The Funeral of David Daniel Coman
The Funeral of David Daniel Coman
December 20, 2025
Dear family and friends of David, grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God the Father almighty.
Our first reading today was from Psalm 91. Throughout history, the Church has frequently started funerals by praying this Psalm to express trust that a loved one is saved from this world of tears and welcomed into the Lord’s heavenly courts.
Psalm 91 was so revered that many believed it should be prayed daily as one walks through the trials, tribulations, and darkness of this life.
Just listen again to these words of the Psalm,
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. (Psalm 91:3-6)
What comfort this Psalm provides: God will be one’s refuge, even at night, so there will be no fear.
The darkness of night has long been associated not just with physical evil, but also with spiritual evil, trials and tribulations, loneliness, sadness, broken relationships, grief, and sorrow.
In a way, death reveals these various types of darkness to us, doesn’t it?
In later years, around the time of WWI, Psalm 91 became known as the Soldiers’ Psalm. A commander of the U.S. Army’s 91st Infantry Division gave each of his soldiers a card with Psalm 91 printed on it, and they would pray this Psalm for safety before going into battle. This tradition continues among military members to this day.
David was a soldier and helicopter mechanic who served during the often-dangerous Vietnam War. Undoubtedly, he probably prayed Psalm 91, the Soldier’s Psalm, as the darkness of war loomed over him and others in harm’s way.
Yet, the battle of this life for David begins just as it does for every Christian, at the font of Holy Baptism. There, he received the name of Christ and was made an enemy combatant of the devil, who long wished to tempt David away from his Savior. But the journey that began at the font initiates one long battle between the darkness of evil and the light of David’s Savior, Jesus Christ.
A challenge in this battle is that man cannot win it alone; it is only won through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s only won when man has faith in Jesus.
For this reason, the prayer of the baptized must always be the hymn we just sang, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
As you heard in the reading from St. Matthew, Immanuel means, “God with us.” For this reason, as we sang this hymn, we prayed as David did so many times—asking for God to be with us so the darkness of this life might not overcome us.
Taking a step back, the entire purpose of Jesus being born in the manger that first Christmas was to enter the darkness David experienced as a soldier, husband, father, grandfather, son, and brother—to enter his times of loneliness, days of sadness, broken relationships throughout his life, as well as his trials, grief, and sorrow.
Throughout these instances, Jesus was and is His Immanuel; He was with him. He is the Savior, who entered the great darkness of the cross that first Good Friday, taking David’s place in order to grant him the forgiveness of his sin so he might receive eternal life.
In a beautiful way, we confessed the eternal life David received and how Jesus has abided with him through all his days, as the funeral pall was placed over David’s casket at the beginning of the service today, to acknowledge the Baptismal life he received in Christ. We said,
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
How cool is it that in Baptism, God unites with man and becomes God with us, in life and in death? Baptism joins you, who come and gather around His word, in His death and resurrection.
There’s no greater news than this…
Let this be your comfort today: no matter the loneliness you might feel, or the sadness, grief, and sorrow that might accompany you even as David’s body is placed into the earth, God is with you.
Remember this little sermon as you now go to the grave, and as you gather again in God’s Church in the days ahead and sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” because in your grief, God is with you. +INJ+
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI
