Sermon Title: Falling Asleep in the Faith – A Sermon on Death
Sermon Text: Matthew 25:1-13
Sermon Summary: Christ encourages us to order our spiritual affairs so we may fall asleep in faith, with the Word of God on our lips, a good conscience, and the pastor’s care, ready for His return and the wedding feast.
Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson
Liturgical Date: Pentecost 24, Proper 27 A
Calendar Date: 2026-11-08
Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County

Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County serves Jacksonport and other areas in Northeast Wisconsin.

The following transcript has been cleaned and lightly edited with the assistance of AI:

TRANSCRIPT

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Today we’re taking up the theme falling asleep in faith on the basis of our gospel lesson where we hear these words, “As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'” And the main point of what we’re going to be talking about today is falling asleep in faith, which means lying down with the Word of God upon our lips, lying down with a good conscience, and then finally calling the pastor to tuck us in. And if you haven’t guessed, when we talk about falling asleep in the faith, we’re talking not about falling asleep night by night, but rather falling asleep as this life’s day comes to an end so we might rest secure, awaiting for our awakening on the great and brilliant day of Christ’s return.

Veterans Day weekend, and I remember my own military trainings from when I was in the service. A lot of times when you’re in a training cycle, the schedule ramps up a little bit. And so you’re getting up at 3:30 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning. And if you’re getting up that early, at least for me, the only way that I could fall asleep in peace is making sure everything was laid out and ready the night before. Not leaving anything to the morning that I had to wake up, but making sure everything was taken care of. So my uniform pressed, neatly folded in one spot. Everything there in the order that I would put it on. Underwear, socks, T-shirt, trousers, blouse, in that order so I didn’t even have to think about it. My wallet and my keys and my ID, my dog tags sitting right there next to the uniform. My boots, we had shiny boots back then, unlike these non-shiny ones these guys have these days. My boots all shined up, mirror, especially if we were in garrison, mirror polish on there. Could cheat with your less nice boots when you were out in the field. But speaking of the field or speaking of being in garrison, making sure that everything was laid out, that I could just grab it on the way out the door. So my bag that had whatever assignments I was working on for class that day, if I was in a classroom cycle, or the equipment that I needed for that day, if we were heading out to the field or whatever it was. Everything absolutely in order. So I didn’t even have to think about it. And only then could I sleep in peace.

And my brothers and sisters in Christ, what Christ is encouraging us today in the gospel lesson is to as well have our spiritual affairs in order so that we might fall asleep in the faith. And as we fall asleep in the faith, therefore be awakened in faith, and instead of being cast out into outer darkness, instead being welcomed in to the brilliance of the wedding feast, being summoned to the right side of Christ. That is what Christ is encouraging us to do. So how do we do that?

The Word of God upon Our Lips

First of all, we do this when we lie down with the Word of God upon our lips. Deuteronomy chapter six, verses six and seven. We hear these words from God through Moses, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

The Word of God will be in our hearts if in turn and first it is also on our lips. Now we ought to certainly hear the Word of God, and we must hear the Word of God. It is good for us to come to the Holy Christian Church so that we can hear the Word of God as it is expounded from the pulpit, as it is read from the lectern. As we receive the Word of God in these tangible signs of the sacraments and baptism and the Lord’s supper, it is good for us to receive the Word of God, but it is also good for us to speak the Word of God. And as we speak the Word of God, it will be ever more dear to our hearts. And I have two encouragements for you with regards to speaking the Word of God.

Because you might think to yourself, “Pastor Chris, I don’t wanna be that annoying person who’s always got some trite saying on his lips,” that sort of thing, out in the public. Let me encourage you to speak the Word of God in your homes at the very least. So notice what God instructed the Israelites to do. “These words I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house.” You’ve heard me encourage you time and time and time again to have a home devotional life. Very simple one, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Simply open the Word of God, read just one section so the Word of God can be on your lips. It’s gonna look different in every household. So for example, when our children were young, it was really easy to work that into bedtime, ’cause everybody had the same bedtime, and they kinda depended upon the parents to drive that. Brush your teeth, get in pajamas, and actually even do these things when they’re really young. And so it was really easy, along with story time and all that good stuff, to build in devotional time. That’s a little bit harder as the kids have gotten older, and so we shifted more to after dinner times that we have done this. And when we do this, we give an opportunity for every one of the children to read a few verses out of whatever it is that we’re reading that day. That’s by design. That’s deliberate so that the Word of God would be upon their lips. I imagine that as we become empty nesters, it’s gonna look a little bit different still, and if we’re living by ourselves, that’s still going to look different. But even then, I encourage you, read the Word of God orally so that as the Word of God is upon your lips, that so also it would dwell in your heart.

