John 14:1-; Romans 8:31-39; Job 19:21-27
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Betty was always happy. She enjoyed the simple things of life: Family, making a home, crafting, horse and buggy rides around town, enjoying time with her children and grandchildren. Betty and Harold were married fifty-four years when Harold died in 2011. They had a good life together and they were happy.
I met Betty when I was called to be the Pastor of St. John Lutheran Church here in Waverly about five and a half years ago. By then Betty had become a resident at the Shell Rock Nursing Home. Having never been to the nursing home, I walked in and was greeted by a smiling, joyful woman sitting at a table in the entranceway coloring with markers and colored pencils. It was Betty. Though we had never met before, Betty recognized my uniform and collar. “Are you my Pastor?” she asked hopefully. “Are you Betty?” I asked in return. “Yes, I am!” she answered enthusiastically. “Then I’m your Pastor!” I confirmed. I sat down with Betty, we talked for quite a long time, and then we received communion together. This was interrupted several times as Betty had to introduce me to everyone who walked by saying, “This is my Pastor!” She was always so very happy and joyful. Every time I would visit, I would take her off to the side of the main dining room, trying to get a little privacy to have a conversation and to receive communion, but it was always public, and Betty always wanted to introduce people to her Pastor.
I didn’t have the blessing of knowing Betty when she was healthy, vibrant, and independent. So, I was happy to hear a bit more of what she was like from Bill and Julanne the other day. Nevertheless, what they shared with me fit very well with the Betty I did know. Through those meetings with Betty at the nursing home, I witnessed her simple, childlike faith. She loved Jesus, there’s no doubt about that. I’m not so certain that she always understood everything I tried to share with her from the Bible, but so long as it was about Jesus and His love, Betty was right there with me, and she wanted to share that love with others. In those early years, while Betty was healthier in both body and mind, she was essentially the Queen of the dining room, holding court with all her subjects, both residents and staff. On more than one occasion she was even wearing a tiara! Everybody knew Betty, and Betty was always smiling and spreading joy and happiness to others.
The past two years were especially difficult for Betty. When the pandemic broke out in 2020 the Shell Rock Nursing Home, like most across the country, strictly limited visitors and the conditions under which they could visit. I’m sorry to say that this deeply affected my visits with Betty. One day during that time I received a phone call from the nursing home informing me that Betty had entered Hospice care and was failing quickly. I went over there right away, but they wouldn’t let me enter the building. They invited me to walk around to the back, to Betty’s window and communicate with her that way. Well, that didn’t work very well; in truth, it was a complete failure. Betty was in bed on the other side of the room away from the window. Further, she couldn’t hear all that well when I sat next to her, let alone from outside a window across the room. So, I did the best I could; I screamed a prayer and made sure Betty knew that Jesus loved her. Clearly the LORD wasn’t ready to call Betty home just yet, but the next time I was able to visit with Betty, she was in a considerably worse state than when we used to sit and talk together and have communion. Visits were short and mostly one sided. My goal was to bring the comfort of Jesus to His dear child.
In circumstances such as that, I believe that the words of St. Paul from Romans chapter eight are extremely comforting: “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. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” No matter what we face, we never face it alone; moreover, Christ our Lord has faced it all before us and has won for us the victory over sin, death, and the grave. Truly we are more than conquerors through Jesus because He has conquered, and He shares His victory with us.
It was Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and the grave that gave Job his great confidence and peace in trial, tribulation, and suffering as well, and that was over two thousand years before Jesus’ birth! You will recall that the LORD permitted Satan to afflict Job with intense suffering and loss to prove that Job feared, loved, and trusted in Him freely, and not merely because God had blessed him so richly. First Satan took Job’s livelihood by taking his livestock. Then he took Job’s children in tragic death. Lastly, he took Job’s personal health and wellbeing. In all this Job did not sin; he would not curse God and die. Job confessed, “The LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the Name of the LORD.” And when Job was but a breath away from death, he took comfort in Jesus’ death and resurrection, which wouldn’t happen for two thousand years, proclaiming, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”
Now, I doubt that Betty had these Scriptures in mind, per se, or that she thought about what she was going through and her faith in the manner of either St. Paul or Job. No, I believe that Betty’s faith and understanding was much simpler and more childlike than that. And that’s perfectly okay. In fact, that’s wonderful! Betty simply knew that Jesus loved her and that she loved Jesus. And that gave her peace and comfort and hope and joy all the days of her long life. And that should give you peace and comfort and hope and joy, amid your sorrow, grief, and loss, knowing that Betty is with her Jesus, safe and at peace, and that, if you share her simple, childlike faith in Jesus, you will see her again one day, a day on which the sun will never set, and no one will ever take that joy from you.
“Let not your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said. “Believe in God; believe also in me. 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 will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Let not your hearts be troubled. Our Good Shepherd Jesus has called His dear lamb Betty home to His heavenly pastures where His sheep may safely graze. There she has joined her beloved Harold and others she loves in peace and joy in the presence of Jesus. There she waits for others she loves to join her, for Jesus has prepared a place there for you as well. This is His amazing grace.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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