Naomi Lipper - 9/16/23

We gather today as people who loved Naomi Lipper, sharing our grief as we mourn her loss. But even as we mourn the end of her life, we also want to celebrate all that life was. Our grief today is tempered by the hope of the resurrection that we find in the Bible. Jesus said to His disciples these words,

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. This is mor than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. (John 14:1-3, NLT)

I do not believe that Naomi feared death, because she believed wholeheartedly Jesus’ promise that she would live even though she died. Today, we find hope in this promise as well. Our grief today can be tempered by the fact that though Naomi’s life on this earth has ended, it is not the end of the story. As we celebrate her life today, we also celebrate the life she now enjoys.

Will you pray with me?

Our heavenly Father, we thank you for Naomi’s life. As we gather today and mourn the end of that life, we pray that you would grant comfort to each of us in the reality of life beyond the grave. May we remember today that while we grieve for our loss, we do not grieve for any loss Naomi has experienced, because she is experiencing life as she has always wanted. Grant us hope and comfort today as we grieve, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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I want to do something I have never done at a funeral in all these years. I want to take a 4 question poll with a show of hands. Hold your hands up for a beat or two so we can look around and see the number of hands raised.

1: “How many of you, at one time or another, were cared for by Naomi or had Naomi care for your children?

2: How many of you had Naomi’s milk shakes with Nestle’s Quick, Milk, and Ice Cream and/or pizza and/or raided her fridge?

3: How many of you ever had Naomi tell you that she loved you?

4: How many of you ever received a birthday card or a clipping from the newspaper from Naomi?

Naomi Lipper was a woman with a heart filled with love. But she had struggles to overcome. She had marriage struggles but she was a resilient woman. She raised seven children in not ideal circumstances. She canned, had a garden, had food in the freezer, always had chickens, tomatoes and more. She also had some good friends to lean on.

With all her boys she had lots of challenges (Paula and Reva of course, were no problem at all). Naomi got lots of use out of her ping pong paddle and even broke one or two in her attempts to discipline. She was not above washing someone’s mouth out with soap. On occasion she would yell up to the kids very early in the morning: “Get up! It is time to make hay while sun shines”. Frank would respond, “The sun is not yet shining!” There were times when Naomi would just break down in tears of frustration as she tried to teach her kids right and wrong. But she did well. All of her children look at her with great admiration, gratitude and love. In these later years, her children were there whenever she had a need.

It was fortunate in the early years that the Shoemaker kids had the Link kids to play with all day, otherwise Naomi may just have lost her mind!

Every Christmas for many years, the family would get together on Christmas Eve. There would be oyster soup and ham sandwiches, the best china would be brought out, and the table would be festively decorated. The one rule was no one opens presents until all the dishes were washed and put away. Each generation would work to get those dishes done so they could get to the presents. Though most of the presents are long forgotten, the tradition and the beauty of that family time will never be forgotten.

I’m not sure how to put this in context so I am not going to worry about it. Annette once brought some generously-sized buckeyes down to a family gathering. Tammy said, “Wow, those are some Big-Ass Buckeyes. From then on it became a family tradition to get a “big-ass” this, that, or the other thing. Annette fed it by always wanting to get a giant big-ass Pointsetta or Easter Lilly for Naomi. It is now a family description for lots of things.

Every member of the family knew they would always get a birthday or anniversary card at the appropriate time. Every grandchild would get a birthday card that contained a dollar. That only lasted until you were 18 and then you would be “cut off!”

To give you a picture of how her Grandchildren felt about her, here is an essay written by Lindy for school on January 27, 1997

My grandma, Naomi, should get the prize because she plays with me. I like doing stuff with my grandma and I get lots of stuff from her.

She plays with me. She plays checkers with me. My grandma plays baseball with me. She plays catch with me. And she really likes playing ping-pong with me.

I like doing stuff with her. We always look for a letter in the newspaper together. I always go to Grandma’s house. I go to her house after school.

I get lots of stuff from her. I got a necklace and earrings from her. I always get candy. I get fudge most of the time.

My grandma, Naomi, should get this prize because she plays with me. I like doing stuff with my grandma, and I get lots of stuff with her. My grandma is so great, and that is why she should get the prize.

