Darryl was a great soul and I always enjoyed visiting with him, he will be missed by family and friends. But Darryl is with God now, and what a time I'm sure he's having. God bless his wonderful soul!
In God's constant grace,
Pastor Roy
Order of Service – Funeral for Darryl Johnson
Prelude:
Call to Worship:
You, O God, have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalm 90:1-2)
Greeting:
We have come together this morning to praise God for the life of Darryl Elwood Johnson;
to mourn our loss with one another, to console each other in our moment of grief;
to celebrate Darryl's life and all that he meant to all that loved him;
to celebrate God's love for Darryl, and His love for each of us;
And to commend Darryl to God's everlasting love and care.
Music: “Here I Am Lord”
Opening Prayer:
Let us pray,
Eternal Spirit, before whom the generations rise and pass away, even in the presence of death our first words to you are in praise for your unnumbered mercies. For the memory of loved ones now departed, we praise you. For their victories of character over trial, of courage over difficulty, of faith over sorrow, we give thanks, and for all those who have done justly, loved mercy, and walked humbly with their God, we sing joyfully to you. Grant us now this same joyful thanksgiving as we remember your child Darryl, and give to us that sure knowledge that you have won the victory over death in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen.
First Scripture Reading:
Psalm 65 NRSV
Thanksgiving for Earth’s Bounty
1 Praise is due to you,
O God, in Zion;
and to you shall vows be performed,
2 O you who answer prayer!
To you all flesh shall come.
3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,
you forgive our transgressions.
4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near
to live in your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
your holy temple.
5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,
O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas.
6 By your strength you established the mountains;
you are girded with might.
7 You silence the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.
8 Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it,
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide the people with grain,
for so you have prepared it.
10You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.
Music: “Does Jesus Care”
Second Scripture Reading:
Deuteronomy 11:13-15
13 If you will only heed his every commandment that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul— 14 then he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; 15 and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill.
Message: Pastor Roy Karlen – Woodlawn Christian Church
Darryl Elwood Johnson was born on November 7, 1927 at home in Pocahontas County to Olin and Clara Johnson. On April 17, 1949 he married Evelyn Short standing right here before this altar in this sanctuary at Woodlawn Christian Church. Darryl worked as a farmer for 64 years and was a devoted steward of God’s earth with his son, Ron. He was an active member of Woodlawn Christian Church. Darryl and Evelyn enjoyed 43 years of wintering in Florida, Texas, and Arizona. He leaves behind his wife of 67 years, four children and many grand children and great grandchildren.
When I came here to pastor a small church in a small town in Iowa, I knew the day would come when I would have to perform a funeral for a farmer. The day when I would have to preside over the celebration of the life of a man of God's earth... and a day when I would have to return to God's earth a man that tilled that soil. Well, today that day has come. We lay to eternal rest today... Darryl Johnson, a farmer... where I grew up, and I know it's the same here as well, that's really all I need to say.
Let me share with you these cherished words penned by the one and only Paul Harvey, these words concerning farmers, it's called “So God Made a Farmer”:
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.
"Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer.
Darryl Elwood Johnson, was a farmer... and he absolutely loved farming, he loved the land, and he loved his livestock. He particularly liked cattle and horses. I was with him when they admitted him to Shady Oaks for the last time, and he lamented to me that he wished he had a horse to ride around the walking path behind Shady Oaks. Darryl farmed for 64 years before retiring, he'd have liked to have farmed yet another year, but it wasn't to be. Darryl was more than just a farmer though, he was a wonderful husband and a loving father, grandfather and great grandfather.
When asked for words to describe their father the family offered up – strong, determined, competitive, that he always found a way. He liked to say “I'll bet you a steak supper”, he liked to be right it was just part of that competitive spirit that he had in him. He loved sports and he was very athletic, the family wondered if he couldn't have done well in baseball if he'd have had the opportunity. He loved to play ball even well into his retirement years.
Evelyn and he liked to winter down south and did so for many, many years, while there Darryl played on leagues and he was very proud of his accomplishments. He made sure to show me his trophies when I went over to visit them last fall. He obviously played very well and he enjoyed it immensely.
The family has so many wonderful stories that you simply must get them to sit and tell to you, Darryl has left behind not only a loving family, but so many wonderful, wonderful memories.
Darryl said that the “BEST DAY” in his life was the Christmas day that his son Ron was born. I suspect another notable day for him was the first time his young son said he wanted to be a farmer like his Dad.
Darryl loved to help Valarie with her horses, and you can see her eyes light up when she talks about these experiences, about learning to unload a horse from a trailer of all things.
He worked with Sherry on her basketball skills, she relayed a story about Darryl wanting her to be able to jump up and touch the ceiling with her elbow.
And he apparently was a partner in 'crime' with Roxie in more than just a few stories, but these are stories best left to Roxie… or the rest of the family to tell.
He loved and was proud of all of his children, each of them in their own way, each with their own special relationship to their Dad, or just Darryl as Roxie has called him for so many years.
Darryl taught all four of his children to work hard and to never give up, he taught by example for in the lean years he did what he had to do to make ends meet. From taking on jobs hauling corn cobs, to even selling Fuller Brushes one winter, a job Evelyn said he hated but that helped get them through after a hailstorm damaged the crops.
