"Freda's Homecoming"

Yet, when I got there and as we talked, Freda had a big smile on her face in the midst of her suffering, the kind that would just light up your whole day, and when I asked her what it was that sent her there, she simply said “oh, Pastor, I’m just getting old, it happens.” As we talked, I learned why she wasn’t depressed about her condition. You see, Freda didn’t get hung up on the first statement of Jesus, “Let not your heart be troubled”, she listened to what else He had to say. “Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. 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 I will take you to myself that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Freda believed in Jesus. She believed that the infant that was born in a Bethlehem stable with only a feeding trough for his first bed, grew up to live a perfect, sinless life, gave the blind their sight, made the lame walk, cleansed lepers, enabled the deaf to hear, healed the sick, and died on the cross to take all of Freda’s sins there and die for them. Freda knew that Jesus did all of this so that He could prepare a place for her, a place in heaven. Freda clung to that promise, it sustained her in the midst of suffering, trial, and grief. That faith is what enabled Freda to smile in the midst of suffering, and to have a cheerful spirit.

In my brief time with Freda, I closed with prayer. I took her hand and we asked that God would provide healing for Freda. While some of you today might say that prayer went unanswered, if Freda could speak today, she’d stand here and tell you all that our prayer was answered. Freda is now in the very place that Jesus in our Gospel reading has promised that He was preparing for her. Today, Freda is in a place that is so wonderful, so full of joy, peace, and comfort, that even if she had the option of coming back to this world, with 100% capacity of her heart instead of the 25% she lived with toward the end, be able to walk, crochet, and do all the things she enjoyed doing in this life, she wouldn’t want to come back. Right now at this very moment, she is seeing the fulfillment of that promise on our Gospel reading with her own eyes in heaven. Yet, she would want to see that each one of us here today knows that just as Jesus prepared a place for her, that He is preparing a place for each one of us, and that one day, He will call us from this life of pain, tears, and strife, to an eternal life of joy, peace, and comfort! With this being the Christmas season, we remember that the baby born in Bethlehem doesn’t stay in the manger. The world would rather you leave him there, but like Freda, we believe that baby went to the cross, died for the sins of the world, and rose again to give us eternal life.

On that cold December day 13 years ago at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Garner, Iowa, our youth group gathered together a few hours after my friend’s funeral to bake Christmas cookies and to reflect on what had happened in the last few days. We talked about our Gospel reading we’ve been discussing today, and that’s when one of the other members of the youth group said to our Pastor, “Pastor, I get it. Christmas isn’t about getting or giving the right gift, it’s about the baby in the manger, how he prepared a place for us in heaven, and today, Doug can see what that gift is all about!” That Christmas, I learned what Christmas was all about. Yes, it is about gifts, but in the end, only one gift matters. Over the years, Freda probably gave many of your gifts, and you may have given her one too. Those gifts probably eventually wore out, or got broken, or needed to be replaced. Things in a sinful, fallen world do that. Nothing lasts forever. However, on Christmas, God saw we needed a Savior, and He gave us the one gift that never comes in the wrong size, never gets snagged on a filing cabinet and becomes unraveled, never comes with instructions in the wrong language, or breaks after a while. He gave us His Son, to live, die, and rise again for us. Just as Christ provided that gift to my high school friend that December of 1994, he did so again this past Friday for Freda. It is my hope and prayer that as you share your memories of Freda with each other, that you will remember the most important thing of Christmas, that Your Savior took on human flesh to live, die, and rise again so that one day, you can say with Job in our Old Testament reading “And after my skin has thus been destroyed yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another.” In the midst of your sorrow and grief, may the faith that Freda held so dear in her life, be your comfort and strength today, on Christmas Day, and always. Amen.