Luke 23:39-43; Revelation 7:9-17; Romans 8:31-39
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Darlys was a determined, traditional, German farm wife. She was quiet and shy, but she would get her point across when she needed to. That would catch some people by surprise because she was short and little. But no one underestimated Darlys more than once. Darlys grew up in Denver, Iowa, graduating in 1946 from Denver High School. Three years later she married the love of her life, Marvin, and the two of them built a home together and a family three miles north of Bremer, IA where they lived for fifty years.
Darlys was a town girl, but she became a farm girl pretty quick. Darlys had to learn how to do all sorts of things on the farm, including milking the cows and feeding them and operating the stalk-chopper. She would come in with dirt all over her face and clothes. The only clean place on her body were her eyes, protected by goggles. When she removed the goggles, she had white circles around her eyes. One day was especially rough. The cows had her pinned down, but she got the job done. Still, there was one cow in the herd that singled Darlys out; it was Tootles. Tootles was a white cow with black all around one eye. There was only one person in the family that Tootles didn’t like, and that was Darlys. I suspect that Tootles learned not to underestimate Darlys either.
Apart from the farm, Darlys worked in accounts receivable at Rath Packing for three years, at the Bremer Elevator for twenty years, and at the Fredericksburg Elevator for ten years from which she retired in 2010. Darlys loved gardening and canning, and she sold strawberries from her patch to the Bremer Store. She also enjoyed crocheting doilies, table runners, dresses, and more, playing cards, preparing large family meals, and playing Hide the Thimble with the kids. Darlys was a determined, traditional, German farm wife. She was quiet and shy, but she would get her point across when she needed to. She began her life as a townie, but she lived it a farmer. Things weren’t always easy, but her faith kept her strong right up to the end.
“If God is for us, who can be against us.” Now, that’s a battle cry if I’ve ever heard one! That’s the cry of a commander leading his troops into a battle there’s no human or worldly hope they can win. That’s the cry of a Christian facing a terminal disease, financial ruin, or anything that seems utterly hopeless according to human reason and ability. But that’s also the cry of a Christian as you face more mundane, day to day trials and tribulations, and even death. If God is for us – and He most definitely is – then who can possibly harm us in any lasting way. God has given up His own Son for us, there is nothing good that He will withhold from us, and nothing evil that He will not shelter us from. Don’t hear me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you will never face pain, suffering, loss, and death, that you will never suffer from evil; no, I am not saying that at all, for surely you do, and you will. What I am saying is that you can face these things like a commander leading his troops into battle knowing that no matter what happens, you win. God has got your back and He has given you the victory over sin, death, the devil, and hell, and no one can take that from you.
That makes me think of Darlys as a young wife transitioning from town to farm life, facing Tootles and the stalk chopper, coming back from the battle with dirt on her face and clothes with confident joy. That makes me think of Darlys, quiet and shy, short, and underestimated, roaring like a lion when she needed to get her point across. That makes me think of Darlys as she faced what I will call dementia in her later years, where things got insurmountably difficult and uncertain, when Marvin, her rock, died and she had to face trial and tribulation alone – how her faith kept her strong right up to the end. As we remember Darlys this day, and her faith that saw her through, let us also remember that God has got our back, that God is for us and has given His Son for us, and that nothing can separate us from His love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And, even as we remember that God is for Darlys, and God is for us, therefore we have nothing to fear, let us also remember that God remembers us. There were two men, criminals, who were crucified with Jesus. initially, both of those men mocked and ridiculed Jesus and tempted Him to save Himself and them. As they suffered there together on calvary, however, one of the men was turned in repentance as He saw His innocent God and Lord suffering and dying for his sins and for the sins of the world. The dying criminal said to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus turned and said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” People often ask me what happens when we die. Well, for those who trust in Jesus as their savior, it couldn’t be clearer: “Today you will be with me.” That was Jesus’ answer to a condemned man who asked that He remember him. That very day that man was with Jesus. We can be confident and comforted that Darlys is with Jesus. And we can be confident and comforted that when we die, we will be with Jesus also.
And where will that be? Well, that is somewhat less clear, but no less good and wonderful. Jesus told the repentant criminal that he would be with Him in paradise. Paradise is a word that is used to describe, not so much heaven, but the Garden of Eden. Paradise is a walled and protected, well-watered garden. I always say that what matters is not so much the where as the with who; we will be with Jesus, and so it doesn’t really matter where. Nonetheless, Scripture does describe the where a bit, and in most wonderful and glorious ways. In the Revelation, St. John is granted a vision of a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice praising God and the Lamb. John is told, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
What a glorious image is that? I say to you again, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” While we grieve, we grieve not as those who have no hope. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” 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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