Memorial message given at Vicki Mason's Celebration of Life, held at Noelridge Park Church, Cedar Rapids, IA, on May 10th, 2025. "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." (Psalm 116:15, NIV)
This is a day we all hope never to face, and yet it comes anyway. This is a day we should all despise. Even God calls death “an enemy.” It was not part of His original creation, but it became a fundamental part of our present existence. Vicki’s death leaves a huge hole in our hearts and lives. She is remembered for many things, including incredible love, great fun and caring for others ahead of herself. Perhaps she was an anchor for you. Perhaps there were things you still needed and hoped to say. And now she is gone. What will you do? All is not lost.
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. (Psalm 116:15, NIV)
For you and me, Vicki’s death is painful. But to God, her death is precious.
Why? Because saints like Vicki endure in belief in the Lord until the end of their days, even in the face of death. They trust in Him enough to walk in His ways. They are not ashamed of the Lord or His ways, so the Lord is not ashamed of them. On the contrary, these saints He highly esteems. Their faith to and through the gate of death is an honor to Him; their testimony of unshakable faith is precious to Him. They are precious to Him. When their task on earth is complete, He delights to bring them into His presence.
There is a veil between us and God. Even we who believe in Jesus Christ, though we have the Scriptures and trust them to accurately reveal the Lord and His will, though we have His Spirit dwelling in us, teaching and guiding us, yet still there remains a veil. We cannot see Him clearly; we cannot hear Him with absolute certainty. We must trust; we must believe; we must walk by faith in the record of the Scriptures and the testimony of His Spirit. One who endures in faith, who grows in faith into ever more perfect obedience springing from ever more complete love, this one is precious to the Lord.
And so there comes a day when the Lord is ready to reward them with the longing of their faith: To see Him face-to-face, to know Him as He already knows us. So we lie down here one last time and we awake in His presence—in His all-glorious, all-majestic, incomparable presence!
How often in the Bible men say, “Who can see the Lord and live?” He is so great in glory and majesty, in beauty and holiness, that truly the human heart cannot fathom, cannot endure. Men were terrified to catch even a glimpse of His glory, yet those who loved Him and trusted Him longed to see Him, to spend all their days in His throne room.
It is true that the fullness of God’s glory and holiness would blast our sin-steeped bodies to dust. But passing through death, we slough off this rotting case. The death we fear is behind us. We can and will see Him as He truly is, and we will endure. But we will not all stand. The body is left in the dust at death, but the soul endures forever.
I mentioned sin. Sin does not only corrupt the body, but it stains the soul. Sin is committed in many ways, in what we do with our hands and feet, in what we do with our mouths, in what we do with our bodies. But everything we do, right or wrong, flows from our heart, our soul. Our actions follow from what we believe and what we value, and our beliefs and values reside in that part of us that endures forever, the soul.
Ultimately, sin is denying the existence of God or thinking so little of Him, so as to minimize or reject His right to instruct us, teach us and require of us how we must live. It is doing or saying anything He would never, or failing to do or say something He requires of us—because we do not recognize Him as Creator and eternal King over us.
Every one of us has sinned. Every one of us has turned to our own ways. And every one of us will one day lay aside this body, and in due time, we will all appear before the Lord in all His glory. Those of us whose souls remain stained with sin will not be obliterated by His presence, as much as we might wish it were so; rather they will be fitted with new, indestructible bodies and cast into eternal darkness and torment. They will not stand; they will not remain in His presence.
But the Lord takes no pleasure in this, and that is where hope dawns. Hope for us who mourn for Vicki. Hope for all of us who would escape our bondage to sin and the doom it promises.
The Lord created us to live forever with Him, enjoying His holy presence and all His power and might! In a very real sense, we are masters of our own fate. We turned away. We chose to make our own way.
He grieved, like a broken-hearted father spurned by his children. Like you and I grieve today at the loss of Vicki to us. But He was not powerless, like we are. No, He crafted a way whereby you and I, like lost sheep, could be brought back to Him and remain forever in the life He intended for us.
The barrier is sin itself, and the penalty for sin is death—the ending of a life that was meant to continue forever. It was our sin that brought death into God’s once-perfect creation. Yet therein also lies the answer: The only way to pay for sin is by death. If there were someone who did not owe the debt, who never turned away from the Lord, who never denied His rule over his life, who by right of a sinless life could claim a never-ending life. If there was someone like that who would be willing to give his life in my place, could my debt be cleared? Could my soul be cleansed so that I could remain before the Lord forever?
