John 15:1-11; Romans 8:31-39; Isaiah 43:1-3a, 25
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Listen again to these promises from our LORD:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
“I am the vine and you are the branches. Remain in me, and I will remain in you, and you will bear much fruit.”
The man who trusts in these words must necessarily be a man who is confident, unshakeable, content, and at peace no matter what trials and tribulations he should face. Such a man is not confident in himself, mind you, but his confidence comes from outside of himself, and it has been tested in the past and found to be trustworthy, dependable, and sound, therefore it can be trusted to prove true now and in the future. Glenn Wehrkamp was such a man, for Glenn trusted in these promises of His LORD and thus he was confident, unshakeable, content, and at peace through both good times and bad, through health and disease, no matter what trials and tribulations he should face. And Glenn’s positivity and confidence was an inspiration to countless others: his students whom he challenged to do it the hard way and write it on the board, his athletes whom he challenged to always give their best, and his children, grand, and great-grandchildren who had to learn to be patient when they wanted something because Glenn’s first answer was always “no.”
Glenn loved teaching and coaching, and he did so for forty-one years from his first job in 1948 at age nineteen until his retirement in 1989. He taught math and social studies, and he coached track, basketball, and he even started the girls’ softball program in Hartley, Iowa. Glenn was a good teacher, but he was a hard teacher. He may have been strict, but he had a heart of gold. Glenn was hard on his students because he loved them and he wanted them to be the very best they could be. Most kids didn’t like him much until after they graduated. The truth was that Glenn’s students didn’t have many problems with math in college. He set the bar high, and he helped them to reach it. Take-home tests were an opportunity for students who understood the material well to help those who were struggling. Glenn really took disadvantaged kids under his wing and showed them that they mattered. “All you have to do is think,” he would say; “That’s all you have to do if you want to pass my class.” Those years in Hartley, Glenn’s math students won the Tri-State Math Competition twenty-five years in a row, and Glenn was inducted into the Iowa Referees Hall of Fame.
Glenn was a taskmaster in the Summertime when he supervised junior high and highschool kids on Summer break walking beans. Monday through Friday after the Fourth of July he had them 6:00 a.m. to noon. And they couldn’t cut the weeds; they had to pull them. No breaks for water, either, and no sitting down. One day two recently graduated girls had enough and finally stood up to Glenn saying, “Glenn, sit your happy ass down and drink some water.” But Glenn was hard on himself as well. He went to school in the Summertime and earned Master’s Degrees in Counseling, Math, and Administration. Glenn was quite serious about politics for a while also; he even ran for State Senate in Northwest Iowa. Generally, Glenn was a peacemaker, but he could be obstinate and a contrarian as well. He and Al Janssen were great buddies, but still they would bicker across the room in Bible study at church, and they rooted for different teams – Al for the Cyclones, and Glenn for the Hawkeyes. Nonetheless, Al actually convinced Glenn once to root for the Cyclones against the Hawkeyes in the Cy-Hawk game. I suppose that was Glenn looking out for the disadvantaged kids yet again.
Yeah, beneath that sometimes hard exterior was a heart of gold. He used to call all little kids “George” because he couldn’t remember their names. The kid’s friends all thought that Glenn’s name was “George.” Glenn loved sweets, but he wasn’t so obvious about it. You wouldn’t catch him eating a chocolate bar, but if there was pecan pie, ice cream, cookies, popcorn, or malts, they would disappear quickly and quietly if Glenn was around. Glenn used to take his daughters to see John Wayne movies and World Wide Wrestling events. Kristine even got to see Jesse “the Body” Ventura before he was the Governor of Minnesota. Those Summers when Glenn was pursuing another Master’s Degree and he worked at the pool, the kids got to enjoy the pool all day. On fishing trips, Glenn would only fish one day, but he always caught the biggest fish. Glenn loved to golf and play cards and competitive Bridge. And he and Yvonne enjoyed taking bus trips all over the United States. They went to Alaska, Hawaii, and the Panama Canal. But Glenn’s favorite was Alaska. Perhaps what he loved most was watching his grandkids play sports, basketball and volleyball. Glenn was a Cardinals fan, and also a Cubs fan. Ok, Glenn was a sports fan, period. That was Glenn.
Glenn was raised in the church, and he loved God and he trusted in Jesus all throughout his long life, but for a long time he pretty much had to be dragged to church. He often had a golf date with the guys on Sunday mornings when only men were permitted to play the green. Perhaps thanks to Yvonne’s faithfulness, Glenn began to read Portals of Prayer every day, and I can personally attest that when Glenn was healthier he never missed a Sunday Divine Service and, despite the difficulty he had navigating the altar steps to the communion rail, Glenn made it every time and refused to accept help of any kind. I think he truly stopped coming only when he knew that he could no longer go up those steps by himself. Still, Glenn received communion in the chapel at Bartels on Thursday mornings, and in the past few months privately in his room. Glenn welcomed those visits. He wanted to receive communion. He hungered and thirsted for the word of absolution. He loved His Lord Jesus. Now Jesus has called Glenn home to where His sheep may safely graze.
Life wasn’t always easy for Glenn as you well know. Glenn was afflicted with Guillen Barre disease in 2002. That took months of treatment and therapy to overcome. However, Glenn had just the right temperament and faith to face that disease and overcome it, and without complaining. Similarly, the past few years while Glenn spent much of his time in his Lay-Z-Boy, Yvonne has told me numerous times that he never complained, and I never heard him complain once about anything. Quite the contrary, where many people would have become depressed, bitter, and angry, Glenn was almost always smiling, talkative, appreciative, interested in others, and encouraging. That was Glenn’s faith, born in him the fruit of Jesus, the True Vine. Jesus taught, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and ever branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” God the Father prunes the branches that are connected to the Vine, His Son, Jesus. That sounds a lot like Glenn to me. Isn’t that precisely what Glenn did for so many young people throughout his teaching and coaching career, throughout his life? Glenn pruned them so that they would become even more fruitful. Glenn’s personal struggles were a sort of pruning as well. Jesus promises, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
One final thing about Glenn is 805. What is 805 you ask? 805 is the number of a hymn in our hymnal, “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow,” otherwise known as the Doxology. Glenn loved the Doxology. Every week, either at church or at Bartels, he would bellow, “805,” calling out for us to sing his favorite hymn. The truth is, we might have sung 805 but once or twice in church. The reason it was not selected often is not that it is not a good hymn, but that it only has one stanza. There simply wasn’t often an occasion that called for a one-stanza hymn. However, when Glenn was no longer able to come to church at St. John, and he began to attend regularly on Thursdays at Bartels, we did more than simply sing 805 every once in a while, I incorporated it into the liturgy so that we sang it immediately following communion every week – and we still do. Whenever we sing the Doxology I cannot help but think of Glenn. And it brings me great joy to know that Glenn is singing “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” in heaven right now, with angels, archangels, and with all the company of heaven. And let us all look forward to that great and glorious day when we will sing the Doxology together with Glenn and all the heavenly host in heaven, on a day upon which the sun will never set. God is for us; No one can be against us. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all will also graciously give us all things. Nothing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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