Hoyt Groeneweg
Notes
Transcript
“For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people;
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for the young man shall die a hundred years old,
and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Scripture: Isaiah 65:17-20a, 22b
Hoyt Groeneweg Funeral Meditation
On Sunday morning, I preached on a section of Isaiah 65. My sermon focused on what it means that by faith we have hope. When we use the word “hope,” it comes with an understanding of confidence, of expectation, relying and trusting on God that he has more ahead for us. Our Christian hope, literally the hope we have in and through Jesus Christ, is not to draw our eyes on what we can see and know and make for ourselves here in the present—but we hope for the life and the life eternal that is with him
I want to pick that passage up briefly this evening, looking at just a few verses. Isaiah 65 verses 17 through 20 and part of verse 22.: The Lord says: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.
Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years…For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.”
Natalie and Ron, Jagger, family of Hoyt, I had no idea on Sunday morning how close this passage was for this week. When God spoke through Isaiah many years ago, he indeed was speaking to a people who were troubled, a people for whom things were not going well. Their faith, their worship, their lives, their whole society were crumbling because of sin. Yet in the midst of pain, with their downfall looming, God gave them great hope. “Behold,” he says, see, look for what I’m going to do, for what I will create. The former will not be remembered.
Yet the former is where and when we live. The former time, our present, is the age of crying and weeping, of loss and bitterness. We are still in the age of mourning and of experiencing death. To belittle that or to push that aside, and think that everything will or should just go right back to normal immediately—that’s just not the case. Hoyt was a living boy—you saw him move on the ultrasound, you heard his heartbeat. Ron or Natalie shared with you how God had given them this miracle of life. And yet here we are, believing that through death, God has taken Hoyt to himself far sooner than you would have liked, far sooner than all of us would have liked.
We’ve talked today and throughout this week about what we can say and try to say accurately about what happens now. Hoyt is with the Lord; we can say that. We don’t exactly know what happens in between this life and the life to come. We do look forward to the day when all who have passed away, who have fallen asleep, will be raised with Christ coming again and we will live for eternity. We will be united as a whole family, with other loved ones and with all who have found salvation in Jesus. That is our hope and our future. In the present, if we feel someone is watching over us—we can affirm God cares for the intricate and intimate details of our lives, and he can or by his angels he may show his care for us. God knows our needs, our weaknesses, our sorrows. He does not leave us insufficient.
But it does hurt, and it will hurt. We want this day that we read about, “Never again will there be an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the days of my people will be like the days of a tree.” We yearn for that. We know that there are others too who have experienced this and likely others who will experience it in the future, and we wish it were not so. We plead that God will make this day of renewal and healing come very soon.
So we wrestle with our pain and what our faith teaches us and what our hope allows. Yet the reason we have hope, the reason why our view of Hoyt’s life and his death can be put in the story of Scripture is because we do have faith in God. We believe God is real. We believe God is faithful to his people, that he does care for you and has not abandoned or forsaken you. God is the author of life and the author of hope. God is the one who says to those he loves, “I am your God, and you are my people.”
We don’t know why, and we might not even like the answer if we knew it—and yet our non-understanding does not change that God is in control, he is with us in sadness and confusion and restlessness. Even as we hold onto this little box today, and we wonder what Hoyt LaRon will look like with a resurrection body, as surely as God knows each one of us and the hairs on our heads, he knows Hoyt too.
One day, sooner or later, God will call each of us home. On that day, there will be joy and grief on this world as well. Yet following Christ’s coming, we will forget about this life and its pain and weariness. We will live in the kingdom that God has prepared for us, and yes, the kingdom residence that he has even planned for Hoyt. It’s probably hard to imagine and appreciate right now, and that’s okay, but on that day, we will laugh, we will experience true joy—and we will be in the presence of our great God who will redeem and renew all that is his. A child cannot be replaced. The memory of Hoyt will not be forgotten. But may God in his timing strengthen your family and his vision of hope for the life to come. Amen.