Darryl was always very proud of Evelyn, and how well she played the organ. He loved to listen to her play, it always brought a smile to his face and at the end of his life it was calming to him. One of the things Evelyn noticed and knew then that Darryl was nearing the end was when she asked him if he wanted to go listen to her play the organ in the Chapel at Shady Oaks, and he said no... she knew he was near the end then. Darryl and Evelyn had a long marriage and they loved each other to the very end. I could see that love when Evelyn straightened Darryl's hair and caressed his shoulders as he sit in his wheel-chair and I could see and hear that love as Darryl in the last hours of his life asked the girls to see 'Mom'. He wanted to know that his Evelyn or EvE as he liked to call her was there with him.
When I went to see Darryl as he neared the end I discovered that if I went about 11 o'clock that I had a better chance of catching him awake. We'd sit and visit for a while and then he'd ask about Evelyn and I'd ask him if he wanted me to go and look for her to see if she was coming to get him for lunch. I would ask him “Do you want me to go and find your bride”, Darryl liked that, it brought a smile to his face, a gleam to his eye and a little chuckle.
Darryl had a magnificent smile. It was a genuine smile that not only showed on his lips but in his eyes and his demeanor. About a week before he passed I went to see him and he told me “you might not want to visit today, I'm kind of cranky”. I told him that I could handle cranky and that I'd come to visit and so we were going to visit. His face lit up and he smiled and laughed and just said “alright then”... we went on to have a very good visit together. He truly had an honest and beautiful smile...
Evelyn told me that one of the things she loved about Darryl was that she never had to try and convince him to go to church. As long as he was physically able to, he wanted to go to church with her on Sunday. To the end Darryl was assured of his relationship with our Lord and Savior. Praise God!
Darryl Elwood Johnson passed from this world into the world promised to us all on Friday May 13th, 2016. He is reunited with his Father, his Mother, his sister LaDonna, and his brother Duane. His brother Duane passed away at the all too young age of 19, his plane shot down over the skies of Europe during World War II on his very first mission. Duane was listed as missing in action for three years and I am told that Darryl's mother Clara never truly recovered from the loss of her oldest son. Today the two brothers are together again in our Lord's Kingdom.
Praise be to God!
The family would like for me to share with you all this poem:
The Broken Chain – by author unknown
We little knew that morning,
that God was going to call your name.
In life we loved you dearly,
in death we do the same.
It broke our hearts to lose you,
you did not go alone;
for part of us went with you,
the day God called you home.
You left us peaceful memories,
your love is still our guide;
and though we cannot see you,
you are always at our side.
Our family chain is broken,
and nothing seems the same;
but as God calls us one by one,
the chain will link again.
Quite honestly, that link is never really severed... as long as we have memories and as long as our loved one still influences our lives and our decisions... we are never truly parted. Evelyn, as you said Darryl so loved to hear you play the organ... I'm sure that somehow, someway he can still hear you play... and he's still so very proud of his lovely wife who is so very talented. If you close your eyes right now, I'm sure you can see him with a twinkle in his eye and that smile on his lips.
13 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 arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends.
(1st Corinthians, Chapter 13:1-8)
Closing Prayer:
Immediately following the service there will be a brief committal service at the Lake City Cemetery, after which, the family invites you all to join them in further celebration of Darryl's life and a time of shared remembrances and closure, by gathering with them for a luncheon in the Church's fellowship hall. For those that do not wish to go to the service at the cemetery, please feel free to go down the hallway to our fellowship hall and wait for the rest of us to return.
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 Darryl 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, enfold him in your everlasting arms, hold him for he is 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:
Postlude:
Committal Service:
Gathering
We have gathered here to praise God and to witness to our faith as we celebrate the life of Darryl Johnson. We come together in grief, acknowledging our human loss. May God grant us grace, that in pain we may find comfort, in sorrow hope, in death resurrection.
O God, who gave us birth, you are ever more ready to hear than we are to pray. You know our needs before we ask, and our ignorance in asking. Give to us now your grace, that as we shrink before the mystery of death, we may see the light of eternity. Help us to live as those who are prepared to die. And when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you. AMEN
PSALM 121
We lift our eyes up to the hills.
From where does our help come?
Our help comes from the Unseen One,
The Maker of the heavens and the earth,
Who will not cause our feet to stumble,
Our protector who never sleeps.
The Abundant One preserves us,
The Watchful One is our shelter and
support.
The Vigilant One guards us from evil,
And keeps our Life-breath safe.
The Shepherd guards our going out
and our coming in from now unto eternity.
The family has requested that we share this poem again at the graveside:
The Broken Chain – author unknown
We little knew that morning,
that God was going to call your name.
In life we loved you dearly,
in death we do the same.
It broke our hearts to lose you,
you did not go alone;
for part of us went with you,
the day God called you home.
You left us peaceful memories,
your love is still our guide;
and though we cannot see you,
you are always at our side.
Our family chain is broken,
and nothing seems the same;
but as God calls us one by one,
the chain will link again.
Into your hands, O merciful God, we commend your servant Darryl.Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive Darryl into the arms of your love and mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of those that have gone before. Amen
Benediction:
May the all-abiding love of our all-gracious God... support you, guide you and uphold you in the days, and weeks and years ahead. His peace be upon you all. Amen.
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