Remarks prepared for the memorial Service for Sam M. Hamilton (never delivered)
Something Greater
Today we want to celebrate the life and memory of Sam Hamilton.
It is fitting that one who had so much influence upon the lives of so many be remembered.
Most of you are here because Sam made an impact in your life for the faith by which he lived and in which you now walk.
Let me remind you of the opening words of the most famous chapter in the letter to the Hebrew Christians.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. Heb 11:1-4
Sam so lived his life that this assurance, though about Abel, is true of Sam.
Though he is dead those who knew him still hear his words and remember the witness of his life.
People hear the words of Sam differently.
Some hear the words of the patient professor
Some hear the words of the Bible teacher and preacher
Some hear the words of a friend and neighbor
Sam wore several different hats in his life
He was a professor and advisor
He was a builder and mason/carpenter/plumber/electrician
Remember that old train engineer’s cap he wore?
He was a gardener
He was a preacher
One Thanksgiving day my parents and we and Hamiltons shared Thanksgiving dinner with Sam and Evelyn
We were sitting around the fireplace in the study as we did so often and Dad asked Sam what he was first a philosopher or a preacher and Sam’s response without hesitation was, “First, last and always a preacher.”
That and Christ’s church were his first love
Probably something in the neighborhood of twenty-five years ago Sam was the chairman of the board of the Hays Christian Church. We were discussing policies of the accessibility and use of the library of the Hays Christian Church and the topic strayed as was so common then until Sam told us his plan for the future.
I don’t know why I remember his remarks so vividly but I always have. He said something almost exactly like this, “Sometime I am going to die, hopefully, and I don’t want a ceremony.” He went on to tell us of his disdain for ceremony and that he and Evelyn had burial plots and would be buried in Rising Sun. He continued, “I want one of you to preach a gospel sermon just like you would on a Lord’s day morning. The only difference is there will be a corpse.”
Years passed, the Hamiltons made their home in Arizona, the visits to Hays became less frequent until they stopped entirely.
Plans changed.
Now there is not a body.
But, oh, the memories we share.
During the past weeks we have all remembered Sam in our own ways according to the manner in which he touched our lives.
In my case he was a next door neighbor
Our back yards joined.
One August after they had been gone to Arizona for a whole summer Sam was burning the summer’s worth of accumulated trash and yard debris in the old brick incinerator.
The wood and fiberglass enclosure over their swimming pool caught on fire.
Steve Tramel and Sam Warfel came over to see what was the commotion and one of them quipped, "You could have just called you didn’t have to send up smoke signals."
The removal of the pool cover removed a physical and visual barrier and after that we became much better friends. The friendship matured after the pool was rebuilt.
Sam was also an admired fellow preacher, a friend and a mentor.
From Sam I learned more than just the wealth of material he shared in the outer room or from the pulpit at the Centennial Chapel of the Hays Christian Church.
He taught me how to solder copper pipe
He taught me how to clean a snapping turtle. Then Evelyn taught Paula how to cook one and we and Swiharts and Porters all ate it together on the back porch.
Sam made the bailing bucket I used when he told me how to go about digging a well in the back yard.
He helped me solder a radiator in our old Ford Fairlane. When I sold the car the radiator was still holding coolant.
He taught me almost all I know about block laying when we built what became known as the Wayside Chapel.
I think I taught him a thing or two about mixing mortar by hand but maybe he was just humoring me.
My wife was a good cook but she is a better cook from working side by side with Evelyn on those so pleasant times when we ate at their table.
Our memories are not unique. Sam touched so many people that if we all remembered him together there would not be enough hours in two days to get it all said.
A number of years ago I invited myself to preach at chapel services at my alma mater. A week or so before I was to go to Nebraska for that occasion I told Sam about it and I asked him what he thought I should say.
He told me a story. Sam was always ready with a story. This was about some restoration pioneer whom he did not name. I always wondered as I thought about this if this actually happened to Sam only he couched it in the nature of a story about a restoration pioneer. The story briefly is that a young man was leaving home to go on his way in ministry and before he left his mother told him, “Son, remember Jesus Christ”. That was Sam’s advice to me about what to say to some Bible college students.
That is what Sam would want to happen here today. He would want us to think about Jesus.
If we remember him he would like it. If we remember only him I think he would consider it a wasted meeting.
Let’s remember Jesus.
Matt 11:2-11
Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples, 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?" 4 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 "And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me."
7 And as these were going away, Jesus began to speak to the multitudes about John, "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 "But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ palaces. 9 "But why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. 10 "This is the one about whom it is written,
’Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.’
11 "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. NAS
I wish to spend the rest of the time looking at this incident in the ministry of Jesus.
Jesus was not the only one who gathered about himself disciples.
It was the custom of the time for great teachers to gather, whether formally or not, others who were students and adherents of the great one’s teaching.
John was one such.
Even after John was imprisoned by Herod some of his followers remained loyal to him
Maybe they carried on his teaching and maybe they assisted John in whatever way was most needful
So while John languished in prison he had time to think
Did his thoughts include doubts?