Simply put, Lindy, speaking for all Naomi’s grandchildren said: “Grandma knew how to show us we were loved and cherished.”

Naomi kept a detailed calendar of birthdays and special days. This was not just for her family, it was for anyone she knew! She sent out hundreds of birthday cards every year! If she saw something noteworthy in the paper about someone, she would clip it out and then send it to them. She spent her lifetime making sure people felt “seen,” appreciated, and loved.

When she moved to LaHarpe in 1979 Naomi really began her “ministry.” She would babysit kids, transport kids, and kids would just stop by the house. She babysat for all the grandkids. For country kids who needed to change for some event, they would go to Naomi’s because they knew they would be warmly welcomed. Everyone knew they were welcome to anything that was in the refrigerator. She would often make “shakes” with Nestle Quick, milk, and ice cream. Often, she would take out just half of a frozen pizza, or make some Kraft Mac and Cheese, or steam burgers. She spoiled Taylor so that he wouldn’t eat homemade Mac and Cheese, it had to be Kraft Mac and Cheese, the way Grandma made it. The one thing you could always count on was that you would get chocolate.

Hopefully when you came in today you were given (or took) some chocolate in memory of Naomi. I invite you to eat that chocolate at any time during the service in affectionate remembrance of her. Her kids would have also served thin slices of frozen pizza, but they could only use half of a pizza.

Naomi made a list one day and came up with 55 families where she helped with their children in one capacity or other. Again, this was in addition to her grandchildren! She was “mom” or “grandma” to many beyond her own family.

Naomi was interested in people. If something was going on in town, she made it her “mission” to discover the details. She wasn’t going to share false information. She checked it out first. If her children were going through rough times, Naomi was always there for them. No judgment, just support. If the Grandchildren were playing in games around the area, she was almost always in the stands. This was a woman with a big heart.

Naomi loved to play her organ and sit at her player piano. She also played lots of solitaire. When she moved around while her home was being repaired after the storm, she brought her own cards with her. She said she had a real hard time winning against the blue cards. The blue deck is not in the casket.

To keep her mind sharp, she did word scrambles and puzzles. When she played a game with the kids, she was competitive. They weren’t going to learn anything by letting them win.

Whenever she had free time, she would make some kind of list. It may have been businesses she remembered in Blandinsville, lists of children she cared for, foods she liked to eat, things she raised in the garden, or all kinds of other things. Her calendar was filled with notes about what her kids were doing. She remained sharp because she was always working at it.

She was a proud cancer survivor.

On her 90th birthday she received 90 cards. Yes, she counted them! I have the feeling however, that Naomi had really no idea how many lives she touched with her kindness and love. She saw the good in everyone.

She used to tell me that I was like one of her kids and she loved me. It made me feel pretty special. Then I found out that she said that to everyone; even relative strangers.

The Friday before she died, I saw her in the hospital. I hugged her and we had a nice visit followed by a prayer together. When we were done, she wanted another hug and she said, “I love you.” I said, “I love you too.” Then I said, “I appreciate what a loving woman you have always been.” She said, “I have always been a loving person.” To which I replied, “And I’ve always appreciated your humility too.”

Naomi got used to living alone. She enjoyed her family stopping in to visit but when she had visited enough, she would say, “Well, I know you have things to do.” If you didn’t get the hint, she would keep saying it until you did.

One Doctor suggested that the thing that may have done Naomi in was the vicious storm that ripped through La Harpe when a tree destroyed her garage and fell on the house causing the rain to pour in. The Doctor suggested she died of broken-heart syndrome.

Naomi Lipper was a great mom, grandma, friend, community member and neighbor. She was a faithful church-goer and cared about people more than most people you will ever meet. As I said, she looked for, and found, the good in everyone. She saw people, if you will, with the eyes of Jesus.

I suppose we could talk a great deal more about Naomi and the kind of person she was, but . . . I know you have things to do.

HOW GREAT THOU ART

In the book of James, in the Bible, we read these words,

14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” (James 2:14-18)

Naomi Lipper was a very faithful woman. She attended church as regularly as she could trying to get several children ready for church. When I met her until around Covid, she was always in her seat at the Union Church. She was in the second to last row on the speaker's right-hand side.

