Richard William Landega Funeral Sermon – Matthew 5:13–16 November 29th 2025 / Let Your Light Shine

Richard William Landega Funeral Sermon / Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Saturday November 29th 2025: Season of Pentecost / Matthew 5:13–16 “Let Your Light Shine”

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

“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 Richard Landega when Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray ...”[1] and so Jesus gave this disciple and all the disciples the prayer that we now call the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer was a prayer that Richard held close to his heart both because of who gave it to us, our Lord Jesus Christ, and who it is a prayer too, our shared heavenly Father. It is a prayer for all seasons, for all circumstances, for times of gladness and times of sadness, for times of joy and for times of mourning, for times of anxiety and times of thanksgiving. So on a day like today when we both give thanks to the Lord for the gift God gave us in Richard and at the same time mourn Richard’s departure from us to be at rest in the peace of the Lord, this prayer then is a fitting one to contemplate and to think on. The Lord’s Prayer is light in the darkness and today it is light for us.

We are taught to pray this prayer to our heavenly Father, and so Richard did through his life: praying it with his children, praying it in Church, praying it in times of illness, praying it at the close of the day. Therefore be encouraged, when we pray as Jesus teaches us to pray we are like that city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. The act of praying is like a lamp set on a stand that gives light to the whole house. With our prayers we become the light of the world, and our light shines before others, and as it shines while we pray a prayer like the Lord’s Prayer people see and hear who it’s being prayed to, and this in turn gives glory to God the Father who is in heaven. Along with prayer virtues like patience, and kindness and generosity also show forth the Christian light of faith to a world in need of these things. And when people know why you act this way then this too gives glory to your heavenly Father who is in heaven. Dear ones it’s hard to hide the ‘who,’ and the ‘what,’ and the ‘how’ of such virtues when the Christian lives their life as the light of Christ in the world, but the ‘why’ may be harder to see if it isn’t explained. The disciple Saint John, one of the first men to have the Lord’s Prayer given to him by our Lord Jesus explains, “We love because [God] first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from [Christ Jesus]: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”[2] The Christian is called to treat everyone as their brother, to therefore treat all their neighbours with kindness and respect, to provide help in times of need, sometimes sober warnings about the dangers that surround them in their life. And so Jesus teaches us to give to everyone who begs from us, “and from one who takes away your goods” Jesus says, “do not demand them back.” Jesus says, “as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”[3] Richard was like this with others because he knew that God was like this with him.

And in the Lord’s Prayer Richard could come to his heavenly Father with everything that troubled him, everything that gave him any anxiety and putting it all in his Heavenly Father’s hands Richard could turn around and let his light shine before others. He could have this confidence because he trusted that God the Father is the giver of all that he needed in this life. As Saint James explains, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”[4] And so today we pray with Richard to our Heavenly Father saying, “give us this day our daily bread,” trusting that this is more than the hot bread coming fresh out of the oven, more that the crisp piece of toast popping up out of the toaster, more than the old fashion donut, or the bun that holds our hamburger. All the good and perfect gifts that come from our heavenly Father in addition to food and drink included everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbours, and the like.

Now as we look around few people ever have all of these gifts all at once, and sometimes we only have some of these gifts and sadly from time to time fail to see the value of them so we let them fall into disrepair or cast them aside and yet the Lord Jesus still encourages us to pray for them and God the Father still gives these things to us out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in us. For all this [Martin Luther in the Small Catechism teaches] it is our duty to thank and praise, serve and obey our heavenly Father in heaven. Many of these material blessings placed in our hands become resources that we can share with others in need, and so as the light of the world God uses us to help our neighbour through a generous heart and genuine spirit of care and concern for the wellbeing of others. In this way the good and gracious will of our heavenly Father is done in our lives to His glory and the good of our neighbours who we are called to treat as our brothers in this life.    

In our Gospel reading Jesus teaches that the Christian is “the salt of the earth, but” then He warns us with this question, “if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?” then Jesus says, “It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” The world becomes a place that tastes bad if everyone in it is selfish — if everyone in it is out for themselves — this is not the life that the Christian is called into, and this is not the way Richard lived his life. It isn’t the way he lived his life with his wife Judy in their marriage, especially as she had more and more needs. Richard knew he needed Jesus as much as anyone and lived accordingly. Pay attention to this in your life, seek the source of it.

Dear ones the ultimate example of this way of life that Richard followed was the selfless self sacrifice of Jesus who, while “being found in human form ... humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”[5] Jesus was willing to be stripped of everything, even His public dignity and His very life so that Richard and you and I can have everything. In the darkness of Jesus’ crucifixion He was shown to be the very Light of the world, and because we are called to have our faith and hope and trust in this same Jesus we now can be that Light in the dark world. At the cross the Light of God’s love is not hidden, the fact that Jesus would suffer so that we would be saved shines forth reflected in big and small ways in our life when we care for others in their times of need. In this way God the Father’s kingdom comes to us and we are then able to be salt and light in a bland and dark world.

All the God-pleasing good things we do for others are the by-product of the love of God first shone on us in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The good works we do, the love we show others, even the prayers we pray don’t contribute to our salvation, they are the effect of being saved poured out on people who need it. Richard knew this and in the Lord’s Prayer he daily turned to his heavenly Father for all he needed in this life, praying likewise for the needs of others. Dear ones 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. Yes, let us live faithful lives in Christ Jesus who said of Himself “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”[6] 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] Luke 11:1
[2] 1 John 4:19–21
[3] Luke 6:30–31
[4] James 1:17
[5] Philippians 2:8
[6] John 8:12

(This sermon also makes frequent referances to the sections of Luther's Small Catechism dealing with the Lord's Prayer and the First Article of the Creed.) 

Photo Credits: Main Photo provided by the family and Mount Olive Lutheran Church; Jesus praying with His disciples from easy-peasy; Man praying with Bible from pxhere; Richard with Andrea, Dale, Karla and Kim provided by family; Richard and Judy provided by family; back of Jesus on cross from pexels; Photo from Richard and Judy's wedding provided by family.