homily for a baby

Text: Psalm 23; Matthew 18:1-5, 10b-14
Homily:

Let us pray.
God, we come before you today in sadness, because a baby has died and Linda and her family’s hearts are breaking. I don’t ask you to answer their questions now, to explain this or to justify yourself. I don’t ask you to take away their pain, for each tear says ‘I love you’ to this little baby. I just ask you to help them through this, to provide them with the strength they need, and to be present with the. God, take care of this little soul. We trust you with this baby’s care. Amen.

Linda, I’ve talked with you before and I still can’t even pretend to tell you that Baby’s death is part of God’s ‘plan’ for us, that her death was good, right, or just. It was none of those things. To say otherwise would be for me to deny your grief. Your grief is real – and you have a right to feel like you do. Anger, guilt, pain, immeasurable sadness and all the other emotions you experience right now are warranted. Though some may tell you otherwise, your grief should not be blunted because Baby’s life was so short. In reality, it probably hurts so much worse because of that. But I yearn for you to find something else in your grief. I want you to find hope.

Hope that Baby now rests in the arms of God, who loves all of us. Hope that her memory will become holy unto you even as her life, too short, was holy on this earth. You mourn, Linda, and all creation mourns with you. But you are not abandoned by God, and neither is Baby. Like that one lamb, she now rests with God who has known her from before the first time you felt her in your womb. You are children of God, and you may have confidence that it was not the will of God that your little one would be lost. But it is the will of God that she enters the kingdom of heaven, where she can rest beside those still waters, and even walk through the valley of the shadow of death – for God is with her.

And I know that you want nothing else in this world except for Baby to be here with you – for you to hold her, to comfort her, and to see her smile again. I can’t make that happen – there’s no power on earth that can. But I can promise that you will see your baby again. We are promised a time when our tears will be dry, and our sorrow will be over – the day of Resurrection. On that day we will see our loved ones again, when we are reunited with them to sing the song that began when creation was new. On that day, Linda, the lullabies that you sang out of love for your daughter will flow again from your lips, and you too will feel the perfect love of God. You will be together.

Have hope in that. Have faith that no lamb will be lost for Jesus, who will gather us all together as the shepherd gathers his sheep. The Good Shepherd, who gave his life for his sheep, now watches over Baby, and she is at peace. Linda, as you walk through death’s dark valley, know that God does more than walk with you. God carries you, as he carries your family and all of us, even as he carries Baby.

Amen.