Sermon from June 14th and the Funeral of Doris DeVries June 15th

I don't have time this week to do much for the blog, so I'll just post up the sermon from last Sunday, along with the Funeral Service that we had on Monday.

God's Blessings to ALL!
Roy

Sermon June 14th, 2015 - Woodlawn Christian Church, Pastor Roy Karlen

Let's start right off the bat with a prayer today.  Please turn our hearts and minds to God.

We desire your presence with us O' God.
Still our restless spirits, that with quiet minds and reverent hearts we may hear your voice and worthily worship you.

Prepare our minds and hearts O' God, that through your Word, read and proclaimed, Christ may come to dwell within us, and ever rule over our thoughts and affections as Lord of our lives.
AMEN

Today, I'm going to preach over a piece of scripture which is among my favorites.  That would be the 'Parable of the Sower', specifically as it is found in the Gospel of Matthew.

The parable of the Sower is found in all three synoptic gospels, in Mark, Luke and of course in Matthew, and it is also found in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas. With this many attestations, it is obvious that it was an important parable to the early Christians.  This parable as found in Matthew was the scripture that was used at my Grandfather Fletcher's funeral, which obviously, makes this bit of scripture very special to me.  And for Scott Crandall out there, yes this is the sermon about my Grandfather that I mentioned wanting to do a few Sundays back.  If anyone would like to see a photo of my Grandpa Fletcher there is one in my office, in fact, I have photos of all of my grandparents in my office.

The parable of the Sower was the perfect bit of scripture for Grandpa's funeral for not only was he a farmer, but he also was a diligent sower of God's work and word.

Let's take a look at our chosen scripture verses for today shall we;

Matthew 13:1-9 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
The Parable of the Sower
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat there; and the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

Jesus goes on to explain these verses in verses 18 to 23 of this same Chapter in Matthew.  To paraphrase, the seed is the word, and that seed which does not take is that which is cast upon those who for whatever reason don't fully grasp the love of God, or who are simply too preoccupied with the worries of this world.  The seed takes root in some though and there it returns an abundance.

My Grandfather Fletcher was a lifelong farmer near Reliance, SD.  He was very active in the community.  He was active politically in Lyman County, and a lifelong Republican, who was close friends with the most liberal democrat.  He was a tall, handsome man, very much a charmer. Grandpa was a very kind, gentle and considerate man who was liked by everyone he ever met. He was a wonderful example in this world of silent testimony, for everyone knew he was a good Methodist and everyone that met him knew he was a good man.

He was genuinely God's hands and feet and cared for everyone, in deeds that were both big and small. When he was younger he was a pilot and he often flew folks that were ill to the doctor in larger towns or he would rescue folks stranded by blizzards or washed out roads. If he couldn't land and folks were in need he would drop provisions to them by flying the plane low over them. In his later years, he was famous for recording cassettes with audio books or music for people. He was an artist as well, working with oil paints but much more so with ceramics.  In his home he had a kiln and he made hundreds, perhaps thousands of pieces.  Anyone that came to visit him was given a mug or vase or something that he had made.  But more important than the deeds was the spirit in which he did them, kindness and genuine concern.  

Wherever Grandpa went he was sowing seeds, a living example of an all loving and gracious God.

As I said Grandpa literally knew everyone in the County. Please indulge me while I tell one story about my Grandfather. It's not particularly germane to the sermon, I just really happen to like this story.

One of my earliest memories is of going with my Grandfather to a Pancake Feed. Now for some reason, none of my siblings or any of my cousins were with us, nor was Grandmother. It was just Grandpa and myself. I was probably 3 or 4 years old and I remember walking into the hall holding onto Grandpa's hand. Everyone was so excited to see us and everyone came up and said “Hello Roy”, I just held onto Grandpa and said “Hi” and I think I gave a little wave to some of them. But I just kept wondering “how do all of these adults know my name”. I remember Grandpa going back and taking over the job of cooking pancakes on the grill and I stood by him literally holding onto his pant leg. And everyone that came by to get their pancakes again said some form of “Hello Roy, Good to see you Roy, or how have you been Roy”... I just kept saying my little “Hi's” back. Getting more and more confused as to how did these people all know my name.

