This morning, we’re here in God’s House because in His great wisdom, God saw fit to call Ellowene Dorothy Christensen to her eternal home on Saturday afternoon. We’re here today to find comfort and strength due to the fact that a mother, grandmother, great grandmother, aunt, (sister), neighbor, and friend has died. And it hurts! Paul and Karen, it’s always hard on adult children when you have to watch the person who took care of you for so many years now be the one who needs to be taken care of. It hurts to have to watch helplessly as your mom’s health deteriorated, to the point where she needed to move to the Salem Lutheran Home in Elk Horn where she could get the kind of care she needed. And today, it hurts all of us because Ellowene isn’t with us. That’s why we’re here today, to hear God’s Word of comfort and strength to get us through the days and weeks ahead as we grieve at the death of our loved one.
Those of you who have been to funerals I’ve preached at in the past and noticed that John 14 was the Gospel reading may have been expecting me to preach on it, because I tend to use it as text for a lot of my funeral sermons. And it’s a great funeral text, but this morning, I am actually going to spend our time looking at our Epistle reading from Revelation 7. It’s a reading that I am commending to you, Ellowene’s family and friends, because you’re going to find a LOT of comfort in the picture we get from that reading and what it means to Ellowene, and to you and to me.
St. John is the human author of the book of Revelation. By the time Revelation is written, John is the last remaining Apostle, the others having been martyred for their faith in Christ. While John is spared a violent death, he does have to spend the rest of his life exiled on the island of Patmos. He also witnesses a LOT of persecution and violence directed at Christians. While on the island in exile, he is given this Revelation from God, and is told to write it down and share that message to the churches. In the reading we have today, John sees this large crowd, from every tribe and race. They are standing in front of the throne of the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ. They are dressed in white robes, and waving palm branches, a symbol of victory in John’s day. Their cry is this: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” They are joining with angels, archangels, and the entire company of heaven in worshipping the true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John is told that this crowd is made up of those who’s robes have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb; the blood of Christ shed at the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the world. And because Christ has done this, and because they have been cleansed through the blood of Christ, they are able to live in the presence of God forever, not knowing pain, sorrow, hunger, thirst, or tears ever again.
In a way, it is a perfect picture of those who have died in faith in Christ Jesus and have been taken into heaven to be in the presence of God forever. In fact, our recessional hymn for today, “Who is This Host Arrayed in White” is based on this very passage. In the church, we hear this reading each year on All Saints’ Day, a day that we remember all of those who have died in the faith and are now in the presence of Christ forever, in particular, those who have died in our congregations in the past year. So on this day that we mourn the death of a loved one, this is a very appropriate reading to hear, especially as it pertains to the context of Ellowene’s life.
While Ellowene’s life in this world began on March 18th, 1917, another important date in her life happened about a month later on April 22nd, when her parents, Chris and Anna Jensen, brought their newborn baby girl to the old church that stood out where the flagpole is today, and Rev. J.P. Christiansen, who was the pastor of this congregation at that time, proclaimed God’s Word, and baptized Ellowene in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Her parents, as part of the baptismal rite, promised that they would see to it that their daughter would have the Scriptures placed in her hands and taught the basics of the Christian faith. They brought her to the services of God’s House, and, at first in the Danish language, and later on in English, she heard of her Savior’s great love for her, about how the world had fallen into sin and by nature, we were not able to earn God’s favor by our own thoughts, words, or deeds. She heard how much God loved her that He sent His Son into this world to take on our human flesh, to live the perfect, sinless life we were unable to live, and then allow himself to be arrested, beaten, and crucified in our place and take the punishment from God that our sins had earned us, and that He rose again on Easter to redeem her from sin, death, and the power of the devil. On April 17th, 1932, Ellowene stood before the congregation, and professed through the Rite of Confirmation that the faith she had learned from the Scriptures was hers . Ellowene continued to be a very active member of this congregation as long as her health permitted her. You’d often find her sitting in one of the pews in this sanctuary, standing with the congregation on any given Sunday, and confessing the Scriptural truth that she had sinned in thought, word, and deed, and didn’t deserve God’s favor based on anything she had done. Then she heard the comforting words that because of what Christ had done for her, that she was forgiven of all of her sins, and would receive the gifts of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation. She heard the Pastor proclaim the good news of Christ crucified from this pulpit, and when she would kneel at the rail in front of this altar, she would hear her Savior, through the voice of the Pastor, say “Take and eat, take and drink, this is my body and blood, that I have given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins.” Those were all good days for her, days she was reminded of the great love her Savior had for her.