Another way that the word of God can be upon your lips is as you participate in our Christian worship services, especially in singing the word of God. Colossians chapter 3, St. Paul gives this encouragement to the Christians in that church. He says this: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Now, there’s two things that I want you to understand by this. The first is the importance, the utter importance of you singing the Word of God, both for your sakes and for the sake of those around you who hear the Word of God upon your lips. As you sing the Word of God one to another, you are building each other up in the one true faith, and you yourself are being built up as well. Back in the 1980s, I grew up in sort of the last flourish of established Christianity, where the expectation was that everybody go to church. And I remember those days, the pews were full on a normal Sunday, and on special Sundays like Easter or something like that, even though you had multiple services, you had to put up extra chairs in the aisles, and you put chairs out in the narthex. I remember those days. But I also remember something that was missing in those days. I remember looking around as the hymns were being sung, and none of the men were singing. I don’t know if the way you grew up it was the same, but it was a very consistent thing in my church. None of the men sang. Well, it’s not surprising to me then that the churches began to empty out in the ’90s. These individuals called to be spiritual leaders of their families and of the congregation and the community were failing in this regard to nurture others and to nurture their own hearts.

On the flip side, I’ve seen the power of singing the Word of God, especially with older members of the congregations that I’ve served. It’s amazing to me to see the power of the Word of God in song, especially in those whose minds have gotten to a state where there’s not much else they can hang onto. As any Lutheran pastor, I do my duty and I go and I visit the folks in the nursing homes and the CBRFs, and it’s amazing. Because you can be sitting there ministering to somebody who doesn’t know who you are, even though when their mind hadn’t given way to dementia, they knew you well and you knew them well, but now they don’t know who you are. They’re not sure where they are, they’re not sure what year it is, and a lotta times they may just be completely unresponsive. And you think they’re just sitting there sleeping in their wheelchair. And then you start singing some old familiar hymn, and this person, weak in mind, weak in body, will start belting out that hymn word for word loud enough that you can feel the building shake. A little old lady making the building shake, and I mean making the gates of hell shake with her voice as she is singing the praises of the Lord, as the Word of God is upon her lips. That’s the power of Christian song as we sing the Word of God to one another, and as we ourselves are strengthened with it, it becomes a part of us, something that cannot be alienated from us. And even if we lose everything else, that kernel of faith remains. It’s powerful. I have another story relating to this in a little bit.

Sing, my brothers and sisters, so that you too might fall asleep in the faith. The other thing that I want you to understand about this is that this instruction from St. Paul is the reason why we select the hymns and the songs that we do here at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. So a lot of churches select the songs they sing on account of maybe the emotional reaction that they’ll get or to give people the opportunity for self-expression. But at St. Peter’s, those things are secondary. Now, certainly it is good to express one’s faith. Certainly we don’t lay aside the emotional, but that’s all sort of secondary. Now, here at St. Peter’s, we select songs insofar as they are able to be sung by the congregation, that are made for congregational singing, not for solo singing, and insofar as they teach the Word of God in a deep way. And if a song has a little bit more of a modern sound and it can accomplish those two things, we’ll use it. You know that we do. We’ve hand-selected some that meet those criteria. But it must be singable by that congregation. And as well, teach the Word of God. If you open up any hymnals, one of my favorite things, ’cause I’m an absolute dork, one of my favorite things in the hymnals is the footnotes underneath the hymns. There’s a whole lot of information there, and down at the bottom right-hand side are all the biblical references there. These have been carefully selected on account of their fidelity to the Word of God and their ability to teach the Word of God. You might pay attention to that.

We are strengthened by means of the Word of God. It is through the Word of God that we receive faith. For as the scriptures say, it is through hearing that we believe. And as we believe, we receive the wondrous gifts that the Lord has won for us. Through faith, we receive the gift of God’s grace, mercy, and peace, which Christ won for us through His holy and precious death, which He has given to us as well through His life of absolute and utter obedience to the Father. And through this means we have peace with God. God is now at peace with us, our sin having been atoned for. And therefore, as well as God having peace with us, that peace can seep out so that in turn we, through faith, have peace with Him, and through love can have peace with others.

A Good Conscience

Psalm 32 verse five. David says there: When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sins.

How will we sleep in peace? We will sleep in peace as we confess our sins unto the Lord, and by this means have a good conscience with regards to the Lord, knowing that we are forgiven and redeemed, beloved children of Him. My brothers and sisters in Christ, I encourage you daily to examine your deeds, your words, and the motions of your mind and the motions of your heart. And where you have failed to live up to the law of God, confess your sins and therefore receive the assurance of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness. By this means, you will be at peace with God and have a good conscience with regards to Him. But not only are we called to have a good conscience with regards to the Lord, but also with one another.

This peace that we have with God, God intends to seep out into our relationships with others so that we have peace with others. Matthew chapter 5, the Lord Jesus Christ says this, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift.” With these words, Jesus recommends and commands that insofar as it is possible in us, that we seek peace with a brother with whom there is discord. That as we have perhaps hurt or harmed another, that we seek to make amends and seek to restore so that we can have a good conscience with regards to him.

