Meditation for Ann Hummelman Memorial Service

Psalm 23 NIV

A psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

John 10:14–18 NIV

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Romans 8:22–27 NIV

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Revelation 21:1–6 NIV

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

When I first began my ministry here at New West just over 14 years ago I remember being deeply encouraged by many of the senior’s in our congregation. I quickly sensed a vibrant and steadfast faith that lived in the hearts of many of our seniors and felt that they had a rich heritage to pass on to the next generation. Many times in the first year of ministry here at New West, when friends or pastor colleagues would ask me how things were going in my new church, one of the things I’d tell them is how blessed I am by a significant group of our senior members. A good number of them are deeply committed to prayer, they freely shared of their faith in the Lord Jesus, and, on a more personal note, a group of them took it upon themselves to welcome my mother as a new member of our church family. My mom was living with us when we moved here so she came along with us from Ontario to BC. She was 87 years old at the time and already had advancing dementia. And within a month or so of our arrival some of those seniors reached out to me and said we’d love to have your mom visit with us so we can get to know her and give you and Kim (that’s my wife) a break.

And as you may have guessed already, one of those senior’s that had my mom over to their house for occasional visits was Ann. My mom loved to talk Dutch and so did Ann. My mom loved all things gezellige and so did Ann. Gezellige kopje koffee, gezellige eve kletse, gezellige eve zingen. My mom loved to chat and sing old Dutch hymns and psalm versjes and of course so did Ann. Even though because of her dementia my mom could never remember Ann’s name, Ann was one of a number of senior’s that loved and cared for my mom. And of course for me that meant she loved and cared for me too.

Which I know she did. It was hard for me to hear that Ann had suddenly passed away when Winni called me that Tuesday evening. Ann was always a strong encourager for me. Quite regularly after a Sunday service she’d walk up to me, put her arm around me and thank me for the sermon. She’d often say something like, “It was so good to be here today!” “I thank the Lord every day for protecting me!” “I know that my Redeemer lives!”, or “My hope is in the Lord!”

And she was the kind of person that made others feel welcomed and encouraged too. It was not uncommon for me to introduce people to Ann. Usually, if a person joins us for a Sunday service and they are new to our community I’ll try to find some folks to introduce them to. And if I could find Ann, I’d often introduce them to her. Ann would share something about her love for the Lord, for our church and how long she had been a member....which for most people when they hear that feels pretty amazing....71 years! It was such a gift for our congregation to have as our oldest member someone who testified freely about their sincere love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

At the end of 2020, when we were about 9 months into the COVID pandemic our church put together a year end video under the theme, “My Times are in Your Hands”. In it I interviewed several of our members and one of them was Ann. At one point I asked her this question:

“How were you affected by the pandemic?”

This was her reply: “Did it affect me that much? I don’t think so. Because my hope is in the Lord! So that takes away fear and I feel safe under his care. I thank on him every day for all the good things he bestows on me....and my family....none in the family has any symptoms of this disease....so mijn hartje loopt over.... oh that’s Dutch! Sorry!” Yes, mijn hartje loopt over, that means my heart is full or overflowing with thankfulness to the Lord.

The family asked me to reflect on one of Ann’s favorite Psalms. It’s a favorite of many folks and that’s Psalm 23, the psalm that we read earlier.

Perhaps it’s one of the most memorable confessions of trust and security in the Lord in all of the Bible. Even though probably no one here has experienced the life of a shepherd, or perhaps even met a shepherd, there’s something about the imagery in this psalm that speaks to all of us.

The Lord is my shepherd…I want us to think about that verse for just a moment. If you would look at that verse again in bible in your pew you would notice that the word LORD is all in capital letters. That is done intentionally. That is the way the translators are telling us that this word LORD is not actually the Hebrew word for Lord….if it were, the word would simply be in lower case letters. No, this is the Hebrew word that denotes the name of God…Yahweh, or Jehovah.

That’s extremely important because early on in the Bible we find that the God Yahweh, is the only one true God in the entire universe…in spite of what our culture says, “choose your own god, be your own god, find a religion and a god that you are most comfortable or satisfied with”....the Bible most clearly reveals there is only one true God, there are no other gods like him…and more than that, this one true God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He created all things, all the stars of the heavens, all the galaxies, all the life forms…the majestic mountains, right down to the smallest living organism that has yet to be discovered.

I find myself captivated by what we continue to discover about the vastness of outer space. Astronomers tell us that there are billions upon billions of stars in millions of various galaxies and solar systems. The sun that is shining above today is one of the smallest of the stars. I’ve once read that if you were to travel to the next closest star to our planet earth, a star called Alpha Centauri, if you were to travel to that star and bring with you our most powerful telescope and look from that star back to earth, you would find that our tiny planet is so minute that even our most powerful telescope could not pick it up. Our miniscule planet with all it’s complexity is but a speck in the universe…

So vast is our universe… so great is the LORD, Yahweh, the one who created it all… and the Bible says that this LORD is our shepherd.

Ann also had a deep appreciation for the world God created....I’m not sure about outer space, but she certainly loved living in this part of the world with all of its natural beauty.

