Sermon Video and another Funeral

This last weekend found us conducting the second funeral that we've had to do since I came here as the Pastor for Woodlawn Christian Church.  This time it was for a member who wasn't much more than a year older than I am myself.  Anytime one comes up against deaths for an individual close to your own age it gets ones attention.  Not a one of us is guaranteed tomorrow, so hug your family and tell them you love them today and each and every day. 

I've attached the video of my sermon from this past Sunday's service along with a manuscript of the funeral for Steven Main that I performed on Saturday morning.

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In His Constant Care & Grace,
Roy

Order of Service: Funeral for Steven Robert 'Wiley' Main - July 25, 2015 - Service conducted at Lampe's Funeral Home:

Call to Worship:

Gathered in Christ's name, let us praise God
who is our certain hope in all life's varied circumstances.
In the face of death believe the good news the scriptures proclaim:
As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.
(Isaiah 66:13)

Greeting:
We have come together within the strengthening fellowship of friends and family:
to praise God for the life of Steven Robert 'Wiley' Main;
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 Steven to God's everlasting care.

Music:  Tim McGraw “It's Your Love”

Opening Prayer:
O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our brother Steven.
We thank you for giving him to us, his family and friends,
to know and to love as a companion on our earthly pilgrimage.
In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn.
Give us faith to see death the gate of eternal life,
so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth,
until by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Music: Holly Dunn “Daddy's Hands”

Music: Brad Paisley “He Didn't Have To Be”

The Gospel Reading:
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)

Special Music:  Brad Addison “Amazing Grace”

Message:  Pastor Roy Karlen – Woodlawn Christian Church

On July 19, 2015 Steven Robert “Wiley” Main passed away at the all too young age of 57.  Steve was born on March 17, 1958 right here in Lake City, his was a life taken far, far too early but he left behind for all of his loved ones, a life that they will always remember.  

Though I never had the privilege of meeting Steve or 'Wiley' as most of his friends called him, his family told me a great deal about him.

They told me about how he was a very creative soul, that he enjoyed working with wood and had recently constructed a planter shaped like a turtle out of landscaping timbers, at the time of his passing he left unfinished an American Flag that he was fashioning out of recycled pallets.  He was a hard working and big hearted man who apparently never met a stranger and who was always ready to help, even to help a stranger in need.  His family was very precious to him and he loved his children and step-children.  Rachel told me that she and he did everything together, that they were always together doing something.  Steve was always doing something, he didn't care to sit idle and he didn't care to sit and watch television, rather he wanted to be doing something.

He was a very social person and he loved people.  Steve also very much loved to dance much to his family's amusement.  He and his family enjoyed camping, hunting or fishing, or just being outdoors in God's creation.  In listening to his family it was also obvious that he was a man that loved animals, especially his dog “Carly Ann” who he took along with him as much as he could.

Steve's nickname “Wiley” came from his 7th grade friends.  They had heard the ads for the Iowa Congressman Wiley Mayne who represented Iowa in the House of Representatives from 1967 to 1975, and since they had the same last name his friends started calling Steve “Wiley”, the name stuck and he was known as “Wiley” from then on.

Steve and his wife Rachel loved the “King”, a/k/a Elvis Presley, and together they enjoyed his music and collected various memorabilia.  In fact we will enjoy one of Steve's favorite Elvis songs at the close of this ceremony.  Although Elvis was frequently called and widely known as the King, when he himself was questioned about the nickname, he always let it be known that there was in fact only one true King.  Our God, our Lord, our Father in Heaven.

Psalm 23  King James Version (KJV)
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Though Steve has been taken from his family and friends far too early, we know that he is safe in his Father's house in Heaven.  Though the parting is far too early in this world it is but a moment in Heaven.  In our Lord's Kingdom a day is like a 1,000 years and a 1,000 years are like a day.  Though we can count the years that we are parted here, it will seem like no time at all in Heaven where Steven and all of his family will enjoy eternity together with our all gracious and all loving God.

Though we are parted but for a time, we can take solace in the words of Apostle Paul:

1 Corinthians 13:1-8
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends.
Even though we are apart, as long as we have their memories, as long as these memories continue to influence our lives, our relationship with our loved ones that have passed remains.  And when that time comes that we are reunited in God's presence our joy will be complete.  In the knowledge that this separation is only temporary and with the love and comfort of our Lord along with the love and support of our family and friends, we can endure this brief separation.  For love remains, it never dies, it is there still with us.  For as Paul said;

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends, love always remains.

Steve's family loved him and he obviously loved his family very, very much.

At this point in the ceremony, the family would like to make time available for any of Steve's friends or family members that would like to come forward and share with all of us their memories.

Eulogies and Reflections:

Closing Prayer:
Our closing prayer here today will also serve as grace for the luncheon that will follow this service.  The family invites you to join them at the fellowship hall in Woodlawn Christian Church immediately following the service.  Let us pray:

O God, our Strength and our Redeemer, Giver of life, and Conqueror of death, we open our hearts to you just as we are.  We celebrate your gift of life freely given, but are grieved by a sense of loss in the face of death.  The love which binds us to one another leaves us aching as ties are broken.  Accept our tears as emblems of devotion, and transform them into waters of life to nourish us in the days ahead.
We trust you.  We love you.  We know in Christ that your love is everlasting.  Nothing can separate any of us from your abiding care.  With you is eternal life.
With confidence we now entrust Steven to your unfailing love and overflowing goodness.  Through the power that raised Christ from the dead to live eternally with you, lift up this, your servant, to life fulfilled beyond our imagining.  We give you but your own.  Accept him as he is with all his frailties as well as his strengths.  Enfold him in your everlasting arms.  Embrace him as your child.
Now strengthen us, through the gift of your Spirit, to face into the future with confidence that you stand with us.  Grant that the changes of life may leave us stronger as we journey through life.
Reassured of your abiding presence, help us to knit more firmly the ties that bind us one to another.  Renewed by your love, help us to love in ever larger circles so as to embrace your people everywhere till at last we are all united eternally through Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Benediction:

Sending Song:  Elvis Presley  “Hound dog”