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Writer's picturePeter Strobel

"In Memory of My Aunt Linda" - A Good Friday Homily - Psalm 22 - March 29, 2024

Updated: Apr 15

Sermon Context: The cover photo depicts my late Grandfather, Edgar Hintz. I do not have a manuscript for this sermon because, try as I might, I could not put words to paper without crying. To experience this homily as intended, use the link to watch the video, turn out the lights, and close your eyes. There was no light on the worst day of our faith, so it is good that we should have a chance to withdraw and experience the fullness of this loss. Before I was able to preach on Good Friday, I had to preach to an empty sanctuary so I could feel the loss of Christ, my Grandpa, and Aunt Linda. Before this, I have been unable to talk about my grandfather or Linda without getting choked up. If you watch the video, you will notice I have my eyes closed for the entirety of the homily. I found the only way I could deliver this painful word was to envision that hill where Linda and my Grandpa are buried, and stare at the crowded slope of Golgotha.



About Linda Hintz: Linda Hintz, the firstborn daughter of my grandma and grandpa Hintz, did not live long. In her brief life she was wracked by seizures and other health complications which contributed to her death after less than a year. I never met my Aunt Linda, but I chose to invoke her memory because her siblings and parents were shaped by her tragic passing. Even though my mother and her sisters never knew Linda, they were nurtured by parents who had to cope with the loss of their firstborn. My Grandpa and Grandma never forgot Linda. But in the years that followed, they chose to live lives that would make this world a gentler, just, and kind place. Linda did not live to see the fruits of their labors, but all those who came after her are a credit to a choice to not let death have the final victory.

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