Now this is the point in the story where I should really point out that I am named after my Grandfather. He was Roy to everyone in the County, but of course he was Grandpa to me.

A little later in the same chapter of Matthew there is a second parable that has to do with agriculture, which is also an apt story to compare to my Grandfather Fletcher's life.

Matthew 13:24-30 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat
24 Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

This parable unlike the story of the Sower which is found in all three synoptic Gospels, is found only in the Gospel of Matthew.  Now the fact that this parable only shows up in Matthew is interesting and potential quite revealing. Matthew's Gospel is written to a very specific and unique audience.  This Gospel is written to a congregation of predominantly Jewish Christians. And the time at which it was most likely written, the Temple has been destroyed, the Jewish leaders have implemented as part of the prayers in the Synagogues a curse on the Christians, so as a result Christianity is no longer merely a sect within Judaism, but on it's way to becoming a religion all of it's own.

The weeds or the tares in this parable are believed to be a type of rye-grass that grows in the middle east commonly called darnel. It is very difficult to discern the difference between darnel and wheat until the crop develops a head. There seems to be a obvious parallel here to the difficulty in discerning the difference between the Jewish Christians and those that are simply Jewish. It is only when we get to the point where the crop develops the head that we can determine the difference. That head of that shock of wheat is of course the cross of Christ.

It's difficult to come to this scripture lesson without going immediately to the cutting and burning at the end. That's when all those impostors get their comeuppance so to say. All that end times dialogue that seems to be so appealing to many. But is that really what we should be taking away from this parable? It certainly seems so at first glance but interestingly enough that's not the message most commentaries feel we need to focus upon.

The field we are told is the world, who among us has not been a weed to this world at sometime or another? I'm sorry to say that a very large “Canadian thistle” is right here front and center.

The late Marcus Borg was a well known Christian Theologian and one of the things he talked about that I really enjoy is the idea of 'lenses'. He told us that we need to consider the lenses through which we look at the world and scripture. Each of us has their own set of lenses which have been ground for us by our individual life experiences, as well as our fields of study and education. But for today let's all don the lenses of looking at this parable through the lesson of the Cross.

The lesson of love and grace and redemption. Lenses of reconciliation, renewal and transformation.

Let's look at this parable as the field not being the world but the field being our individual lives. Within each of our lives we have allowed God to plant good seeds and I am sad to say that each of us has allowed our egos and our own selfish self interests to plant bad seeds within the fields of our lives. We are all a mixture of the wheat and the tares and the fact of the matter is that we all need the grace of God in order to be reconciled onto him. The Apostle Paul himself stated in Romans that we all do that which we do not wish to do, and do not do that which we wish to do.  None of us are truly wheat in this field that is the world. We all fall short of the Glory of God.

When we look at this parable through the Cross, we see that it's not simply a story about final judgment but really a story forbidding us to judge others. If we begin judging people, we shall surely make mistakes and destroy fellow believers in the process. If there's to be any judging done, it's to be done by God and not by us. Rather if we consider ourselves the wheat we are to live among the weeds. And what the parable doesn't tell us but what we know from the message of the Cross is that those weeds aren't really weeds. They are all capable of being transformed into wheat through the grace of God. A grace that we humans cannot fully understand nor comprehend, a grace that we simply must leave to the almighty hand of God.

Far, far, far too many Christians go about judging others, especially fellow Christians. We label others as heretics and nonbelievers just because they hold a theological point counter to our own. These people are defamed and often driven from the folds. Rarely do we look upon those who are different as unique children of God. This is not what this parable instructs us to do, we are not to judge but we are to silently witness through our lives and our actions.

Let's consider this parable of the wheat and darnel, also through the lenses of the two parables that directly follow it in Matthew. The Parables of the mustard seed and the yeast. In the parable of the mustard seed we have the smallest growing to extraordinary size, and in the yeast we have a tiny thing spreading throughout the whole to 'change' the whole. Quite honestly we lose much of Matthew's message when we cut out the parable of the yeast. For here we get a glimpse of the transformational event of the Cross. The yeast is the cross and the dough is the world. The world is transformed by the smallest amount. So too can the tares be transformed.

