In Memoriam +Donley Dale Kubasch+

 

In Memoriam +Donley Dale Kubasch+

July 28, 2025

Text: Eph. 2:4-10

            Don is baptized into Christ.  He is united to Christ, immersed in Christ, covered in Christ.  And that is to say, Christ’s death became Don’s death at the font.  And so, Christ’s life became Don’s life at the font.  Don lives, in Christ Jesus, who is risen, and lives.  Where Christ is, Don is.  And as Christ is, so Don will be on that Day when all things come to their fulfillment.  Don will rise from the dead.  Bodily.  And you, beloved, will rise from the dead.  Bodily.  And for you, who are likewise in Christ Jesus, you will see Don again.  With your very eyes.  You will talk with Don again.  You will embrace Don again.  You will live with Don again.  In Christ.  With Christ.  In the presence of Christ, who loves you, and whom you love.  Because you, too, are united to Christ, immersed in Christ, covered in Christ.  Because you are baptized into Christ.

            That is what St. Paul is getting at in our text, the epistle lesson from Ephesians 2.  Hear this, now, again: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6; ESV).  God made us alive together with Christ.  That is what He does for us in Holy Baptism, when He unites us to His beloved Son.  Now, it is all God’s work.  Baptism is not our work for God, it is God’s work for us.  Faith is not our work for God, it is God’s work in us.  Union with Christ is not our work for God, it is Christ’s taking us into Himself.  So, Paul stresses, it is all by grace.  By grace you have been saved.  Because God is rich in mercy toward you.  Because He loves you with a great love.  Even when you were dead in your trespasses and sins, which is precisely what you were apart from Christ… dead.  Spiritually dead, even as you walked around in the flesh.  Incapable of coming to faith in Christ, of uniting yourself to Christ.  If you are to be in Christ, God must do it.  His work.  Grace alone.  So, that’s what He does.

            It’s easy to see in infants who are brought to Baptism, as Don was by his parents, a mere 20 days after his birth into this world (with Pr. Ernst, at St. John Lutheran Church in Hollywood, Minnesota).  What does an infant do at a Baptism?  He doesn’t decide to be baptized.  He doesn’t walk on his own two feet up to the font.  He can’t even confess the faith for himself.  His parents and sponsors have to do that.  If anything, the infant does some rather unbaptismal things.  Probably cries.  Possibly screams.  Certainly squirms.  Maybe spits up, or… other things.  He doesn’t exhibit spiritual life in himself.  Actually, that’s why he’s there.  Because spiritual life has to come from outside of him.  From God.  By grace.  Grace alone.  By grace you have been saved.  God does it by uniting the precious infant to His beloved Son by water and the Word.  New birth.  Adoption into God’s Family.  God’s Name written on the little one, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” 

            You can see how that has to be by grace, apart from the infant’s work.  The same is actually true, though, for adults who come to Christ, and to Holy Baptism, if only we had eyes to see it.  Adults often think they made their own decision to come to Christ, and walked up on their own two legs to be baptized into Him, as though it’s some great work they’ve done for God.  But the truth is, God still did it all in them.  Before you can decide to be in Christ, God has already worked faith in you by His Word.  Before you can walk up on your own two legs to Holy Baptism, the Spirit has already done His work of converting you by His Word.  So, by grace.  Grace alone.  God’s rich mercy.  His great love.  Uniting you to Christ.

            Dead to self, because, as we heard from St. Paul at the beginning of the Service, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3).  So, Don got his death over with at the font, as a 20-day-old, when he was joined to Christ’s crucifixion.  That really rips the teeth out of physical death, doesn’t it?  And then what?  “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (v. 4).  So, raised a new creation in Christ.  You don’t even have to wait for heaven for that, because, when Don was a 20-day-old, he was joined to Christ’s resurrection.  His whole earthly life long, Don walked in Christ.  Immersed in Christ.  Covered in Christ.  Faith in Christ.  Baptized into Christ.  Newness of life. 

            That is what Paul is saying in our text, as well.  God raised us up with Christ, who is risen from the dead.  And what else?  Christ ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  So, by virtue of our baptismal union with Christ, we are seated with Him in the heavenly places.  So, get this… For us, who are baptized into Christ… for Don… death is not so much a leaving here for… somewhere, wherever heaven is.  I suppose there is a sense in which we can say that, so, fine.  But really, our physical death is an unveiling of what has been the reality ever since we were joined to Christ Jesus.  It is the curing of our fleshly blindness.  What we once knew only by faith, we now know by sight.  There is Jesus.  We see Him!  With the Father and the Holy Spirit.  There are the holy angels and the whole heavenly host.  There are our loved ones who died in Christ, yet live in Him.  Oh, and the things we hear!  The New Song.  The Song of Triumph.  The Song of Christ’s Victory over sin, death, and the devil.  You should read about it sometime in the coming days, in Revelation 4 & 5, and take great comfort in the fact that Don now sees this, and hears this.  And soon, you will, too. 

            But that’s not all.  “(S)o that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).  You know what that is, that showing of immeasurable riches that will happen in the coming ages?  It is the resurrection of the body, and the New Creation, the life of the world to come.  Again, this body will rise.  Don will rise from the dead.  And so will you.  And all who are in Christ will live together in the resurrection world.  You should read about that sometime in the coming days, in Revelation 21 & 22. 

            Now, we don’t deserve this.  Not even Don.  Yes, not even sweet, noble, courageous, loyal, self-giving, self-sacrificing Don.  That’s not how it works.  We’re sinners.  Even the best of us (and Don is one of the best of us, humanly speaking).  We still fall far short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).  We don’t deserve this salvation and eternal life with God.  But Christ does.  Don is baptized into Christ.  And so, what Paul here writes is true for Don, and it’s true for you: “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).  Christ gives His deserving to Don, and to you, as a free gift, by grace, received through faith in Christ.  And even that is not your doing.  It is God’s.  No boasting, except in what God has done.  What He has done for Don.  What He has done for you. 

            Well, that’s great.  But what about Don’s good works?  He did have them, after all.  Devoted husband, and father, grandfather.  A career of sacrificial service to his nation in the Navy.  Loyal citizen and revered veterinarian in the community of Moscow.  Etc., etc.  (And, of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what a gift he has been to his Church.)  Those, actually, are also gifts of God’s grace… to Don (it is a great gift to be able to do them)… and through Don, to us.  They are God working in Don.  Listen to Paul: “For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (v. 10).  God is the Workman.  We (including Don) are the instruments of God’s work.  And He has prepared the very works we do from eternity.  He prepared for Don, all those great good works our dear friend did for us.  He prepared for us, all the great good works we are given to do.  And (note this… this is very important), we don’t do these good works in order to be saved and go to heaven when we die.  That’s not how it works.  We do them because we are saved.  By Jesus Christ.  By His life, death and resurrection.  His work.  Which is to say, by grace alone.

            Don is baptized into Christ.  And so he is with Christ.  He is safe, and happy… enraptured by the beatific vision of his Savior, the Lamb on the throne.  That is your comfort.  You want to be with Don, there, in the royal court of Christ?   Be with him here, in His Church.  Baptized into Christ.  Listening for, and heeding the voice of your Good Shepherd.  Gathering around the Altar where the Lamb is with His true body and blood, for you, for your forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Gathering with angels and archangels and… what?... All the company of heaven.  That means Don.  Lauding and magnifying Christ’s holy Name… singing the Song!  Heaven comes down, here, in Christ’s Church.  Someday, the veil will be removed from your eyes, and you’ll see it.  But until then, it is just as true.  Where Christ is, there is Don.  Because Don is baptized into Christ.  Beloved, you be there, too.  God grant it, by grace, for Jesus’ sake.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.