Ronald Gregg - Funeral November 6, 2019

Below please find the manuscript from the funeral that we held earlier today for Ronald Gregg.  Ronnie passed away unexpectedly on October 31st, please pray for his family, especially his wife Carol.

May God comfort and strengthen you all.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In Christ,
Roy

Order of Service – Funeral for Ronald Gregg 

Prelude:

Call to Worship:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. 
(2nd Corinthians 1:3-5)

Greeting:
We have come together this morning to praise God for the life of Ronald C. Gregg: to mourn our loss with one another, to console each other in our moment of grief; to celebrate Ronald's life and all that he meant to all that loved him; to celebrate God's love for Ronald, and His love for each of us; And to commend Ronald to God's everlasting love and care.

Opening Prayer:
Let us pray:
Father of all mercies and God of all consolation, You pursue us with untiring love and dispel the shadow of death with the bright dawn of life. Give courage to this family in this their time of loss and sorrow.

Secure in Your refuge and strength, O Lord, reassure them of Your continuing love and lift them from the depths of grief into the peace and light of Your presence.

Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by dying has destroyed our death, and by rising, restored our life. Your Holy Spirit, our comforter, You speak for us in groans too deep for words. Come alongside Your people, remind them of Your eternal presence and give them Your comfort and strength.  Amen.

Music: On Eagles Wings

Reading from the Old Testament:
Let us hear now a reading from the Old Testament,
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.

Reading from the New Testament:
Let us hear now a reading from the New Testament;
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.

Music:  How Great Thou Art

Message:  Pastor Roy Karlen – Woodlawn Christian Church
On Thursday, October 31st, of 2019, Ronald “Ronnie” C. Gregg was born into the Kingdom of Heaven.  Ronnie was born into this world in which we all reside on October 5, 1942.  He was born here in Lake City, Iowa to Walter and Berniece  Gregg.  He grew up on the family farm and attended Country School until the 8th grade. Ronnie attended High School in Lake City and graduated from Lake City High School as a member of the class of 1960.  On January 22nd of 1964, Ron married Carol Spencer in Waukon, Iowa at the Presbyterian Church.  Carol remembered that Reverend Tajden presided over their joy-filled union.  The happy couple later were blessed with welcoming into this world two sons, Todd and James.

When I asked Carol and her sister Kay for words to describe Ronnie, they said that he was fun-loving, that he loved to laugh, that he was always happy, that he loved to tease... and that's something that was confirmed to me by several others that visited with me about Ronnie.  They said that he loved to play golf, that he loved to hunt deer and he went every year to Nebraska to deer-hunt... because you see... you can use a rifle there, and he liked to hunt pheasants as well and did so when he was younger.  They also mentioned that he loved to play cards.  In fact, his card buddies are here today as his honorary pall-bearers in honor of their many hours of playing together.

Carol told me that when they lived in Eldora, IA that Ronnie had served on the Fire Department, and he very much enjoyed it.  Their grocery store was right beside the Fire Department and Ronnie could hustle over there and drive the fire-truck.  The fellows on the Department nick-named him “Little Bit” and even had that emblazoned on his uniform.  They liked to put two pillows on the front seat of the fire-truck to tease Ronnie about his small stature.  In spite of or perhaps because of all the good nature ribbing, Ronnie loved his time serving on the department.

One of the last things that Carol and Kay mentioned was how much Ronnie enjoyed working on the farm as a youngster and finally at the end for Dave Iler.  We'll talk more about that in a few minutes...

Carol also did tell a story about how when she and Ronnie were living here in Lake City the first time and their home was on Woodlawn, about Todd and James directing traffic out on Main Street.  Actually, it sounded like they had blocked off traffic on Main and then were letting a few cars go through at a time.  There was also a story about climbing on top of a stop sign... I was informed that apparently, the two were a bit rambunctious and a wee bit ornery.  I had assumed from the stories that I've heard since coming to Lake City that Todd and James uncle Kim was the ornery one in the Gregg family, now I'm told that it's a family trait and that Ronnie passed it on to his boys as well.  I think these stories... and it sounded like there are plenty of them... are best left to the family to relay after the service and while we're all gathered in Fellowship Hall enjoying a meal and reminiscing. 

