John 10:11-16; 1 John 3:1-3; Isaiah 43:1-3a, 25
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Grace was born in Germany after World War I. She immigrated to the United States by ship along with her father and mother, two sisters, and a brother in 1925; she was two years old. Her mother had relatives who lived in Butler County, Iowa, and that is where the family settled. There she was educated in country schools, did chores on the family farm, and attended church and Sunday School in Clarksville.
Grace lived one hundred two years and nearly seven months. That’s a long, rich life full of a multitude of experience and wisdom by any standard. Grace grew up during the Great Depression, lived through World War II, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Bobby Kennedy, the Moon Landing, the Vietnam War, and the dawn of a new century and millennium.
Grace saw and experienced a lot, and she remained Grace throughout it all. She was always kind and gracious. She had her own opinions; you could disagree with her and that would be fine, but it didn’t mean that she wasn’t correct. Faith was very important to Grace and doing what’s right; she had a firm and consistent moral and ethical code, and she would let you know if you were out of bounds. This is wisdom, which is different than knowledge; wisdom comes from experience, and Grace had it in loads. It would be wise to listen to her and learn from her, and many did.
Grace taught Sunday school and confirmation class and sang in the church choir. At home, after she finished cleaning, Grace would sit at the piano and play hymns and the family would sing together. She had Wendell and Anne complete their Sunday school work for the next Sunday and she quizzed them on their catechism memory work. Later in her life, here at St. John, Grace and Wendell attended Divine Services most Sundays and Bible study after church. Their faith and their church came first over other things. In fact, the rose colored paraments you see adorning the altar, the banners, and the vestments I am wearing today were donated by Grace and the Arends family. They are only used on two weeks out of the entire church year, and I am very happy that this week is one of those! Thank you, Grace, for blessing St. John with these beautiful paraments which will serve our congregation and glorify God for decades to come.
Grace was an avid golfer, and quite a good one at that. She hit two holes-in-one in her career. She also enjoyed reading, dancing, bowling, walking, sunrises, sunsets, birds, flowers, music, and the color blue, but her greatest enjoyment was being with her family and friends. Like many who lived through the Great Depression, Grace knew the value of things. She was conservative, and I don’t necessarily mean politically, but you protect and conserve those things that are important to you; it’s just common sense.
“Fear not,” says the LORD, “for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Those words from Isaiah 43, which are on the banner over there, served to define Grace, her faith, values, and how she lived her life. Through hard times and through good times, for over one hundred years, the LORD kept Grace in His grace, mercy, love, and peace. He kept her in her baptismal grace. He kept her in Jesus. Grace knew and believed this, and it shaped her calm, kind, peaceful, and resolute demeanor.
Blessed are those who live their lives, their entire lives, as God’s children! Grace became God’s child in Holy Baptism shortly after her birth in 1923, and she remained God’s child throughout her long life, and now she is enjoying the peace and joy of being God’s child in a way only hinted at here on earth. “See what kind of the love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” […] “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” Grace lived long enough and through enough to know that life is not always easy and that it is not without its times of tribulation and suffering. Because she was a child of God Grace could face such times with hope and patient endurance. That is why St. Paul could say, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
To be a child of God is to be a sheep in the Good Shepherd’s flock. Grace was Jesus’ little lamb, and Jesus was her Good Shepherd. “I am the Good Shepherd,” Jesus says, “I know my own and my own know me, […]; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus, our Good Shepherd, leads us through the valley of the shadow of death that is our lives in this world into our Father’s house where His sheep may safely graze. In the valley we are surrounded by enemies that would tempt us, lead us astray, or destroy us, but we are not alone, for our Shepherd, who has passed this way already, accompanies, leads us, and feeds us in the presence of our enemies. And Jesus has defeated the unholy trinity of sin, death, and Satan for us in His own death and resurrection, so they cannot harm or hold us. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” [..] “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” This is Grace.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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