Another interesting observation is that the parable of the Sower is also about being nonjudgmental. For how many of us with farming or even gardening backgrounds hasn't read this parable and thought “why in the world is he scattering valuable grain into rocks and stones?” why is he wasting seed on such thin and poor soil where he surely knows it will wither and die? Well, the answer is that it isn't up to us to judge the soil in which we plant the seed of God's word. Not a one of us can correctly identify were the seed of the word will yield it's greatest harvest. As I preached just the other week, the history of the Church is littered with the most unlikely becoming the most fruitful, and we need look no further than the Apostle Paul to see this truth. In fact we need look no further than Christ himself who came from the peasant class, the marginalized and the disregarded. We are not to judge or discriminate where and to whom we spread the seed of God. We may well see the one time strident unbeliever become a minister and advocate for God.

We are to live side by side with the tares, with our roots intertwined in fact. To live our lives, like my Grandfather lived his life, joyfully and quietly being God's agents in this world. And had he only lived long enough he would have seen some of these acts come to fruition and he would have had the privilege of seeing of all things, the 'Canadian Thistle' which was named after him, pick up the Good Book and preach.

I would like to think that he's watching not only me preach today but also my cousin who is a Minister in a UCC Church over in South Dakota. I know he would have been thrilled to know that two of his grandchildren are now preachers. For you see Grandfather sowed well and he did not judge.

Let us close this sermon with a prayer;

Dear Heavenly Father,
Help us to be ever mindful to not be judgmental of others. But let us be ever mindful of living our lives as a reflection of your love for each and everyone. Please forgive us for our failings and guide us daily to a better understanding of you and the path that you wish for us to walk in your creation.
We pray this in Your Holy Name.


Amen

Funeral & Interment Services for Doris DeVries - June 15

Called to Worship:

“I am the resurrection and the life,” says the Lord.

“Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,

And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

(John 11:25 – 26)

Greeting:

Beloved, we have come together within the strengthening fellowship

of friends and family:

to praise God for the life of Doris Lillian 'Kral' DeVries;

to share our grief with God and with one another;

to reaffirm our faith in God’s unfailing goodness;

to hear again God’s promise of resurrection;

and to commend Doris to God’s everlasting care.

Opening Prayer:

Let us begin with a word of prayer:

Gracious God, your love endures forever. Your faithfulness is unfailing and all your promises are true. The movement of your Spirit is evident even in our darkest moments. Attend to us now in our grief as we trust you will. Speak words of comfort to our hearts. Open us up to receive your hope. Fill us with the joy and peace that come from above. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

Hymn: What A Friend We Have In Jesus No. 585 All

The Gospel Reading: 14^th Chapter of the Gospel of John

Hear these words from Jesus:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.

If it were not so,

Would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and will take you to myself,

So that where I am, there you may be also.

And you know the way to the place where I am going.

I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.

In a little while the world will no longer see me,

But you will see me;

Because I live, you also will live.

I have said these things to you while I am still with you.

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,

Whom the Father will send in my name,

Will teach you everything,

And remind you of all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

(John 14:1 – 4, 18 – 19, 25 – 27)

Message:

Today we gather to remember and celebrate the life of Doris DeVries.

We have also gathered to worship and embrace our all loving and gracious God, who through his Son Jesus has shown the world that we are all loved and desired.

Doris's obituary is printed on the brochure that you all have and so I will not repeat much of that which is printed for you already. Doris was baptized here at Woodlawn as a young adult in 1949 and remained a member of Woodlawn Christian Church for the rest of her life. She was very active and involved in the church for as long as her health allowed. She and her late husband John were married in the church's Parsonage next door and they raised their children here within these four walls of Woodlawn Christian Church.

When I met with the family the other day the word that they used to describe her the most fully was caring. She genuinely cared about people. Doris was very devoted to visiting 'shut ins' in the Lake City area and felt a special calling to do so. After her husband John suffered a stroke she spent over 20 years caring for him while he was wheelchair bound. Her family marveled at her ability as such a small lady to be able to physically deal with her husband’s much larger size. She told them that she placed it all in God's hands and that He guided her along and gave her the abilities and strength needed.

