Dolores Marie Hardtke

1 Peter 1:3-9 + October 28, 2026

Our English word eulogy comes from Greek. It’s the first word in today’s second reading. Εὐλογητὸς. It literally means “good word.” The New King James renders it as “blessed”: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I belabor this point because we of course want to eulogize your mother/grandmother/sister in Christ. We could speak for some time and not run out of good words to say. But the Bible directs us first to eulogize God, to say good words about Him. Why?

Because He has promised and guaranteed resurrection.

Death can be a kind of blessing—an end of suffering. But we only think this way because of the suffering. God did not make us to die. He made us to live. Yet die we do. It’s horrible.

Listen why St. Peter eulogizes, blesses, says good words about God: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” A casket says it’s over. Jesus says it isn’t. The cold ground is nightmare. The risen Jesus is living hope.

The ground is where we put the bodies of those who go before us. It’s also where we put seeds. Our Lord Jesus speaks of this in John 12. It’s right after the resurrection of Lazarus, and then the Palm Sunday entry to Jerusalem. Raising Lazarus from the dead draws the crowd. In between raising Lazarus and His own crucifixion, Jesus compares death to a seed planted in the ground: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much [fruit]” [v24]. The death of Jesus is the first-fruits. There is much fruit to come. “The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting”; “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”

This hope lived in Dee. It lived when all other hopes had faded. Last summer I was preaching in Phoenix and I mentioned Dee; not by name, but I described her, and her propensity to say, “Wow!” The Lutheran Witness asked me to turn it into a little article. The essence of it is this: When I would read the Bible to Dee, it was like she was hearing it for the first time. And her reactions to it put me to shame. Around Epiphany I read to her the account of the magi bringing gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Jesus. “Gold?” she said? “Wow!” On another visit, I read her a resurrection account. Jesus raises someone from the dead? “Wow!”

But one day she expressed some frustration. She couldn’t remember things or people. I told her that God also doesn’t remember some things. He says He forgets our sins, remembering them no more. This time she didn’t say, “Wow!” Instead, she said, “That’s very gracious.”

And it was my turn to say, “Wow.” Because grace is precisely the word. And that grace was her confession, all the way to the end.

Today, then, is a sad day, but it’s also a day to give thanks. Be thankful God gave you a mother who loved you, a grandmother who delighted in you, a sister in Christ who was a faithful friend. And she never gave up on her church, even when the going was rough. She was confirmed here, she was married here, and she persistently served without grumbling.

So we eulogize God, we say good words of thanks to God for her. And I don’t think it’s wrong to also eulogize her, to say good words. For in praising her, we praise the God whom she confessed as “very gracious.” She was kind to me and my family. She demonstrated her faith by this kindness. And she will receive from God the faithful one the end of her faith. What is that end? It’s written in today’s Epistle: “Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.”

Dolores Marie Hardtke has walked through the valley of the shadow of death. Her soul has entered the unseen realm. Her body awaits the resurrection. The angels are glad. Heaven rejoices. Christ is risen, and at the end of this age, He will raise and renew her body, filled with life, never to die.

Her memory of the bad things will remain forgotten. She will only know good, and she will dwell with all the saints in the house of the Lord forever. +INJ+