Was Jesus truly the one of whom he said,
"the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matt 3:10) . . . "And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matt 3:12) NAS
Then where was the smoke?
Maybe John sent his disciples for their own benefit.
Go ask Jesus if He is who we say He is.
He will tell you that He is indeed the Messiah.
"He must increase, but I must decrease"
John knew his work was ended
He had prepared the way and many there were who were finding it
So did he want his disciples to be taught "the way of God more accurately"?
Or did he need to satisfy his own doubts?
Jesus does not give the disciples a straight yes or no answer
He just told John’s disciples to tell John , "the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." (Matt 11:5) NAS
These are credentials that anyone familiar with the Hebrew scriptures would have recognized.
Jesus let His inquirers get out of earshot then he began to instruct his audience about John
He asked those who were listening did you go out to see someone common when you went to hear and see John in the wilderness?
Did you go to see somebody as common as the reeds in the marsh?
Did you go out to see someone swaying with every wind of doctrine or bobbing and weaving with every theological fad or political popularity?
Did you go out to see a man trembling with fear for his life or concerned about personal popularity?
John was a man’s man and he called sin sin and sinners to repentance no matter who they were or where they stationed themselves in society.
Then he asked them in a different way
Did you go out to see a fancy dressed showman?
Did you go to see a man of worldly wealth?
Did you want to see a man used to taking it easy?
No, John was a prophet
He came in the spirit of the prophets who had been silent for 400 years
He came to usher in the new order of things and declare the one who would put all things in subjection under his feet.
John was a prophet but he was more than a prophet.
All the prophets from Moses on had been saying the messiah is coming.
Now John was saying the Messiah is here!
He was a forerunner a herald.
Lest he be mistaken for the emissary of some worldly potentate he decked himself as one of God’s prophets of old rather than as some suave, sophisticated worldly ambassador.
Jesus said John was the greatest prophet.
That placed him above some mighty company.
Moses, the servant of the Lord.
The deliverer-leader who took a rag tag bunch of slaves and rebels and formed them into a force able to take and secure the land God had promised their ancestors
David, the man after God’s own heart
The man who put Israel on the map
Time would fail if we mentioned Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the rest.
John was greater than all of them, as faithful and as God empowered as they were, because John showed his generation what the rest had not even imagined--That God Himself would live in a skin sack like us.
They said, " behold, a virgin shall conceive"
He said, "behold the lamb of God"
Jesus went on to say more of John: "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
Think for a moment who is excluded and included in Jesus’ statement
Among those born of women there is none greater than John
That means all who had come before him.
Moses, David, Elijah and the rest
Not one was greater than John.
He was the greatest man who had ever lived up to his time.
Greater than Fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
Greater than Joshua, Gideon, and Samson
But Jesus goes on to say that there are some who are even greater than John
"yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
Listen to the words of the writer to the Hebrews:
And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Heb 11:39-40 NAS
And hear what Peter says:
"As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, 11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-- things into which angels long to look. 1 Pet 1:10-12 NAS
We Christians tend to think of our life and times as pretty mundane.
Things are not terribly exciting for us most of the time.
We have a sense of peace and fulfillment but we wish we could be a part of the good old days when God was at work in the world.
We might like to ask Moses what was it like at the burning bush?
How did it feel to be in the very presence of God?
What is it like to pick up a live cobra?
What was it like to watch the Red Sea open up and walk across on dry land?
What was it like when the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle?
How thick was the smoke? What did it smell like?
Perfume? Incense? Cedar? Almond? A good steak?
We might like to ask Elijah how it felt to be the only faithful one on Mt. Carmel
What was it like when the fire fell?
We might like to ask David what it was like to face Goliath
Was he as ugly as we imagine?
But when we meet these and the rest of the ancient saints they will want to know some things of us.
For all they saw and knew the prophets longed to see and know more.
They knew that God was working a plan to bring about something greater and better than they could tell their people but they missed seeing it and being a part of it.
Even angels would like to know about and experience what God has done in His church.
So as much as we would like to know how it was for the ancient saints they would like to know from us things about God working in the church.
What was it like to be a part of God’s church?
They might ask us,
How did you manage to get peoples of every tongue and nation together in unity?
They will know it was not something we did but God did it.
What kind of power did you have when brethren worked together in unity?
What did you accomplish when you were indewlt by God’s Spirit Himself?
Was there anything you could not do?
You see we who are a part of the kingdom of God even the least of us is greater than John and the patriarchs and the prophets and all the rest!
Those ancient saints saw through the haze of the centuries that God was making something better and now we are it!
They will want to know what it is like to be a part of the body of Christ.
Will they find us as faithful as we find them?
Will our witness be as great as theirs?
What a reunion!
I don’t know how it works after death.
I think I know what Sam thought and now either he knows he was wrong or he will find out he was right when “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess 4:16-17 NAS)
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