In that interview that I mentioned a few minutes ago, at one point I asked Ann the question,

“How has the Lord sustained you during this difficult time?”

Here was her reply:

“Every day I get that…ach under his care…thankyou Lord you kept me safe in the night, and the beautiful weather, the mountains full of snow and that’s allemaal.....grace.”

The LORD is my shepherd.

Perhaps the best way to think about this image of the Lord as our shepherd is to think of Him as our owner, or our manager. A shepherd owns his sheep…they belong to him. He knows them by name. He knows what frightens them, he knows what brings them calm and stability, he knows all of their needs and he cares for his sheep in such a way that they are protected, they are fed, they are guided, they are led.

The LORD is my owner…my manager…

Because the Lord is my Shepherd, the psalmist says… I shall lack nothing. He gives me rest, nourishment, direction… even my enemies are of no ultimate concern, for my Shepherd is always with me.

…when the Bible speaks of enemies, it often has much more than just people in mind. There is evidence all around us that says, “things aren’t they way they are supposed to be.”

And often these things that we experience that are not the way they are supposed to be are like enemies. Things that discourage us, things that can affect our physical health, our mental health, our sense of security, our happiness… including things that can threaten our very lives.

Ann once shared with me one of her most vivid memories of growing up. She was 11 years old, the second world war had recently begun and her city, Rotterdam, was being heavily bombed. Her parents told her and her siblings, our country is now at war, Ann said, what does an 11 year old girl know about war. Lots of bombing, all down her street of row housing, windows blown out, curtains flapping in the wind, lots of fires burning. On one occasion her father was away from home somewhere in the city. They heard news that lots of bombs were being dropped on the city…the whole family prayed that their father would be protected and make it home safely. You can imagine her joy when dad returned.... Experiences like that were etched into Ann’s memories reminding her of the Lord’s faithfulness and care.

The psalmist writes, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley....or in other translations....the valley of the shadow of death. You are with me. Your rod and staff they comfort me.”

I don’t know if this is exactly what the psalmist had in mind when he uses this language of the “valley of the shadow of death”, but here’s how I think of it. When your life is in the care of the Good Shepherd, it’s really only the shadow of death that you encounter. A dark shadow of course can be very frightening, and intimidating, but finally a shadow is really nothing. The shadow has no power. And to me its as if the psalmist is saying, when your life is being cared for by the Good Shepherd, that’s all we really will run into....the shadow of death....not death itself..... the reality of death has been disarmed by our Good Shepherd.....he’s defeated it, now all we experience is the shadow.... I don’t know if that’s precisely what the psalmist had in mind, but it could be.

Recall the words of Jesus Christ....

"“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep." (Jn 10:14-15)

When Jesus came to the grieving family of his dear friend Lazarus, he said to his sister Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;" (Jn 11:25)

I’ve defeated death…You’ll only experience the shadow... I’ve laid down my life for you.

And this of course gives the psalmist and us whose lives are in the hands of the great Shepherd, a deep sense of confidence and hope.... because we can always know that no matter what experience we may go through the LORD is with us.

A few moments ago we read some verses that help us understand the hope that we have from God, particularly as we encounter seasons of hardship and difficulties.

In Romans 8 Paul says that sufferings and hardships we see around us are like creation going through the pains of childbirth.

Listen to how Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase The Message puts it:

“All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. ” (Romans 8:22–25, The Message)

Our sister Ann lived a full life, as she lived a life of growing trust and dependance on her Good Shepherd, her life was enlarged with a joyful sense of expectancy and hope.

Expectancy and hope of course are closely related, and in some sense they are both like an anchor. People may put their hope in all kinds of different things, but like an anchor, it’s security is only as solid as that to which it is fastened.

My hope is in the Lord, Ann said to me and many others dozens of times.

We are invited this day to fasten our hope onto the Good Shepherd who is precisely the One that Psalm 23 points us towards. Our Good Shepherd is the one who has entered the Holy of Holies. He has taken the death that we deserve on account of our sin upon himself, and defeated death for our sake and for the sake of all creation.

Paul writes "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." (1 Co 15:26) ….

The apostle Peter writes,

"For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." (1 Pe 2:25)

Submit your life to him......

Do you remember how the psalmist speaks about the Shepherd who leads us to streams of refreshing water?

Listen to these words of Jesus....while he was standing in front of a very large crowd in the Temple court....in the Gospel according to John we read:

"On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (Jn 7:37)

Jesus alone is our Good Shepherd and he alone can provide us with a sure and certain hope that secures our lives for eternity.

Earlier we read a few verses from John’s Revelation that described for us the glory that is in store for us and all creation. A place of everlasting joy and peace.

Earlier in that same book, in Rev. 7, John gives us another picture of all of God’s people gathered before the throne of God....listen to what he writes:

"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 spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”" (Re 7:15-17)

Dear friends, may all of us hear these words, lodge them deep within our heart, and declare with Ann and with all the saints, “OUR HOPE IS IN THE LORD!”

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, AMEN.