Jill did a wonderful job and although she probably didn’t know it, her sharing her memories of Grandma actually was a perfect introduction for my message today and what I have on my mind. Memories seem to be the theme of the day for us. It’s served as a basic theme for me to work with ever since a week or two ago when I asked Mom where Grandma’s funeral would likely be and when she said it was probably going to be right here, in the Prescott church, naturally, my thoughts began to turn to all the history that our family has here in Prescott and in particular, this church.. As many of you know probably far better than I, Grandma was a member of this church for a very long time. Going back many years, to the days when this building was still the Methodist church, up until recent years, this church was an important place in Grandma’s life. I am sure she had many pleasant memories of this church. I am sure each of you, Betty, Joye, and Pat, have special memories of this church too. Its here, to this church, that your mother brought you when you were growing up, Sunday after Sunday, to hear God’s Word and to stress how important the Christian faith was in her life, and how important she wanted to be in yours and your families lives. And I know this is something that you have passed on to your own children as well. I’m sure it is fair to say that no one here can keep count anymore of the many times the Ryan Sisters have shared the gift of beautiful music you have sung here in this church, singing songs of worship and praise to God, beautifying so many worship services and other special events in this church and in this community. So in many ways, it is very fitting that you have chosen to bring your mother here one last time as she brought you here to this very church so many times in your life, so that on this day especially, you may be fed with the promises in God’s Word, promises that were important in her life. You weren’t the only ones Grandma brought to this church to hear God’s Word, either. Some of you will remember, it was here in this very church, that my grandfather, Wayne Preston, was baptized late in his life and came week after week to be fed with God’s Word as well. My mother, Lora, was also baptized here many years ago as a teenager, because Grandma did the same thing for her that she did with her daughters before, she loved her step daughter enough to bring her to this church, to hear God’s Word, and learn about the Christian faith, and seeing my mother come to that faith, and pass that on to myself and my brother, Brian. For me to come here, and preach in a church that has so much family history to it is pretty special. I did make a comment recently that you know, it seems the only time I get to preach in this church that has so much of our family history wrapped up in it, is when someone dies and it’s a sad day. It may appear to be that at first. However, the more I think about it, and the more we look into God’s Word, my mind has changed a little bit. Allow me to share with you why.
You know, it’s very common when someone dies, for everyone to share their memories and talk about how good of a person the deceased has been. And the last few days have been absolutely no different either. I have heard many things like that about my grandmother and I could probably be up here for a whole week just sharing with you how wonderful of a grandmother I was blessed with because she married my grandfather and accepted me as if I were her own flesh and blood grandson. I know how impatient people in the pews on Sunday morning get when I start to hit close to a half hour with my sermons, so I will try not to put you through that today. Later today when we come back to gather together and share our memories, I hope you take time to share the memories that you have of Marie with all of us. I also hope that you take a moment to say a prayer of thanks to God for giving her to us to share in our lives, and to be what she was to each of you.
I’ve heard it said before “death is a natural part of life.” But think about that for a moment. If something is natural, the way it was intended to be, it wouldn’t hurt so much would it? I mean, for most of us, it doesn’t hurt to breathe, to laugh, to touch, feel, smell, taste, and all the other natural functions of our lives. They don’t hurt. Death hurts. I’m not talking merely about Grandma here; I am talking about those of us who are here in the pews, hurting because she is no longer with us. I know seeing her in her last days was very hard on me too, it hurt to see my Grandmother in such pain and unable to do the things she loved to do so much in life. I missed being able to come down during a break from school and spend a day taking Grandma wherever she wanted to go, be it out to eat, or shopping, or anything else she wanted to do. None of this is really natural; death isn’t what God intended for His creation. That’s why it hurts so much. That’s what living in a sinful world does to us; it separates us from God, from His intentions for us when He first created the world. And ever since mankind’s fall into sin, we have had to deal with the pain of death. Even our Lord and Savior knows what its like to lose a loved one. Remember Jesus’ reaction to the death of Lazarus? The shortest verse in the whole Bible, Jesus wept. Death hurts. Death isn’t natural. It separates us from our loved ones, and sin separates us from God. This past summer, I was in LuVerne, Iowa talking with their pastor who has become a sort of older brother type for me. He had been through a stretch where he had 3 funerals in a week or so, and I was looking to him for some advice as to how to go about speaking at a funeral. He said the familiar phrase from the Bible, “The wages of sin is death” is never clearer in our lives than it is at a funeral. You have to face the consequence of our sinfulness, like it or not. And today, that’s what we’re faced with here, we can’t avoid it.
