Memorial service for John Richards
Good evening. I want to thank each of you for being here today. Your presence means a lot to this family and so do your prayers. I am David Henderson and I pastor the Eagle's Landing Baptist Church in Port Richey.
Psalm 23
Prayer. Heavenly Father we come to you today because we know that you alone can help us because you understand everything that we feel today and everything this family is experiencing. You are a God who has feelings….the scripture tells us you love us, the scripture reminds us that you have experienced every feeling we have and so we know that you understand today. We ask for your comfort and peace to be with this family and also with each of these friends who are here today. Give them understanding that grows each day, give them a greater trust in you and grant each one your peace and hope. In Jesus name. Amen.
Today we find ourselves in the valley of death that the Psalmist talked about….it is a difficult place to be but as the psalmist talks about it is also a place where we can experience the presence of God. These words were written down by the shepherd boy, David. Like all of us, David went through some difficult times. In the previous psalm, Psalm 22 we hear David cry out to the Lord with these words, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We don’t know exactly what he was going through but we do know he was hurting. He experienced grief in the loss of his infant son who was only 7 days old. So he was familiar with this valley of the shadow of death. This valley is an actual place in the Holy Land/Israel. When people would walk through that area as they were traveling they would often be in danger for their lives. They could be robbed, beaten or even murdered. But David said that when he walked through that place he was not afraid…because God was with him…His rod, his staff they comfort me. These were items of protection. God still gives that protection and help to us today. In fact I believe that He is more present at the time of death than perhaps any other time.
John Richards was affectionately called Jeep by many of his friends. When I spoke this week with Kathleen and Megan and learned of John’s life and the things that he enjoyed it reminded me of something that happened in my family years ago. John loved the outdoors, and one of the things he really enjoyed was camping as a family. They spent many weekends together camping and I am sure that they have a lot of great memories of their camping trip.
When my children were much younger my family had decided to purchase our first tent and take out kids camping. They loved it. We could fish, see the mountains and we could do all of this on a pretty low budget. So we decided to invest in our first tent. We were in the hills of Missouri camping…had a long day and laid down for the night to get some rest. It began to rain…I enjoy listening to the rain at night but not when I am in a tent. But we all fell asleep in the safety of our tent.
When I woke up the next morning my boys were already awake and they were laughing at me because the tent had developed a leak in the middle of the night and my head was lying in a small puddle of water.
The apostle Paul in writing in the NT describes our bodies as a tent. And because it was Paul who said that it has a lot more meaning to us. In churches in that day, the pastors were not paid much by the church, if they were paid at all so they had to also have a another job as well. The Bible tells us that Paul was a tentmaker. He would have been familiar with the fabric, how it was sewn together and he would have known the downside of what sometimes happens to a tent, as it did to ours that night.
2 Corinthians 5:1-10 (NLT)
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. [2] We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. [3] For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. [4] Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. [5] God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. [6] So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord.
Paul said these bodies make us groan and sigh. When we get sick, we groan and complain. When arthritis sets in we moan. When we step on the scales and they say we are gaining weight we moan! Our bodies are much like a tent; they rip and they tear, they wear out, they grow old and they don’t last as long as we would like for them to.
But fortunately the scripture reminds us of a place called heaven where if we have committed our lives we have many things to look forward to….it is a place where..
* there will be no more sickness
* no more death….no more funerals to attend
* we will never grow tired or weary
* no more hospitals
* no more Rx to fill
* no more need for doctors
* no more cancer…Kenneth had dealt with cancer for the past two years.
* no more darkness
* no more tears
Heaven is a real place and it is promised to all who believe in Christ and place their faith in Him.
There is a book that made the NY times bestseller list that is titled Tuesdays with Morrie. It quickly went to the top of the list when our president announced that he was reading the book. It is the story of a man named Mitch and his former teacher whose name was Morrie. Mitch was a good student when he was in college but he became very concerned about how much he was going to make when he left college. His entire focus was on material things that he would be able to get...a bigger house...a new car...he was driven to get as much as he could.