In our conversation I heard a great deal, so much that there's no way for me to adequately share it all with you here today. Many of you know these stories already, and if you don't please talk to Doris's children and grandchildren as they have so many wonderful and enjoyable memories to share. I heard about a woman that I am sad that I never got a chance to get to know as she sounded like a wonderful and interesting person.

I heard about a woman who loved her family, a woman that loved to bake, who always had homemade bread, monster cookies, blonde bars or brownies among others. She was an Iowa farmer’s wife who took coffee out to her husband while he worked in the fields. A lady who loved flowers, cats (especially her favorite cat named John Boy), who loved working outdoors, and who adored decorating her home for the various holidays (especially for Christmas). A woman who loved to do crafts with her identical twin sister Dorothy. A lady who she and her identical twin just happened to marry brothers. Doris married John Devries, and Dorothy married Herman Devries. I heard about a lady who loved, loved, loved to dance and who often went dancing with her husband along with her sister and her husband. She especially like to go to Polka dances. Even after she was placed into the memory unit out at Shady Oaks, she continued to love to dance and did so regularly with the nurses, staff or family members. Her family shared that they find comfort in knowing that she is once again dancing with her husband John in heaven along with her sister and brother in law and so many other friends and relatives. I'm quite certain that our Good Lord enjoys hearing and watching a good polka as much as any of us.

But the thing I heard coming through this conversation the most loud and clear was a woman who loved her Lord. Right up to the end she would have moments of clarity and she would talk about Jesus, God and how she loved Him. This perhaps above all else stayed with her to the end.

It was shared that she would have wanted this service to be a worship service, with the appropriate focus upon our Heavenly Father.

We lift up to God our praises to him for the life that he provides to us all, and for the promise of life ever after reconciled with Him forever. It is for this reason that we as Christians, people with faith in our Lord for eternal life that we can face the loss of a loved one and do so in fact with joy. Joy secured in the knowledge that our loved one is not dead but rather transformed into a spiritual being and that when our time comes we will be reunited and our joy will be complete.

Praise God!

But I will point out to you all that perhaps the very best way that we can worship our Lord is by a life well lived, and focused on our God. A life lived very much as the life that Doris lived to be honest. A life of caring and serving, of nurturing and loving. The best way to worship God is to show your love for Him, and the best way to show your love for God is to love His children and His creation. From what I learned from the family the other day, I am assured that Doris did just that.

As I said our God assures us of life everlasting and a promise of the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15: 35-44

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Our parting from Doris is only a temporary event, someday each of us will be reunited with her and our God. United in glory, when the joy shall never end.

Let us please pray....

Closing Prayer:

Almighty God, you love everything and everyone you have ever made. Thank you for giving Doris to us. Thank you for receiving her into your loving arms. In your mercy you turn the darkness of death into the dawn of new life, and the sorrow of parting into the joy of heaven; through our Savior Jesus Christ, who died, rose again, and lives for evermore. Amen.

The interment will be at the Cottonwood Cemetery, just east of town. After-wards there will be a luncheon back here at Woodlawn Christian in the fellowship hall.

Benediction:

Sending Song: Just as I Am, Without One Plea No. 339 All

Committal Service: Cottonwood Cemetery

On the behalf of Doris’s family and friends, I thank you all for joining here to lie to rest the body of Doris Lillian DeVries. Let us now listen to the Words of our God:

[5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ² Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, ³ because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.]

– 2 Corinthians 5:1 – 5

God has called Doris home. We now commit her body to the grave and commend her spirit into the hands of God. We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. God has called Doris home. Let us pray.

God, we thank you for Doris. We know that she now enjoys your presence like never before. Please make your presence known to her family and friends who are afflicted with grief. Give them strength to carry on and carry out your will in the face of their affliction. Be with them always. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer: (SINS)

Prayer for the Family:

God, you do not willingly grieve or afflict your children. Look with compassion on the suffering of this family in their loss. Sustain them in their anguish; and into the darkness of their grief bring the light of your love; through Jesus we pray. Amen

Benediction:

May the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the grace of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.