From a 2018 funeral sermon.
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In the New Testament book of I Peter, the old disciple was writing to encourage fellow Christians who were suffering under severe persecution. In a closing benediction, in chapter five (verses 10-11), Peter wrote: “And the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever.” ‘After you have suffered a little while,’ he said… ‘a little while.’
When Melodie’s aunt was saying good-bye to her at the hospital last Sunday afternoon, she said, “Just remember Melodie, in a little while, when Jesus comes to take you home, we are all going to be jealous of you, because you will be in heaven and the rest of us will still be here on earth with all our troubles.” ‘In a little while,’ she said.
Some people are very interested in trying to figure out when Jesus will return and bring an end to this world. Well, just yesterday I found the answer to that puzzling question. It is in Hebrews 10:36 which says, “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” And when will that be? We are told in the very next verse, verse 37, which says, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.” When will Jesus return? ‘In just a little while,’ says the Bible. Now you know.
Those were long days that Melodie was in the hospital, and for those of you that sat with her for even a few hours, it did not seem at all like only ‘a little while.’ It seemed like a very long while. So Peter also says this in the Bible: “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends—with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” It can seem like that to us, too. Sometimes a single day can seem to last forever—like last Saturday, and then Sunday, and then Monday. But then other times, a memory from even ten years ago pops into your mind, and it seems like it happened ‘just a little while ago.’
My parents are now 86 and their lives are not as full and busy as they used to be. They sit around a lot just waiting for someone to stop in. I told them a line I once heard that goes like this “Old age is when the years go by faster than the days.” They both agreed. The days are long for them now. But at the same time, they would wholeheartedly agree with James 4:14 which says, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” We are here just a little while, James, and others, tell us. ‘Where did all that time go?’ we wonder.
In a wonderful little conversation from the 16th chapter of the Gospel of John that phrase ‘in a little while’ appears seven times in seven verses (John 16:16-22):
Jesus said to his disciples, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.” Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
What a great passage and what a great promise for a day of grief like today. “In a little while you will see me again,” said Jesus, “and then your grief will turn to joy, and no one will take your joy from you.”
On the first Sunday of each year, our congregation hosts the Barbary Coast Dixieland Band. One of my favorite songs they sing is that old Gospel hymn, “Just a Little While to Stay Here.” Here are the lyrics to that wonderful old song, written by Eugene Monroe Bartlett, a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Actually, Monroe wrote this song ‘just a little while ago’ (in 1921):
1.
Soon this life will all be over,
And our pilgrimage will end.
Soon we’ll take our heav’nly journey,
Be at home again with friends
Heaven’s gates are standing open
Waiting for our entrance there
Some sweet day we’re going over
All the beauties there to share.
Refrain: Just a little while to stay here
Just a little while to wait
Just a little while to labor
In the path that’s always straight
Just a little more of trouble
In this low and sinful state
Then we’ll enter Heaven’s portals,
Sweeping thru the pearly gates.
2.
Soon we’ll see the light of morning
Then the new day will begin
Soon we’ll hear the Father calling,
“Come my children, enter in.”
Then we’ll hear a choir of angels
Singing out the vict’ry song,
All our troubles will be ended
And we’ll live with heaven’s throng
3.
Soon we’ll meet again our loved ones
And we’ll take them by the hand,
Soon we’ll press them to our bosom
Over in the promised land;
Then we’ll be at home forever,
Thru-out all eternity,
What a blessed, blessed morning
That eternal morn shall be.
All of that is promised to each of us, in just a little while, if only we believe in Jesus. He himself has promised it all to us, telling us in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Believe in Jesus and you will be all right.
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O Lord, support us all the day long of this troubled life, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world lies hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.
–Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
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The Barbary Coast Dixieland Band performs Just a Little While to Stay Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu2eOOv_zso
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