But, just as death wasn’t what God intended for us, and there wasn’t anything we could do to avoid it, He chose to do something about it. God took on lowly human flesh, and in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, did something we could never do. Imagine, God, the same God who was there when the world was created, came down and was born in a stable! Jesus Christ lived the perfect, sinless life we could not, and died the most un natural death of any human being in history on the cross that Good Friday. He rose again on Easter Sunday from the grave, and with that resurrection, Jesus destroyed the power of the grave, allowing those of us who like Grandma believed in Jesus Christ to be raised again to new life with God forever in heaven. Jesus invites us, especially in times like this when we are weak, when we hurt, to come to him. Did you happen to see those three simple words from Jesus from the text from Matthew chapter 11 I shared with you? They’re right above the door outside as you come into the church. You also see them as you get to the top of the steps and look above the doors to the sanctuary. If you missed it, as you leave today, take a moment to look above those doors. You’ll also see a painting of Jesus’ hands. They’re not closed, they’re open, and they’re reaching out to you. Those nail marks in those hands are for you. They were for Grandma. We all know no one in this world is perfect, and Grandma would have been the first to tell you she wasn’t perfect either, even if I thought she was the perfect grandmother. Grandma came here to this place to hear what Jesus did for her on the cross. She was weak in her last years, and she was ready to go. She’s now seen those hands depicted on that painting above the church doors, and she has now gone to be with Jesus, where she has now been given rest from the things she struggled with in this life. That was a promise she believed, and a promise I hope you take with you from here as well. Yes, today is a sad day, and we cry, but we’re here to come to Jesus, to find comfort and strength to cope with the days and weeks ahead and the rest of our lives.
We grieve today, but we live with hope. A hope that someday, the suffering we endure here in this life will end. It’s a hope we are reminded of in the reading from Romans. There is NOTHING that now separates us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord. It was very painful for all of us who loved Grandma to sit back and watch her suffer and be unable to do the many things she loved to do in this life. I know after my grandfather passed away 5 years ago and as I was preparing my message for the last time I was up here in this church, she shared that with me too shortly before the service. I think what Grandma told me 5 years ago would be something that I think she would want me to share with you today. It didn’t hit me that Grandpa was gone until I was here in the church and I was alone by his casket, taking a long last look at him when finally I just started crying because it all hit me at once. I thought I was alone, but there was Grandma, ready to do what Grandma’s do best, comfort their grandchildren and make them feel safe and better. She brought me into the sanctuary and we sat in a pew and she held me while I cried for a while. Then she told me how hard it was to see Grandpa suffer as he did for so long. How frustrating it was for him that he wasn’t able to do the things that he loved to do, build things, or go do things with his grandchildren. She told me how I shouldn’t really cry for Grandpa, because he’s now free, free from suffering, free from having to depend on others for everything, free from pain, and he was now with God, never having to think about the things that gave him hardships and problems in this life. As I think about what Grandma would want to say to you, it would be along the same lines and I think it’s very fitting.
