The funeral service was held on 11/23/2013 at Price Funeral Home here in Troy. Mom was buried at St. Joseph Cemetery in Lansing on 11/27/2013.
I don't think it's truly "hit" me yet that my Mom is no longer here. Maybe the fact that my Dad passed away prior to this has made the grieving process easier. Or maybe a special thought or image in the next few weeks will cause my tears to flow.
In that 11/16/13 post, I mentioned that Mom wasn't famous or wealthy and that she was a working Mom who focused all of her attention and love on her two sons. Adding to that previous post, Mom also welcomed into her heart two daughters-in-law and 4 grandchildren.
I've posted two photos below of Mom. The top photo shows Mom at her Michigan Bell Telephone work station in Lansing just prior to her retirement. She worked for Bell Telephone (AT&T) for 45 years! The second photo needs little explanation.
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| Mom at her Directory Assistance Station |
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| Mom and her 4 Grandchildren |
I've also posted below the sermon delivered by our Pastor, Allen D. Lunneberg at Mom's funeral.
Marguerite Alice Lambert
November 13, 1922 – November 16, 2013
Text: Luke 23:43
Date: November 23, 2013
Peace be to you and grace from Him who freed us from our sins.
To the world around us it strikes some as odd for a pastor to officiate at someone’s funeral whom he never knew. But that oddness is only because of the way many think that a funeral is only all about the person who has died. They use the word ‘eulogy’ which simply means ‘good words’ spoken about the departed, memories of his or her life of which, of course, I have none but you have many. And it is a good thing to console one another especially sharing memories of the good times as you hinted at in your mother’s obituary.
Yet there is a wonderful hymn which “remembers” all those Christians whom none of us ever knew:
We sing for all the unsung saints,
That countless, nameless throng,
Who kept the faith and passed it on
With hope steadfast and strong
Through all the daily griefs and joys
No chronicles record,
Forgetful of their lack of fame,
But mindful of their Lord. (Lutheran Service Book 678)
When we sang this hymn on All Saints’ Day it made David think about mom and, indeed, all of us of our own, private list of saints, our beloved faithful departed.
But far from having nothing to say about Marguerite, as a Christian funeral I have plenty to say about Jesus Christ her Savior, your Savior, Savior of the whole world.
It happens that the Holy Church throughout the world will celebrate the last Sunday of the church year tomorrow when the Scripture readings will be about what we call “the last things,” the last day of Christ’s return, the resurrection of all people, some to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life (Matthew 25:46). Interestingly, however, the Gospel reading for tomorrow is not about the last day of the world, nor even the last day of your life, but of the last day of the life of Jesus, His painful procession to the cross where He died for the life of the world. But in His final words we discover the key that unlocks the mystery of death and even of your eternal destiny. He says to the weeping women, “do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children,” from the cross He says “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” and to the repentant criminal dying with Him He says, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.”
The women wept as they followed Him, racked with pain from His beating, bloody and weak from carrying His cross. Yet Jesus says, “Do not weep for me, but for yourselves.” With His divine knowledge as the Son of God, He knew that the death He was soon to endure would be followed by His bodily resurrection from death, thus breaking the power of death for all who believe in Him. In this world we weep and struggle until at the hour of our death, the Scriptures say that the soul of the Christian is then completely free of sin and in the joyful presence of Christ.
Jesus prayed for His persecutors, saying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” What did they not know? The same thing so many do not know today, namely that in the death of Christ, God was there using their very evil, murderous intent to unleash the forgiveness of all sin for them and for the whole world! For some reason human reason will not believe the fact that in the death of a Christ all sin has been paid for, atoned for; all sin from the beginning of the world to the end; all sin including every one of yours and mine. There is nothing more that needs to be done. Heaven is an absolutely free gift. The only question is if a person will gladly receive it or madly reject it.
Finally Jesus utters the blessed promise with which I wish to bless the memory of your mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and sister Marguerite, and indeed all of you this day, the promise, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Remember that Christ said this to a repentant criminal, a repentant thief. Whether the man was ever baptized or not we do not know, nor do we need to because what counts is the word of Jesus and the mysterious, almighty power of God. Saving faith is the creation and gift of God the Holy Spirit working through God’s Word when and where it pleases Him. It can be through the words of a thorough knowledge of the entire Bible, or our Lutheran confessions, Christian conversation, or even simple words like: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
Jesus calls the place where we will be with Him “paradise.” There is a beautiful hymn sung at the very end of a Christian funeral just before the procession to the cemetery called, in Latin, “In Paradisum.” Here is the prayer of the Church for Marguerite, and for you:
May the angels lead you into paradise,
May the martyrs receive you in your coming,
And may they guide you into the holy city, Jerusalem
May the chorus of angels receive you
And Lazarus once poor
May you have eternal rest.
We bless the Lord. Thanks be to God. May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.
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