Another good day in Ellowene’s life happened on March 10th, 1937, when she stood in front of the altar at the old church, and exchanged vows with Herman Christensen, and the two became husband and wife. They started married life on the farm in Hamlin Township, and two children, Paul, and Karen, would eventually join the family. In the early 1960’s, Herman and Ellowene would move into town, and Ellowene worked as a cook at the grade school for a brief time. Later, the couple would become well known as they owned and operated Christensen Floor and Home Furnishings for several years until they retired in 1978. She worked hard wherever she went, serving our Lord in her vocations as a wife, mother, employee, and in operating the store.
Retirement was a good time for Ellowene and Herman. They were able to enjoy traveling and spending winters in Texas, getting away from that nasty white stuff and the cold temperatures that Iowa can be known for. And of course, she was blessed with those wonderful blessings from God called grandchildren! Oh how she loved her grandchildren and great grandchildren! Yet, even with as busy as she was in retirement, she continued to serve her Savior here at the church through ladies aid and circle meetings, and helping get the monthly newsletter ready to be put in the mail. The Ladies Aid is often times the backbone of the church, and its women like Ellowene that are such a help to the life of a congregation, even if it’s not the kind of work that grabs the attention and the headlines. Ellowene didn’t do this stuff for the attention, she did it because she loved her Savior and wanted to serve her Lord any way she could.
A bad day for Ellowene was May 7th, 1990 when her husband, Herman, was called to his eternal home. On that day, she came to this church, and from this pulpit, heard the same scripture readings you heard this morning, and found comfort and strength in the fact that her husband, Herman, was now a part of that multitude in white robes in heaven, never knowing sickness, pain, disease, grief, or tears anymore, and that although the separation of death was painful, she could go on with the confidence that Jesus would one day deliver her to her eternal home in heaven, and she would see him again. She stayed in Audubon until she moved to an apartment in Kimballton in 1997. Once she moved to Kimballton, her activity at Our Saviour’s began to slow down a bit, but she continued to be fed by her Lord through hearing His Word and receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion by attending services at Bethany Lutheran Church near Kimballton with her family.
But, the wages of sin eventually caught up with her. Her health started to deteriorate, to where she couldn’t travel anymore, and some of the things she once enjoyed doing were becoming more difficult. Finally, she moved to the Salem Lutheran Home in Elk Horn, where she could be given the specialized care she needed. It was after she had moved here that I had accepted to call to become the Pastor here at Our Saviour’s, and I began to make occasional trips over to Elk Horn to visit her at the home. When we first met, she had been struggling with depression, and was overjoyed at the fact that the new Pastor from her own church, the church that she loved so much, had traveled over to visit her. She told me a lot about what life was like for her growing up, about her sisters, and about her children and grandchildren. When I would leave, she would always thank me for coming to visit.
In my first visit, I reminded her of one of the blessings she had by living at the Salem Lutheran Home was the opportunity to be fed by God’s Word by hearing it proclaimed to her through daily chapel devotions, Sunday services, and the twice a month communion services. These were opportunities for her to hear once again of her Lord’s love for her, and that He was not abandoning her, but was preparing a place for her in heaven. On a few occasions, I had the chance to step into the pulpit in that chapel, and proclaim to her and the other residents there of the love their Savior had for them, how Christ had suffered and died for them. What a joy it was for me each time I officiated at these services to be the voice through which our Savior said to Ellowene “Take and eat, take and drink, this is my body and blood which was given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all of your sins.” She was always very proud when it was “her pastor’s” turn to officiate at the communion service, and she loved that her pastor always brought his pastoral robes to make it like a service in her own church.
