NOTE TO READER: Message starts off theological, then the eulogy is inserted in the middle, and then the theological is completed. I attempted to address some Mormon beliefs by stating true Christian understandings. May our Lord Jesus bless you in the building of your funeral message.
“whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”
We have a solid hope in Jesus Christ, but for some at a time such as this, there are the feelings of a loss of hope.
Darkness, emptiness, zero.
Fear. Anxiety. Apprehension.
What we see in life, is there anything more than what we can see and touch?
Is this all there is…or is there something more?
Some people, they push these type of thoughts and feelings aside, they let them remain in the background of life. And these people choose remain ignorant, and ultimately, they hold a deep sense of trepidation inside.
Never knowing, never being sure….
But we, we who are Christians are not ignorant in the death of our brother Jim. We are not ignorant because we do not only look at what is temporal - what we see in time and space. We do not look only at what can be obviously seen - Age slowly creeping up upon each one of us and the end of a life.
See, the reason we don’t lose heart is because we’re really looking past the physical, we are looking past the psychological.
We are looking to the spiritual.
Now the spiritual isn’t this unknowable mystery, something we can’t place our finger on, no, that’s nonsense; We see the spiritual, we experience the spiritual, we feel the spiritual – through the person of Jesus Christ – Who as a historical fact, lived, died and rose again from the dead and is alive and well right now as we speak today.
Jim – a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, is also, as a matter of fact, very much alive and well, right now as we speak today
Sometimes people -- they think that when you die, that’s the end of any meaning in your life; They think that you’ve got to cram this temporal life with everything you can
because that is all there is. They think that all there is, is what can be perceive with the natural mind, the natural body.
That is a fairly typical perspective, isn’t it?
We know better than that.
We know that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we who have given our life over to Jesus Christ will live – period. For us there is life, for Jesus Christ has conquered death.
See, Jesus Christ is not just another man, nor is Jesus Christ just another good man, Scripture tells us very clearly that Jesus Christ is God himself. Now Jesus, didn’t become God at His birth, nor did Jesus become God at His baptism, and Jesus certainly didn’t become God at His death or Resurrection – Jesus doesn’t become a God – Jesus just is. Always was, always will be, there never will be a time without Jesus.
We see Jesus was at creation, We see Jesus existed before time, Jesus is. In the Old Testament, when Moses asks for the name of God, do you know what God’s response is?
Yahweh. Which is Hebrew for - I am.
Who are you God? I am.
With God, the dimension of time is irrelevant, the dimension of space holds no sway, the laws of physics do not apply. He’s God after all.
So Jesus comes to earth, God Himself, and becomes man – fully God / fully man, and this is what is so important for our brother Jim, for who can conquer death? Can you or I conquer death, can the greatest man or woman who ever lived defeat death? Can angels or prophets, philosophers or vast group of well intentioned people?
I’ll tell you who can defeat death – none other than God himself, that’s who
When Jesus dies and is resurrected, death is defeated.
Now that may seem like an unusual statement to make at a time like this, for here we are, all gathered at the funeral of one wonderful and precious man, Jim Hill, How can we say death has been defeated? Are we deluded? No, to say that death in defeated is a it is quite a natural statement to make at a time such as this.
You know, we are spiritual beings, destined for spiritual things. Who I am, who you are, is much more to this world than what we see when we look in the mirror or see around us day in and day out. God tells us that He knows us in the womb – when you were a single cell – God knew you!
When we die we do not start a new life, no, we don’t have two lives, instead, we have one continuous life, the here and now, and then, the hereafter, in the presence of the Lord. All who we are, all that we have done, all we have experienced – we take with us. We don’t leave it behind. It is not one life here and everything starts over. There is life. Who you are, is who you are, and who you will continue to be…And who Jim was, Jim still is, and Jim will continue to be….and let me reassure you, when the time comes for us as well, it will be no mystery who Jim is.
Jim is a believer, and we can be confident that as we all gather here – he is with the Lord.
We are all here because of our love for Jim – the wonderful man that he is. But if you have come her today to say your last goodbyes, you have come to the wrong place, and I must say you have come to the wrong person, for, as Jesus lives, Jim lives also. So today, we come not for a final parting, no, today we come to celebrate a life well lived among us; We come today with the firm knowledge of the hope of assurance that, yes, we who are believers, we who have given our life over to our Lord Jesus Christ, will be with Jim again.
At this point, I imagine that Jim has already reconnected with long lost friends, networked with a myriad of new friends and is already known as one of the most social folks around.
Jim, loved to visit with folks didn’t he? The truth is, during those years, what was the American Legion without Jim? What was the Elks Club without Jim? Jim was so involved and so well liked that he became commander of the Jack Henry Post 1 of the American Legion in 73-74.
