3] John 1:4–5
[4] 1 Corinthians 13:4–8a
[5] Matthew 6:19–23
[6] 1 John 1:5–7

Photo Credit: Main Photo provided by family and Mount Olive lutheran Church.