John 11:17, 21-26; Ephesians 2:1-10; Isaiah 41:8-10
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Farmers have a leg up on faith. They till the earth; they clear it of weed and stone; none of it made by human hands, intellect, or ingenuity. Then they take a seed, an inert, seemingly lifeless seed, and they plant it in the earth, and they wait. Most certainly they tend to it; they water it, and they weed it some more, but mostly they just wait, and while they wait, they pray a quiet prayer, with or without words. For they did not make the earth or the seed; they did not make the water, the sunshine, or the nutrients in the soil; neither did they make the seed, nor do they make it germinate, sprout, and grow into a fruitful plant, but God has done, and God does all this, and every farmer knows this, and so he works and he waits and he prays for God to make his work fruitful.
Our brother in Christ Willard was such a farmer, and such a man. Yes, he was much more than a farmer, but from his childhood and youth growing up on the family farm, to his own beloved vegetable garden, Willard was a farmer, and that fact shaped who he was as a man, as a husband, as a father, and everything else. The eldest of fourteen children, Willard was literally conceived to work the land, to farm. That was typical for the time; everything a family needed came from the soil and from hard work, and many hands make that work easier. No one could afford to hire out for help, so you literally conceived it, you birthed it, you raised it, and you put it to work. No one complained, that was life, a life very close to the earth, to nature, to your food, clothing, and shelter, and to close to God. No work, no food, no clothing, no shelter, - no work, no life. That was Willard’s life until he was drafted in January of ’62. After just short of two years in the service, Willard returned home and served in the Unites States Army Reserves, and he resumed working on the farm and helping other farmers. Even when Willard accepted the position of tire manager for Farm Services and relocated with his young family to Keystone in 1974, where he eventually purchased and became the owner of that company through his retirement in 2013, Willard enjoyed working and talking to farmers and helping them get their equipment back in service as quickly as possible. It was in his DNA.
Is it merely a coincidence that Willard’s confirmation verse was Ephesians 2:10, “For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Coincidence or not, it is the truth, and it suits Willard well. What St. Paul was getting at is that we are each like a seed planted in the ground by God. The difference is that God planted us, not a mortal man. Likewise, God has watered us, nourished us, shaded and protected us, and provided for us everything we need to live and to be fruitful and abundant. Our fruits are borne primarily in our vocations as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, farmers, tire salesmen, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. You knew Willard’s fruits. You saw them. You benefitted from them. Just as Willard planted seeds and cared for them so that they would be fruitful and produce a harvest, so God planted Willard, and each of us, and he cares for us so that we should be fruitful and produce a harvest. The fruit, the works we produce, serve others and so glorify God who has planted us. But they are God’s fruit, borne in us, by his grace, for we were dead in our trespasses and sin. It is because of sin that we die, for the wages of sin is death. Yes, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is life in Jesus Christ out Lord. Like a seed, we were inert and lifeless, dead in our sins, but God has planted us and has made us alive and life-giving. God planted Willard and made him alive and life-giving, and you are recipients and beneficiaries of his life.
Life was lived outside for Willard, working the soil, planting the seed, watering, weeding, harvesting, watching the miracle of life unfold over and over again. Or, in the woods cutting down trees and splitting the wood for his wood burning stove. That was hard work. It’s all hard work. Life is hard work. But Willard didn’t complain. He loved it. That too is a fruit of the seed the LORD has planted: Hard work, contentment and peace, love. To have his boys with him, working with him, cutting the trees, splitting the wood, loading the truck, tossing the logs down the coal chute to the furnace – that was fruit for Willard, that was the harvest, and nothing made him happier.
But all work and no play, that wasn’t Willard. Willard had several hobbies and interests he enjoyed when the work was done. Willard loved to tinker with his engines, repairing, fine-tuning, getting ‘em just right. While in the woods there was also berry and mushroom hunting. Even work was fun; Willard thoroughly enjoyed mowing the lawn, tilling the garden, and plowing the snow. Suffice it to say, Willard simply loved being outside, nearly all the time. In his later years, when his body no longer permitted him to work as hard as he loved to, you’d find him sitting, not in the house, but in a lawn chair in his open garage, enjoying the sights, sounds, smells, and beauty of the world, the life, and the family in which God had planted him. Willard also enjoyed puzzles; 1000 pieces? Child’s play. Better start with at least 5000, we’ll see how it goes from there. And there was polka dancing, which Willard and Marlys enjoyed together. Together they danced the night away with their friends all over Iowa and the Midwest. They particularly enjoyed dancing to the music of Malek’s Fishermen Band and Barefoot Becky. Willard was an incredibly hard working man who always willing to help someone in need when the telephone rang. He was a tremendous husband, father, brother, grandfather, and friend to countless people that he met during his lifetime. Willard was God’s seed, planted in this world and life, and God blessed him and made him fruitful, a blessing to all of you and so many more. Glory be to God in Jesus Christ!
The Gospel lesson we heard today from St. John should be familiar to many of you. It’s one of the most well-known, and somewhat mysterious, accounts of our Lord Jesus raising someone to life out of death. The person Jesus raised was his dear friend Lazarus, the brother of his dear friends Mary and Martha from Bethany. Mary and Martha had sent messages to Jesus, who was away from the area at the time, that their brother was critically ill and would surely die. They wanted Jesus to come right away and heal their brother. Jesus didn’t come right away, and intentionally so, as the story goes. In fact, Jesus waited even to depart for Bethany until he knew that his friend Lazarus had already died. When Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Mary and Martha believed that Jesus could heal their brother before he died; they also believed in the resurrection on the last day. But Jesus wanted them to believe – Jesus wants you to believe – that death has already been defeated: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Admittedly, this statement is a bit mysterious, and worded in a rather mysterious way. Again, that is intentional. What is Jesus saying? Is he saying that we won’t die? No. Is he saying that the death of those we love is not something to grieve and mourn? No. What Jesus is saying is that death is not the final word, and neither is life, for that matter. Jesus is the life of the living; and Jesus is resurrection of those who die. St. Paul put the same thing a different way saying, “For me to live is Christ; to die is gain.”
We are seed. Willard was a seed, planted by God. A seed must burst open and die so that new and fruitful life might spring forth. The LORD blessed Willard with a long and fruitful life; some of you are that fruit, all of you have benefitted from that fruit. Willard died spiritually long ago in Holy Baptism. There he took up Jesus’ life-giving life. Now Willard has died physically, and we will commend his body to the earth, like a seed, waiting patiently in hopeful expectation for the resurrection of the body on the last day. Then “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” Yes, be encouraged! Those who die in the Lord are blessed, for they are with him. Jesus is the life of those who live, and he is the resurrection and the life of those who die. You will see those you love who have died in the Lord again; it is only a little while until the harvest.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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