The Bible records the words of the God more than two and a half thousand years ago: “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30, NIV). God, who is outside of time, who sees the beginning and the end and everything in between, God could find no man or woman who met the requirement of a perfect, sinless life. There was no one whose death could pay our debt.
So God the eternal Son came down out of Heaven from the Father and took on flesh and blood to become one of us. Born of a virgin by the power of God the Spirit, Jesus experienced every aspect of life, just as we do. He was tempted in every way, just as we are, and yet remained faithful to His Father and to His own nature. He cannot deny Himself!
And so He began and remained qualified to offer His life in our place. I’m sure you’ve all heard how Jesus submitted Himself to the condemnation of the rulers of His day. He was not powerless before them, but could have wiped them from the face of the earth with a word. No, it was for us that He submitted to mockings and beatings and finally an agonizing death on a cross, to offer His righteous life as payment for the debt we owe.
If He had remained dead, then His death would have been of no use to us. It would have proved that He was no better than us, that He had simply reaped the consequences of His own sin. But eyewitnesses, whose testimonies are recorded in the Bible, tell us that He did indeed rise from the dead—by the power of God and by right of His perfect life!
Today we mourn our loss of fellowship and communion with Vicki. We mourn the loss of her presence among us. We cannot call her. We can no longer drop by and chat with her. We will not hear her laugh or see her smile. No more card games or exotic trips. We will not share another meal with her as long as we remain on this side of death.
But do not mourn for Vicki! No, she heard the message of hope in Jesus and she believed what God had done through Him for her! She recognized Jesus as Lord and King, and however imperfectly, sought to conform herself and her life to His likeness. And she endured in that faith, despite testing, despite trials, despite her own failures—and victories! Whatever doubts arose in her heart, she didn’t let them derail her belief in God and trust in His Son. She kept seeking Him, she kept learning more about Him and about what He wanted her to be.
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Vicki was not perfect when she passed, not in herself, not by her own efforts. She was forgiven and she was counted perfect by God because of her faith in Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son, and His death and resurrection on her behalf.
When Vicki passed last Sunday afternoon, she did not cease to exist. She did not enter a realm of darkness and gloom. She opened her eyes in the presence of our blindingly glorious God, who delighted to welcome her into His eternal home.
One day we will all see Vicki again. We will all stand with her before the throne of Jesus Christ. Those of us who like her accept who God is and submit ourselves to His leadership and guidance, who trust in the death and resurrection of His Son for the purification of our souls, we will forever dwell with Vicki in the Kingdom of our God. There will be plenty of time to say those things you missed on this side of eternity.
If Vicki was an anchor to you, understand that Jesus was her anchor and He wants to be yours too.
Anyone here who continues to live life on your own terms, who refuses to acknowledge God’s right to rule over you, you will see Vicki one more time, but it will be brief. Perhaps then there will be time for you to speak your heart. But then Vicki will weep one last time—over you—when you are cast out of God’s presence into eternal darkness and torment.
Vicki never missed an opportunity to urge her family, her friends to come with her to church. It wasn’t for church itself, but what you could learn there. She wanted you to know her beloved Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Today, in Vicki’s stead, I beg you: Turn to the Lord, accept the Lord Jesus as your King. Humble yourself before Him, start getting to know who He really is and how He desires you to live. The Bible is readily available. Read it. See what God says about Himself. Learn to do what He does and to steer clear of what He won’t do. Be discerning in your choice of a church to attend and Christians to befriend—not all are true. But none will be perfect. Make sure they faithfully and accurately teach God’s Word and spur one another on to greater love and good works, like this church here.
Let this be the day that you return to the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul! Let this be the day that the angels in heaven rejoice over you! Let this be the day that removes all possible future grief from Vicki’s heart! Let this be the day that the Lord receives you as His own precious child.
In a few minutes, we will share a meal in honor of Vicki and in remembrance of her. Share your memories. Comfort one another. Vicki is safely with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Take some time also for quiet reflection: Do you have Vicki’s same hope and assurance? If not, seek me out during the meal or afterward. Pastor Dan, Bernie and a dozen others. Talk to any one of us before you leave. Settle in your heart today what Vicki also knew: Jesus Christ is Lord and He has offered Himself as payment for your sin that He might bring you to dwell with Him forever.
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.” (Acts 3:19-20, NIV)
Bernie will come and lead us in Vicki’s favorite song, I Can Only Imagine. She no longer has to imagine how she’ll respond when she sees Jesus, because she’s seeing Him constantly now. But what about you? Will you have her same delight when you see Him? You can. Talk to one of us today and make sure that day is a joyous reunion!