But not only are we called to have a good conscience with regards to those that perhaps we have in some way hurt or injured, but also the Lord calls us to have a good conscience with regards to those who have done ill by us. In Ephesians chapter 4, the Lord God commands this. Through St. Paul, he says, “Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” With these words, the Lord encourages us not only to seek peace with others insofar as we have hurt others, but insofar as others have harmed us, to seek peace by means of forgiveness, by means of grace and mercy, not letting bitterness, discord, jealousy or anything else with regard to the neighbor fester in our hearts, but rather instead to forgive by the power of the forgiveness that we receive in Christ Jesus.

Call the Pastor to Tuck Us In

The Lord encourages us to lie down with the Word of God upon our lips. He encourages us to lie down with a good conscience. And as we are preparing to lie down, the Lord also encourages us to call the pastor to tuck us in.

James chapter five. There we have this encouragement: Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. Unfortunately, sometimes the pastor is the last person to know anything going on in the congregation and among his flock. In fact, this is such a phenomenon that when I’m, for example, at the nursing home down in Algoma, once I’m done with my services, I literally walk up and down the halls to see if any of you snuck in there without telling me. This ought not be the case, but rather instead, my brothers and sisters in Christ, I want you to memorize three words to say to those around you as perhaps you are in a time of weakness or unsureness or whatever it is. Those three words are call the pastor. So let’s say you’ve fallen ill and it’s not gonna be a short one-night stay at the hospital, but you’re gonna be there for a little while and maybe you’ll get better, but on the other hand, maybe you need to have the comfort of the gospel and the time there. What are you gonna say to the staff or to your family when they come to visit you? You’re gonna say, “Call the pastor.” Let’s say it’s Saturday night. You’ve been in a bad car accident. You know the pastor’s getting up on Sunday morning, and you’re pretty weak. You’re in the emergency room and you’re not entirely sure if they should get in contact with the pastor or not, but maybe you get a little bit of clarity in your head. What should you maybe say to your loved ones and to the hospital staff? You’re gonna say, “Call the pastor.” When it comes to falling asleep in the faith, we are not alone. But rather the Lord has made us a part of His people, and He has appointed shepherds to our care to help encourage us in the faith so that we might indeed fall asleep in the faith.

Let me tell you one last story that kinda ties together much of what we’re talking about. I’ve told this story before, but I find it to be a very powerful story. The oldest member that I ever served was a lady by the name of Laverne Medke. She died the age of 102. But she outlived people’s expectations by about a year and a half. About a year and a half before that, about six months into my ministry here, I got called by her family because someone among her group said what? “Call the pastor,” right? And so I got the phone call, “Laverne’s not doing well. Will you come down to the nursing home and see her special?” So of course I got dressed, I went down, and I ministered to her. I did what I typically do. And I thought this was the last time I was gonna see her. I’d been serving for a while at that point and had a good sense of this sort of thing. I thought she was going to lie down to rest in the Lord very, very soon. And so I did what I normally do. I prayed with her, I read the scriptures to her, gave a little micro-sermon as well. And then in addition, I sang to her as I typically do. And after all that was done, I went on my way. And then a little bit later, like the next day or two days after, I got another phone call from the family. I thought I was getting called down to the nursing home, but instead they said, “Pastor Chris, we’re all very, very surprised, but Laverne has rallied and she wants to see you.”

So I go on down to the nursing home, and I had one of the rarest conversations I’ve ever had. This is not a conversation I have very often. “Laverne, you’re alive.” Right? So she said, “Yes, Pastor, I’m alive.” And they said, “You know, Pastor, she has a question she wants to ask you.” And the question, and this blew my mind, is “What’s the hymn that you sang to me when you were here?” I thought she was completely unaware that I was even there. She was completely unresponsive. I didn’t think that she was aware of anything that was going on in that room. She was, mind you, and remember that as your beloved ones get ready to fall asleep in the Lord. And said, “Pastor, what’s that hymn that you sang?” And I said, “Well, Laverne, I sang O Sacred Head Now Wounded.” And she started belting out without me even leading her that hymn word for word. Oh, sacred head now wounded with grief and shame weighed down. This is a woman who was so weak that she couldn’t even leave her room to go to my services in the common room that I ran in the nursing home. This is a woman who was blind, couldn’t read the scriptures for herself, who couldn’t hear, and so therefore couldn’t listen to the services that are played on the radio on WDOR. About the only thing that she could hear was my obnoxiously loud voice. And yet she had a deep well-rooted faith in the Lord God. And I am confident that she fell asleep in the faith. And that because she fell asleep in the faith that on the day of Christ’s glorious return, she will rise glorified, purified, to live and reign with him forever, welcomed into the wedding feast.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, that’s what we’re all about here at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. Yes, we are about helping you to live for Christ in this world, but above all, we are here to help you to die in Christ, so that you might live in the world to come. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.