When Carol and Ronnie were first married, Ronnie was working in Waukon at the Super Value as their Produce Manager.  Ronnie had gotten his start in the grocery business here in Lake City at the Super Value working for Pat Ryan.  Ronnie started at the Super Value as a bag boy and worked his way up the ladder.  When Pat Ryan purchased the Super Value in Waukon he sent Ronnie there as part of his management team.

After their wedding, Carol and Ronnie honeymooned in Minneapolis and unbeknownst to them, Pat Ryan had made arrangements to pay for their stay and expenses at the Hotel.  Obviously, Pat thought the world of Ronnie and must have very much appreciated him as an employee and as a friend.

It wasn't long after the couple was married that Pat purchased another Super Value, this time in Caledonia, MN, and he asked Ronnie to go there and to be the Store Manager.  While Ronnie was managing the store in Caledonia he was still involved in management in Waukon and he traveled between both stores off and on.

Ronnie then had a chance to work for his uncle in Esterville, IA at the Red Owl that his uncle owned there.  He managed the Produce Department in Esterville for about a year before he and Carol moved back to Lake City to work for Jim Schleisman at the Super Value in Lake City where Ronnie had started out so many years before as a bag-boy.  That was in 1967 and he remained there until 1971.  In 1971 Jim purchased a Super Value in Jefferson and Ronnie went there to manage that store.

In 1979 Carol and Ronnie purchased their own Super Value in Eldora, IA and aptly named it Gregg's Super Value.  They owned the store there until 1982 when they closed the store and Ronnie was approached by the corporate office of HyVee to come and work for HyVee.  He first worked for HyVee in Eldora and then he was transferred to work in their new store in Lincoln, NE, where they moved in September of 1982.  Ronnie worked in Lincoln until 1996 when he asked to be moved to the HyVee in Carroll in order to be closer to his mother who was in ill-health.  For a while, Carol remained behind in Lincoln trying to sell their home but she finally joined Ronnie and she then went to work at the hospital here in the admissions department.

After Ronnie's mother passed the family sold the farmstead and Carol and Ronnie moved into Lake City to their home on Lincoln Street.  They remained in that home up until this day.

Ronnie worked in the meat department at the HyVee in Carroll until October of 2007 when he retired and started working with his brother Gary detailing cars in the big garage that they have behind the house on Lincoln Street.  When they weren't detailing automobiles it sounded like they were busy playing card games and it sounded like euchre was the game of choice for Ronnie, Gary, and all of their gang.

It wasn't too long after Ronnie retired that Carol retired herself as she thought it wasn't right that Ronnie got to have all the fun.  It sounded like there were many great times visiting and playing cards enjoyed in that big garage.  Ronnie and Gary kept detailing cars as a side-line for many years, and it was just in the last couple of years that they decided to curtail their enterprise.  But, I understand that just left more time for card playing.

Ronnie also liked to cut his own firewood and he did so for many years.  It was also just in the last couple of years that he stopped this exercise as well.

He did keep working part-time though for David Iler working out on the farm for David.  In fact, some of the land that he was working on was the old Gregg family farmland.  Working the same ground that he grew up on and had worked upon as a child.  Ronnie loved to be out in the fields working and that is where he was when he passed... out in the middle of an Iowa field working to help bring in the fall harvest.  He had just been to see the doctor that morning and told them that he had to get going to get back to work, we all know all too well that when the harvest is in full swing there is always work to be done... and Ronnie didn't want to miss out on any of it.

Ronnie had worked for the Ilers for eight years and even though he'd had a bout with esophageal cancer this spring he was cleared to go back to work on the farm this fall.  David and Ronnie worked to determine what he would still be able to do and Ronnie went right back to work.  Ronnie had bounced back amazingly fast from the surgery for his cancer and it seemed his determination wasn't going to stop there, he wanted to help with the harvest.  After the surgery, he'd made it his goal to be ready for the fall work and he was there reporting for duty on the first day in the field.