She wouldn’t want us to cry for her, she is now with God in heaven forever! She’s no longer suffering from a failing heart that keeps her homebound and dependent on other people. She’s not hurting, she’s not in pain, she’s not lonely. She’s with Jesus. She is in a place like I said last time I was up here, that is so amazing and so wonderful, that even if she could come back here to this earth, and be healed of all her diseases and other ailments and be able to do things she liked to do, she wouldn’t want to. She’s with Jesus, she’s with those who have gone before her in a place that’s perfect. She realized how blessed by God she was in her life. I remember earlier this summer, back in July, I came down to Winterset in the middle of the week to come see her, and I remember saying something about how I was just like my grandfather in two ways, I was poor, and I was stubborn, and that was probably why I am still in school after all these years when most people would want me to quit. Grandma smiled, and said how blessed she was to have not one, but two husbands in Dan and Wayne, who treated her so well in this life. I am sure Betty, Joye, Pat, Ellen, Terry, Mike, and Lora would all say the same about their fathers, I never one time heard a bad word said about either one, and of course, I never knew Dan. Over the years, I’ve met some of Grandma’s brothers and sisters, some of her grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friends, I can even remember when I was very very young going to the nursing home in Bedford to visit Grandma Lou. She was blessed with such a wonderful family, something that was so very important to her. Every time I would come to visit, I would see the latest pictures of all of her family and her home was filled with them. Some of you here, I recognize your faces because I’ve seen the pictures you sent to Grandma and she was always so very proud to share them with others. I hope and pray you all realize how special you all were to her, and how blessed you all are to be a part of such a family. Yet, Grandma also told me how blessed she was and how happy she was to have another family take her in as well, when she married Wayne in 1962. I remember after Grandpa’s death, when I would come by myself or with my mom and dad, Grandma would always say how blessed she was to have our family in her life, she didn’t expect to see us too often after Grandpa’s death, and as far as I was concerned, she was my Grandma, I was blessed to have three. I don’t think most people can say that. She would tell us every time how blessed she was to have another family that loved her even though she wasn’t their mother, because she sure loved them. God was good to Grandma is this life, but that’s nothing compared to where she is now. We all know she wasn’t rich by the standards of the world, and you wouldn’t ever see her on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”. Neither of her husbands were rich men by those standards either. However, when I look out and see all of you here, go ahead, take a look around at each other, think about her husbands, her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, brothers, sisters, all of you, how many lives she touched and how important she was in our lives and how important you all were to her, and most importantly, with her faith in Jesus Christ and her desire to bring up her family and later my Grandfather and my mother here, and even me when I would come to visit as a child to this place to hear God’s Word and His promises to us, she leaves this life richer and more blessed than most anyone I have ever known.
As we say our good-bye’s to Grandma this day, we do so knowing that for those of us who believe in the promises God made to Grandma and for us as well, our time apart will not be forever. We will see each other again, in the presence of God, with no more death, no more tears, no more sickness, pain, or any of the things that get us down in this life. We may weep for ourselves, but our pain is only temporary. If there’s one lasting image or memory of Eva Marie Stowell Ryan Preston I hope you take away from here today, it’s this image. Perhaps this is something only a pastor type like me would notice, but maybe you all noticed this too. Ever since I can remember, somewhere in a place in Grandma’s home, whether it was in the house her and Grandpa owned here in Prescott, where I took my first steps, or apartments she lived in here in Prescott, or in Creston, or the past several months in Winterset, you would find a Bible. Not somewhere tucked away or hidden, but usually on a coffee or lamp table in the main sitting room. In her apartment in Winterset, it was on a small table near the front door, I would see it every time we walked in the door. It was in God’s Word that Grandma received her biggest blessings in life. She desired to share that with her children, my grandfather who came to faith late in his life, with my mother, and in many ways, had a very important part of my own life. Because of her bringing my mother to this church, my mother learned about Jesus Christ, and she was able to teach that to me, and now, as I enter the pastoral ministry, I have the chance to share that with so many people. Proverbs 31: 30-31 is a wonderful way to end my message. Throughout the book of Proverbs, this image of what is today often referred to as the “Proverbs 31 Woman” or the wife of noble character is used as an analogy to describe wisdom. Yet it also describes how a woman of God hopes to be remembered. I have this part of my own Bible at home highlighted because this is the type of woman that I someday hope to meet and marry, and the type Grandma told me I deserved. As we share our memories of Grandma, and especially, remember the example of faith that she displayed in her own life, it is proper to say these words about her from the book of Proverbs: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates.” May this memory of Eva Marie Stowell Ryan Preston be the one that stays with you the longest, and continue to be an example in your own life and in your faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, so that we all may once again, see her in Heaven, free of the pain, sadness, and suffering of this world, and in the presence of God, in the place Jesus has gone to prepare for us who believe in Him. May God grant this for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
And now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in true faith until life everlasting. Amen.