The kids would go out shopping or on a road trip with Jim and they would stop to get gas or something and the next thing you know, twenty minutes later, Jim is still chatting with the guy at the gas station - a complete stranger.
What is it about Jim that people were so comfortable with him? Why is it that people would be so enthralled in conversation with him – even if they had just met him?
Well, you know Jim, he may have had a strong opinion about this or that, but Jim was a genuine man – nothing fake about Jim – how refreshing is that? But there is much more to it than that, Jim wasn’t visiting with people just to hear himself talk, Jim loved people – I think people somehow, people somehow knew that in Jim’s presence, in the way he handled himself, they knew he was the real thing. That is a very powerful thing to be able to connect with people so easily. How many of our world’s problems would be solved if we all had more of who Jim was?
Jim was as social as they get – but Jim was much more than that.
Born out in the country, near Antler North Dakota, Jim knew, and delighted in hard work. Living through the great depression Jim knew that taking care of his wife and family was the priority as a husband. Jim saw what could happen to a family when economic times hit hard, so Jim put in overtime, Jim made very sure that Johanna and the children were taken care of. Jim could be trusted to work hard and put in a solid days work, Jim could be trusted to get the job done – just here in Anchorage after putting in a full 40 hour week, he would routinely have to put in another twenty hours at the airport doing customs work.
After getting out of the Air Force, Jim joined the Border Patrol and later the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. This wise choice led Jim, Johanna and the family on many great adventures as they lived all over the country, Montana, Chicago, North Dakota, Alaska, to name a few….though the year in Calexico California, let’s just say Calexico wasn’t the highlight in a long list of wonderful places Jim brought them to… and Jim, he ended his career in Victoria British Columbia before retiring right back here in Anchorage. Victoria had the best climate of any place they ever lived, but it was good to get back to the United States – and it was good to have Jim and Johanna back in Alaska.
Jim’s high school graduating class was a class of two – Jim graduated last.
How brilliant was the guy who graduated first, because Jim was no dummy. Excellence in his career, sly poker player, crack marksman --- attributing to his skill at hunting, even in his old age having the ability to recite poetry from his very young childhood.
One event that clearly shows what a smart man Jim was, is his proposal to the lovely Miss Johanna Grace Fox, the one love of his life, the one who he knew would not only put up with him, but would truly love him back.
Johanna and Jim had grown up not too far from each other and yes, they knew each other in high school, but it wasn’t until college where things clicked that they began to date.
Now Jim was a couple of years older than Johanna, and so Jim graduated and went off to the air force. It was during a short visit back home to North Dakota that Johanna “suggested’ that she might, perhaps, consider, seeing someone else….since Jim was living so far away and all.
Jim proposed.
They were married the next year at Christmas break and the rest is history, in fact Jim missed their 55 wedding anniversary by a few days….How many couples do you know who stay married for 55 years? Tremendous.
You know that Jim loved being a father (not a big disciplinarian), Jim loved being a grandfather – from just two wonderful people a total of 48 so far) were brought into the family.
How blessed you as a family have been to have such wonderful parents, such wonderful grand parents, such a wonderful brother. Sure Jim was not perfect, who of us here can honestly claim that? But Jim was a lot of things, so much more than we can ever mention, this you have in your heart, this you know to be very true.
But let me just say that one reason you may find a day such as this so hard, is because the Lord Jesus Christ blessed you with James William Hill and a person who we love dearly, is very difficult to let go.
You know, we see that Death first came to humanity because of sin in the Garden of Eden, striking fear into Adam and Eve as they hid from the sight of God. To this day we fear death, and our fear is based on the fact that we are powerless against it. Do what we will, death still waits in the shadows. Though we don’t think about it, though we don’t talk about it, though we avoid the subject whenever possible, like our brother Jim, we will all have to face death someday too.
We all fear death, that is quite normal, but to God, we read in psalm 116:15, to God, the death of his saints is precious. How can this be? The thing we fear most, God finds precious.
What is precious for God isn’t death, no, God, in the resurrection in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered death and holds full dominion over death, God hates death; What is precious to God, is the death of his saints. Here in our presence we have the honor of one of the Lord’s saints – our brother, Jim Hill. He was, and still is, a servant of the Most High God and Jim was and still is precious in His sight.
As we look at the death of a believer we see eternal glory, an eternal body, an eternal purpose being fulfilled, an eternal fellowship being entered into, we see eternal fulfillment.
Now, this is not legend, this is not myth, and this is not something we tell ourselves so we can sleep well at night. This is reality. And what a wonderful reality it is
James Hill,
child of the covenant,
beloved brother in the Lord,
Miss you, we will without a doubt.
Long for your love and understanding – everyday without exception.
Mourn our loss, deeply and for the rest of our lives.
Confident that we will be with you again, never a moment’s hesitation;
For our hope is in nothing less than Jesus Christ, and He is risen and alive indeed.
