Eleanor, October 29, 2009
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, through the power of your Holy Spirit, open out hearts and minds to your Word, granting us a renewed and strengthened faith, that we might find comfort in your grace, and hope for the future. Enable us to trust in your gift of eternal life, accomplished for us through the death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus the Christ, so that we might live our lives in the confidence of being reunited with all your redeemed saints in your heavenly kingdom. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Let me begin by expressing to you, Eleanor’s family and friends, not only my own personal sympathy, but also the sympathy of our congregation. Quite frankly, Eleanor has been a respected member of St. John’s for more than the 20 plus years that I have been their pastor. Thus we share in your grief, and lift you in our prayers and concern, that God’s grace might bring you his peace.
Eleanor has always impressed me as having a similar attitude toward life as did my grandmother. She had a set of ethics by which she lived her life, along with the old German attitude that everyone else should live by those ethics as well. I guess we could say that like my grandmother, that made Eleanor a little bit stubborn. Of course, like my grandmother, she could have picked up some of that stubbornness from her husband, Gus.
There is just something about Eleanor’s generation that is endearing to me. She had a tremendous work ethic. She often told me that she rarely ever missed a day of work, and when she was at work, she gave her best effort. Of course, she would also lament that those days seemed to have gone by the wayside, because, according to Eleanor, with the exception of her sons, people don’t have a good work ethic today.
And that brings me to the thought that she truly love her husband and her family. I can’t think of a time in which I brought her communion, that Eleanor didn’t fill me in on what was happening in the lives of her kids and grandkids. But then, true to that old German attitude, Eleanor didn’t always approve of all of the decisions that her family had made. She could be hard on you guys at times. But she still loved you.
But lest you think that I am painting a picture of Eleanor as this stoic, prim and proper woman who never let her hair down, I have a story to share with you. Gus and Eleanor were very good friends of Floyd and Ginny Bortz. One time, when I was out making my home communions, I stopped at Floyd and Ginny’s, only to discover that Gus and Eleanor were there visiting. After about a half-hour of conversation, Eleanor suggested that I could save myself a trip to Palmer road, and commune all four of them together.
That would be nice, I said, but I only have three of the little communion cups in my communion kit. It was then that Ginny said, well, Pastor Ron, I think I can take care of that. And when Ginny returned from her kitchen, she set down on the coffee table four, rather decent sized wine glasses.
I then retreated a little and quipped, I hope you don’t expect me to fill those glasses. My little vial of communion wine only holds three ounces. Eleanor then responded, “Oh, Gus and I have the wine. It was our turn to supply the beverage. And sure enough, Eleanor went into Ginny’s kitchen, and brought out a bottle of wine, handed it to me, and said, “Fill them up.”
Well, I did just what I was told. After all, you can’t win an argument with people from that generation. And when I had celebrated the sacrament with them, and exchanged pleasantries, I left. And all four of those great persons had one of those “gotch-ya” grins on their face, as they lifted their half full wine glasses to toast me good-bye. Of course, I didn’t have a problem with using a full glass of wine for communion. After all, the Seder meal, or Passover, calls for four glasses of wine to be consumed at its celebration.
But the truth is, the most important story at this moment, when we gather to remember Eleanor as a person whom we have come to love, as a person who has loved us, is that she was also a person who loved and was loved God. Eleanor was a person of faith, who, humbled herself beneath the cross of Christ, and blessed God’s Spirit for enabling her to keep her faith, even though, as age took its toll, she was not able to worship any where near as often as she wished.
In fact, there was not a visit with her over the past several years, that I did not hear her tell me, “Pastor Ron, how are things going up at the church.” And it was said with sincere interest. In fact, Eleanor would often inquire about various persons in the congregation, although that did diminished over the years, as many of her friends came to be in the real presence of our crucified and risen Lord many years before Eleanor.
Although there are a lot of stories that I could share with you about Eleanor, that is really not the reason that we have gathered here this morning. If we want to honor Eleanor, we must acknowledge that she was a person of faith, who believed in the grace of God to redeem her from sin and death, and trusted in the promise of her baptism. Eleanor believed that she would one day be reunited with Gus, her two sons who preceded her in death, and all of her Christian friends over the years, in the very presence of Jesus the Christ.
And so we are hear this morning to hear the Gospel. We are here to listen to God’s Word, in the context of our memories of Eleanor, which inspired her to live her life in relationship with God as a member of Christ’s Church. Moreover, we are here to listen to the Gospel in the context of the real hope that through our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, we might one day be reunited with Eleanor, in the very presence of God.
Well, I still like to tell stories. I find it helpful to proclaim the Gospel and inspire persons to know the redeeming grace of God. So let me share with you a story that I have included in many of my funeral messages, a story about my “Jet-set” daughter.
My daughter Amy, after graduating from Boston University, was hired as a teacher in Maui. After teaching three years in Hawaii, she moved to Warsaw, Poland, where she taught for three years, and also met her husband, who was from Savannah, Georgia. At that time, they were both teaching in the Embassy school system.
After they were married, they moved to Switzerland, and taught a year in the international school system. Then they moved to Kenya, Africa, where they taught for four years, and gave birth to two of my grandchildren The four of them have now moved to Tokyo Japan, and are in their second year of teaching in that country.
Needless to say, I don’t get to see my daughter and her family but a few days a year, for on a pastor’s salary, I don’t have the money to go and see them. I have to wait until they come home from overseas. But how I love to hear the stories that Amy and her husband share with me about the cultural differences in the various nations in which they have lived.
One of those stories which my daughter and her husband shared with me, came from their experience living in Kenya. In Kenya, when a member of the Christian congregation dies, they don’t say that “He has departed,” or that “She has left us.” Their faith moves them in the opposite direction. As a result of their baptism and faith in the redeeming grace of God in Jesus’ death and resurrection, they actively claim the gift of redemption, and actively look forward to being in the presence of Christ, and all the faithful who have gone before them.
I am impressed by our Christian brothers and sisters in Kenya, They have their priorities in the right order. Instead of focussing on the human loss that we very naturally feel, the Kenyans beg us to see our Christian faith in the promise of the Gospel. Instead of thinking “that a man has left us, at the time of his death, Kenyan Christians think and proclaim, “he has arrived or achieved the promise of his baptism.” Instead of thinking that Eleanor is gone, they would speak in terms of “Eleanor having reached the destination of her faith.
Is this not the Gospel? Is this not the message that Jesus proclaims when he says in our Gospel lesson, “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 take you to myself, sot that where I am, you may be also.”
That is the truth of the Gospel. Those of us who trust in the faith of our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, do not simply pass from existence of life here on earth, but arrive at the destination of our faith, to live in the presence of our crucified and risen Lord in God’s kingdom.
I am often drawn to Paul’s message expressed in his letter to the Philippians. Paul, facing an unknown future, whether he will face death and die, or whether he would be spared of execution and live, said: “I am hard pressed between the two: My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you…”
I have made numerous visits to Eleanor over the years. I saw her several times at the hospital, brought her communion many times at home, and several times at Countryside. But during these last few visits, I heard Eleanor say to me, “Pastor Ron, I’m so glad to see you. But pray for me. I’m ready to go home, to be with Jesus, and all those friends from St. John’s.
Well, I don’t think I need to go on any further. Because of Eleanor’s faith in the redeeming grace of God which she inherited through her baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, she is a sinner, redeemed in Christ and an heir of eternal life. May we all hold true to the faith of our baptism, that we might trust in God’s redeeming grace, and one day be reunited with Eleanor in the presence of our crucified and risen Lord.
Amen.