Even though Ronnie had lived much of his life away from and working in the grocery industry, he never lost his love for the farm.  You can take the Iowa Farm-boy off of the farm but you can't take the farm out of the Iowa Farm-boy.  In the end, Ronnie died right where he probably was the most happy to be, out in the middle of a field helping to bring in the fall harvest... there's not much more a farm-kid could ask for.

Ronald loved to help on the farm, he loved the land, and he loved his Lord.  The Lord blessed him for his devotion and hear now these words found in the book of Deuteronomy:

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. 

The family asked that I share this poem with you all today;

Come With Me – Author unknown
When the days are sad and lonely,
and everything goes wrong
I seem to hear you whisper, "Cheer
up and carry on."
Every time I see your picture, you
smile and seem to say,
"Don't cry, I'm only sleeping,
we'll meet again someday."
God saw you were getting weary, so he
did what He though best,
He came and stood beside you, and
whispered, "Come and rest."
You bade no one a last farewell,
nor even said, "Good-bye."
You were gone before we knew it,
and only God knows why.
A million times I've needed you, a
million times I cried.
If love alone could save you, you
never would have died.
In life we loved you dearly, in death
we love you still
In our hearts you hold a place no
one can ever fill.
It broke my heart to lose you, but
you didn't go alone.
For a part of me went with you the
day God took you home.

Today we gather to celebrate the life of and mourn the passing of Ronald Gregg.  Though each of you... family, friends and loved ones gathered here today feel the heavyweight of sorrow in your hearts... each of us should at the same time... be filled with an overwhelming sense of joy and celebration for Ronald's entry into Heaven.  On October 31st, Ronald passed from this world and was born anew in the Kingdom of the Lord... there his eyes looked for the first time upon the incredible and unimaginable splendor of God Himself...  Praise be to God!

Music: Lord's Prayer

Closing Prayer:
Following the interment at Lake City Cemetery, the family invites you all to join them in further celebration of Ronnie's life and a time of shared remembrances and closure, by gathering with them for lunch in the Church's fellowship hall. For those who do not wish to attend the graveside service, please feel free to remain behind and wait here at the Church.  The family has asked that you please wait for the family to return before you start the luncheon.  Once we have all returned, then I will say a blessing over the meal and those who have prepared it for us today.

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 the waters of life with which 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 Ronald 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 a 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 – Ronald Gregg

Selfishly, we as mortals wish to hold on to Ronald. It brings great pain to let him go. Living in the resurrection and hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the trust of a loving God and in the promise of eternal life, we now commit his body to its place of rest. We will continue to mourn Ronald, but now his smile will warm the kingdom of God. We will continue to love Ronald, but God will now take care of him. We will continue to carry Ronald in our thoughts, but he will forevermore be kept safe in God's hands. Receive him in the arms of your mercy, O God, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of all your saints.

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.

Though we are now parted for a little while from Ronald, he has not left us entirely... for as long as his memory affects our lives, our interactions, our relationships, our decisions here in this world... a little bit of Ronald yet remains... cherished and hidden away in our hearts.

We Remember Him – Author Unknown
When we are weary and in need of strength,
When we are lost and sick at heart,
We remember him.

When we have a joy we crave to share
When we have decisions that are difficult to make
When we have achievements that are based on his
We remember him.

At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring,
We remember him.

At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
We remember him.

At the rising of the sun and at its setting,
We remember him.

As long as we live, he too will live
For he is now a part of us,
As we remember him.

Believing in the Resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we now entrust Ronald to the care of Almighty God and we ask Our Father to open the doors to his mansion and to lead Ronald to the room made ready just for him. As we now commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we commend his spirit to its new home. Rest eternal grant him, and let light perpetual shine upon him.

God has blessed and enriched our lives in giving us Ronald to know and love here on this earth. Though our time together was not nearly enough, in committing his body to the earth, we give over to God the care of his spirit, and we acknowledge that we will one day reunite with him in God's Kingdom. The Lord bless him and keep him; the Lord make his face shine upon him and be gracious to him; the Lord look upon him with favor and give him peace.

Let us now pray together the prayer that our Lord and Savior taught us to pray...
Our Father...

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may His strong arms encircle you and uphold you in your hour of grief.  God's peace and strength to you all. Amen

This concludes our graveside service.  Thank you all for coming.