Mitch was very fond of Morrie and he always looked up to him in his college years but he lost track of him after he graduated...he was simply too busy to keep up. But some things happened in his life and he needed to talk with someone and he really wanted to talk with Morrie. To his surprise he learned that Morrie was still living in the area. So he began to go and visit Morrie every Tuesday and they would sit and talk. He learned that Morrie was dying and Morrie told Mitch ...he said I was your teacher for a long time in college and I tried to teach you lessons about life and how to live your life...he said now I want to talk with you about some lessons I am learning about dying. They met every Tuesday for 14 weeks.
They spent some time each week talking about life, death and how to live. What our priorities should be. They talked about regrets, family, the fear of aging, money, marriage and forgiveness.
One Tuesday...arrived ...people coming and going in black. He assumed Morrie had died and apologized he did not know. She said he was still very much alive but that he always wanted to have a living funeral so that he would not have to wait until he was dead to be able to hear all the good things that would be said about him.
All of us have things that we want to say to others...things that perhaps we even need to say but we do not take time to do so. We need to choose to express our concern and love for people while there is time to do so. We also need to take time to make the important decisions in life as well....because there are too many times when we focus too much on the things that really are not so important. And so the book offers good advice for all of us about how to live our lives.
There are many good things that can be said about John Richards. He was truly blessed by a wife and daughter and 3 brothers who all loved him deeply. His life was simple in many ways. It seems that he had a great love for several things in life.
As I said, he enjoyed camping with his family. Boating. That is how he spent many of his weekends. Both Kathleen and Megan told me how much they enjoyed those times together.
He loved motorcycles and cars. He enjoyed going to car shows. Seeing the classic cars especially corvettes. He spent many years working as a self-employed truck driver. He was an excellent mechanic. He was very gifted and enjoyed working on old cars and going to car shows. He owned a Harley Davidson and loved to ride it whenever possible.
He enjoyed music, especially classic rock. Rolling Stones were one of his favorites. He enjoyed mixing this was his hobby of working on cars and so he would turn it up really loud, as Megan said, he would blare it out and then he could enjoy two things he loved…cars and rock and roll.
At an earlier time in his life John was a part of the merchant marines. This gave him the ability to travel to many different places. Kathleen said that many times they would be looking at something on television and he would comment I’ve been there! I’ve been there! The Merchant Marines offered him many valuable experiences and good memories.
John had a good family life. He loved his wife Kathleen of 18 years. His daughter Megan who was not born until John was about 40 years old. Megan was the apple of his eye. She was a “Daddy’s girl” who loved to be around her father. He was truly a loving father. They rode horses together; enjoyed going to Disney together and he always had great dreams and goals for her future. He often said to her, you’re gonna be a doctor one day. He will call her Dr. Megan. Constantly making sure that her car was running properly. He worked on it of course but he also wanted to make sure that she was taking care of it herself. Megan did you put air in the tires, Megan did you change the oil? Did you check the battery? He always wanted to make surer that she was safe.
I know that he loved you deeply and he will be greatly missed.
Grief counselors will tell you that there are at least 3 things that we must do or pay attention to when we go through the valley of the shadow of death. Three things that can help us.
(1) time -doesn't usually happen quickly...the grief process takes time…..so don=t try to rush it...sometimes a few months....sometimes a few years. It is different with each person.
(2) talk- share memories, stories, talk is therapeutic.
(3) Tears- when Jesus learned of the death of His friend Lazarus the scripture tells us that Jesus wept. Tears are O.K.
I have stood here and conducted funeral services for people of all ages...those who are older in their 80's and 90's who have lived a long full life as well as those who are much younger...one of the things that I have discovered is that regardless of age we are not ready to give them up. We cannot help it but we often ask why things happen as they do. Paul the apostle said Anow we see thru a dark glass…..it's not clear but one day we will see face to face...he was saying it is not all clear now but one day it will be...there are things we do not understand right now but one day we will understand. Today we must trust these things to a God who is much bigger than us, who loves us and will see us through.
Would you pray with me?
Prayer...heavenly Father we are reminded of the time that your friend Lazarus died and we find the simple words in the scripture that tell us that you wept. We are grateful that you are a God that has feelings...one that cares for us in our darkest moments…..one who knows all our feelings ...all our needs and you have the answers and the hope that we need. Today I pray for each member of this family asking you to comfort them guide them and help them though this difficult time. I pray that would you show then just how real that you are and how much you love them and that they would sense your presence with them in a powerful way today and in the months to come. I pray for your comfort and for your blessings on them...in Jesus name....Amen.