While I’m not so sure she realized it, Ellowene served her Lord and her home church in a very special way in the last year and a half that I was her pastor. Sometimes, things in parish ministry can be difficult to bear, and a Pastor can lose their joy and need someone to simply give them a little pick me up. I always enjoyed my visits with Ellowene, and often times, if I had a tough visit or a rough week, I’d come over to Elk Horn to see her, and she always had me feeling much better when I left than when I had walked in her door. Sometimes I felt that when I went to minister to her, it ended up being her ministering to me. She always greeted me with a smile, and was overjoyed that the Pastor had come to visit. I’m really going to miss not having her here.
The last time I had much of a conversation with her was around Easter when she had went into the hospital. Her family called to let me know she was there, and it was a great day, because much of her family was there, and she was able to receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper with her family, something she wasn’t always able to do at the Salem Lutheran Home. It was a joy for me to be the Pastor to do that. Unfortunately, her health would continue to deteriorate, to the point where I was called a week ago to come to see her. She didn’t have the strength to carry on much of a conversation, but I did learn she wanted to go to her eternal home. She was ready to go. She told me she was suffering so much, wondering why it had to be that way. And on Saturday, God looked down on his faithful servant, and said “Ellowene, I see that you are tired, you’ve been through so much, you have suffered so much these past days, weeks, and months. It’s time to come home. I have prepared a place for you. I have come to take you to myself that where I am, you may be also.”
Today, it is my joy to tell you, Ellowene’s family and friends, that she is in a place that is so wonderful, so amazing, so beyond description, that even if she was given the choice to come back, and be assured she wouldn’t suffer, she wouldn’t give it a second thought! But, she would want you all to know of the love that your Savior has. That those promises she clung to throughout her life were for you also, that for those of us who believe that Christ is our Savior from sin, death, and the devil, that we too will have the gifts of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation.
But while Ellowene will never know grief, sadness, pain, or suffering ever again, today, we hurt, and those things are very real for us. We mourn, we cry tears of pain and sadness because Ellowene isn’t with us. And that’s okay. Death hurts, it’s not what we were created to do, it’s not a “natural part of life” as some well meaning people may say to you. We were created to live! We were not created to suffer, to feel pain, and to die! That’s part of life in a sinful, fallen, world that things don’t work the way that God intended them to. And today, while we’re sad at the separation, we are assured that Ellowene is in that place that Jesus talked about in our Gospel reading for today, the place He has prepared for her in heaven. She’s among that multitude wearing the white robe that was washed in the blood of the lamb. She’s in Christ’s presence, never to know sorrow, pain or suffering again.
And when we gather around God’s Word and Sacrament, we do it “with angels, and archangels and the entire company of heaven.” I want to encourage you all to continue to follow Ellowene’s example and come into your Savior’s presence through Word and Sacrament every opportunity to have. While His presence is hidden through spoken word, water, bread, and wine, He is present with us to comfort us, to forgive us, and strengthen us so that we know that one day, we will be in His presence where He won’t have to veil himself through these ordinary means, but we will see Him in all of His glory, as Ellowene sees Him now, without ever knowing pain, suffering, sadness, or sorrow ever again!
While we will miss Ellowene, we leave here today as people with hope, hope in the gifts of forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. We leave here today knowing that Jesus Christ has won all of this for us by his death and resurrection. We leave here today knowing that our separation from Ellowene is only temporary. We leave here as Easter people, knowing that because Christ has Risen, we will likewise rise from the dead, and live forever with Him! Amen.