Like many of her generation, Naomi didn’t talk a lot about her faith. It was seen as something that was private. I have to believe, based on the fruit she bore in life, and the fact that she sat under our Biblical teaching year after year, that she understood what it meant to sincerely trust Christ.

There are too many people who think they are going to Heaven because they have been a good person. The thing is, God says we are all NOT good persons. In fact, it says, “all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” According to the Bible, no one is going to Heaven because they have been good enough. Not you. Not me. Not Naomi.

The Bible goes on to tell us that we can be forgiven and have eternal life only when we turn to Jesus as the only one who can save or rescue us. It tells us that when Jesus died on the cross, He was paying for the sin of everyone who would put their trust in Him. We are not saved because of our goodness, but because of His grace.

This grace is extended to everyone who acknowledges Christ as the only one who can save them . . . as the one who died in their place and then rose again literally from the dead. His resurrection showed that His sacrifice accomplished just what He said it would do: take a sinful person and erase their sin from the record. It is the most amazing truth every proclaimed.

No, it is not just wishful thinking. He was seen alive by witnesses and those who saw Him were never the same again.

But what about this passage from James? Isn’t it saying that we can earn Heaven by what we do? No, that is not what James is saying. James was confronting a different problem, I believe. In the early years of the church some people perhaps started to take grace for granted. They believed salvation was about learning certain facts, instead of entering into a relationship with Jesus. They could “believe” without having any change in the way they lived.

James was saying in essence: “Look, you say you have faith, but if there is no change in your life, if you don’t care more about others than you did before, if you do not show Jesus-like qualities in how you treat people, there is a good chance you are trusting what you know about Jesus . . . not Jesus Himself. It’s not just about knowing certain information . . . it is about how knowing that information, and entering into this relationship, inevitably changes the way we live our lives.

And that’s the point I want to make. I don’t believe Naomi Lipper is with the Lord today because she was a good person. I believe that Naomi Lipper was such an amazing person because of her relationship with Christ. She may not have understood the finer points of theological discourse, but Christ was in her heart. He helped her to see others as He did. He filled her heart with a love that gave and gave and gave without even an ounce of selfishness. She may not have told you about trusting Christ, but there was no mistaking how she showed us Christ in the way she lived.

Maybe it is fair to say that the world would be a better place if Christians talked a little less, and lived out their faith a little more.

Naomi Lipper showed us her faith by what she did. She really was not drawing attention to herself . . . she was really pointing to Him.

Because of this I have no doubt that when Naomi passed from here to eternity she was welcomed by the warm and strong arms of Jesus. And I believe the Lord will surprise her with the words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” She will be surprised because I don’t think she thought she was doing anything all that special . . . but she was.

Before I sit down, I want to share 12 lessons that I think we should learn from Naomi’s life.

1. Bad things can and will happen in your life, but they will not defeat you, unless you let them.

2. It is tough to raise a big family, but once your kids are raised, the joys of that big family will be enormous.

3. There is good in everyone . . . you just have to be looking for it.

4. You can’t tell people you love them enough, because too many people feel unlovable.

5. The two best ways to a child’s heart is through their stomach and by playing games with them.

6. Making the holidays special doesn’t just make the holiday special, it shows that the people who are there are also special to you.

7. If you are going to buy flowers for someone . . . why not buy some really big-ass flowers!

8. Children (and adults) were made for chocolate.

9. We would probably all be healthier if we only ate half of the frozen pizza.

10. $1.00 in a birthday card isn’t a lot of money, but it can convey a lot of love.

11. None of us have perfect lives. We all have times of failure. The person who stands with us in these times show they love us in a very special way.

12. There are a few rare people in life who are not arrogant when they talk about how loving they are; these people are simply telling the truth.

[IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL]

As we close today, will you pray with me once more?

Lord, we thank you for the life of Naomi Lipper. Thank you for the impact she has made on each one of us. Thank you for the example she set for us in how to care for others. Above all, Lord, we thank you for Naomi’s faith. Thank you for the assurance that because of her faith in Jesus, she can live even though she has died. Help us to hold on to that hope, and to embrace that same faith ourselves so we can be confident of a glorious reunion when our lives end as well. Grant us hope, comfort, and peace as we grieve in these days, weeks, and months ahead. Surround this family and these friends with your love, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.