MOM’S FUNERAL
May 20, 2014
Our family has learned the “power phrase” of funeral
preparation: “Mom would have wanted it that way.” It works on so many levels.
We joked about it saying, “We need to get New Bothwell cheese. Mom would have
wanted it that way.” Unbeknownst to Ethan who was not at the meetings, Ethan
used that phrase saying, “Grandma would not have wanted any raisin buns at her
funeral.” I agree.
So, in
all seriousness, when it came to funerals, one thing Mom did not like was when
the preacher and the family would gush on and on making the deceased into some
kind of saint who did no wrong. Mom would not have wanted that today.
Our
mother had flaws. She was a horrible back-seat driver when we kids learned to
drive. She burned the tar out of hamburger when frying it. She was the Queen of
her kitchen: One time when I was going to melt butter for popcorn on the stove,
she challenged my use of pots. “Why are you using that pot?” she’d say. Her
“why” questions were guilt-inducing. To this day I am wary of how I use the
word “why.” She had a way of making you question your choices, like when Dad
got ready for Church, “Why are you wearing that belt with that tie?” She even
asked me why I wanted to get married. That is, until I found Sharon – then she
didn’t ask why.
Mom
struggled with depression and low self-esteem. I was witness to some very low
moments in her life. Actually, I guess I was privileged to pastor her through
those times, even as her son. So you see, Mom was not perfect.
But one
thing about her kept emerging in my mind in the last few weeks: Mom was my
Susannah Wesley. Who was Susannah Wesley? She was the mother of John Wesley
(not to be confused with John Wesley Hardin, the infamous gunfighter, Murray).
John Wesley was an 18th century evangelist and preacher; his brother
Charles was a famous hymn writer. Susannah raised her children with a strict
but godly passion, instilling the fear of the Lord and the love of God into
them. Her devotion to God is historical and largely responsible for the
character of John Wesley. That’s my mom.
I am not
equating myself with John Wesley by any means. But I am saying that Mom laid a
foundation for spiritual formation in me and in Murray and Kathy. She taught me
that there is a God; she taught me to pray; she taught me to seek the Lord and
to devote my life to him. She was my theologian in my early years. Mom even
prayed that one of her children might enter the ministry.
To honor
my mother, it is my privilege to preach to you this morning about the hope she
had, to tell you about Jesus and his love. That’s what Mom would have wanted.
The Apostle Paul was sensing that the end of his life was
drawing close. In preparation, he wanted to encourage his spiritually adopted
son, Timothy, with some final words. He wrote to Timothy and urged him:
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus
who will judge the living and the dead…”
The
power of what Paul told Timothy carried the authority of God. Paul lived with
the sense that God was all-powerful and everywhere-present. He also believed in
the final day of judgment and the belief that Christ would one day judge all
people. As Paul said to the Corinthians, “…
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may
receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or
bad (2 Cor 5:10).
These
words would have had an impact on Mom. She knew that her sins and the sins of
her children would one day be taken to account. Her desire was not a legalistic
do and don’t list, but for a holy life, a life that would be examined by Christ
and found righteous.
Paul
continues in his words to Timothy “…and
in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the
Word.” That is a weighty charge.
John
Piper explains that preaching is Expository Exultation. Preaching aims to
exposit or explain the meaning of the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word –
infallible, inspired and profitable in all its 66 books. The preacher’s job is
to minimize his own opinions, and to explain what the Bible says so as to apply
it to people’s lives. If I have opinions, they should be clearly seen as coming
from the Bible. If the preacher’s opinions do not come clearly from the Word,
the danger is that people will follow a man instead of God.
Preaching
is Expository Exultation – exultation with a “u.” The preacher does not just
explain the Bible. Rather the preacher and the people exult over the Word.
Preaching does not come after worship – it is
worship.
Why is
this important as Mom’s funeral? Because she loved preaching. In my first six
years of ministry she read over 80 of my sermons. I would go upstairs to my
room and write out my sermon for Sunday, then bring it down to her to read. I
would say “it sucked” and she would encourage me that it was “good.” That was
our ritual. Her opinion of preaching shaped me. Her opinion was like Piper’s:
less preacher and more of God’s Word. Sometimes she would writer her lengthy
encouraging notes to me and tell me like Paul: Preach the Word.
“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and
out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful
instruction.” I am a Bible-man because Mom was a Bible-woman. The Word
teaches us all we need to know about God; it reveals the exact representation
of his being in his Son Jesus Christ. We know what love is because God
expressed that love for us on the Cross of Christ despite the fact that we were
hostile to him. He loved us anyways. While we were still sinners, Christ died
for us.
The word
for “preach” is kerygma, which is sometimes translated “proclaim.” So this word
is not just for pastors; it is for all who believe in Jesus’ name. This gospel
is what we proclaim: All have fallen short of the glory of God and all are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
This is what we proclaim.
Mom was
a proclaimer. She did not have a congregation of hundreds; her congregation was
a Sunday School class, a Pioneer Girls group or a Bible Study. Sometimes she
led reluctantly but she did it faithfully. I am not saying she was super-great
at it; I’m just saying she did what God asked of her.
Faithfulness
is what God desires. Paul knew that the time would come when people would tire
of good preaching. They would eventually crave more entertainment, more jokes,
more “how-to” sermons, and finally they would just water down the gospel so
that people would leave the church in droves. In times like this, Paul charged
Timothy to stay the course. Preach the Word of Christ even when people don’t
want to hear that they are broken, hurting, sinful people in need of the
healing touch of God through Jesus. Tell them God can make them whole.
Paul
gives this charge to Timothy knowing that his days are numbered. He needed to
pass on the torch to someone, to give to someone this burning desire to run for
Christ. We know this because Paul says,
“For I
am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my
departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept
the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me,
but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
Mom’s
wearing a crown now, the crown of righteousness. But this crown was not earned;
it was given to her by her Savior. She wrote in her prayer journal, “O God,
more than anything, I want to finish the race one of these days and be able to
say, “I have kept the faith.” If I keep the faith, you will have a crown of
righteousness waiting for me.” In another entry she wrote that the first face
she sees when she closes her eyes in death and opens them anew is the face of
Jesus.
Her last
entry was a prayer, “Heavenly Father, I sometimes feel as if I can’t go on. I
am tired. I am weak. And I am worn. Thank you that you know my limits better
than I do. And that, in your strength I can find the enablement to endure.
Father,
continue to bring me along so that I can rejoice in my sufferings, because I
know suffering produces perseverance.
I…pray
that I will not be like those who receive the Word with joy when they hear it,
but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing
they fall away. Help me to receive your Word and hang on to it tightly.”
As the Leukemia and the specter of death began to
frighten Mom, we talked of death. I said to her, “Do you know what death is
like? It’s like falling asleep and after a long sleep waking up into a new
day.”
She
said, “Really?”
I
replied, “Do you know who told me that?”
She
said, “Who?”
I said,
“You did.”
I believe Paul when he says that the believers do not
need to grieve like the rest of men because the saints fall asleep. Death
cannot hold the person who has put their faith in Jesus.
Again, I
tell you these things not to paint Mom as some super spiritual person. But I
invite you to follow the Perfect Christ that she followed. I invite you to know
the God she strove to know. I invite you to live in the presence of God and of
Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and be found faithful. That’s
what Mom would have wanted.
AMEN
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