Meditation for Sylvia Verwoerd's Memorial Service
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23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. 28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
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.”
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.
More than 67 years ago this text was read on the occasion of Walter and Sylvia’s wedding. As they committed their lives to each other during that wedding ceremony, they wanted to commit their marriage to the Lord....and for them these verses, by God’s grace, hung like a banner over their hearts and their home.
The book of Proverbs in the Bible is part of a collection of books known as Wisdom literature. And if you read them, you’ll find lots of seasoned reflections on how to live life with the grain. It’s one thing to have lots of knowledge, or a substantial intellect, or a good sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, but it’s another thing to be able to navigate through life making good choices. It’s another thing to have a sense about things. Oftentimes in life we come across situations when we have to make decisions where there is no clear right or wrong choice. Do you take this job or that one? Do you buy this house or that one? Do you pick this moment to talk to you child, or wait for a different moment? Do you speak or do you hold your tongue? Wisdom has to do with something being fitting or appropriate or meaningful.
And here’s what the Bible says about wisdom…it begins with the fear of the Lord (Prov. 9:10).... Wisdom comes from God and we become wise as we trust in the Lord and begin to align our thoughts and desires and actions after His.
I’m sure that Sylvia and Walter would be the first to say they didn’t do that perfectly in their life....none of us do… but they would say, however imperfectly, they did seek to trust the Lord with all their heart.
In fact that’s precisely what they shared when I had the opportunity to visit with them a few weeks ago. It was my last visit with Walter and Sylvia together in their home. I brought along our two student intern pastors with me because I knew that Sylvia and Walter were intentional about saying hello to them regularly and encouraging them as they have been with many of our international students and newer members. And I knew this likely would be a meaningful visit.
Sylvia had been experiencing more and more discomfort. She was spending more and more time in bed or in her recliner. Something wasn’t right. But at this point they hadn’t heard a definitive word from the oncologist. There were still a number of unknowns about how serious things were.
At one point in our visit I asked Sylvia how she was feeling about these unknowns, and how she was feeling about the very real possibility that she might receive some difficult news.
And without having to think about it, she said, “you know Andrew, I’m at peace with whatever happens. God has blessed me with a long life; I’m almost 85 years old! Walter and I have been together for 67 years. We’ve been blessed with great children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. God has been good to us. We’ve talked about it already, and I’m not going through any chemotherapy or radiation, none of that stuff. If God’s calling me home soon then I’m fine with that. I’m at peace.”
And I thought to myself…what a simple but profound testimony of trust in the Lord. Money can’t buy that kind of peace.
I wanted to share that story because I felt to me that the testimony that Sylvia shared with us in that visit, a testimony that came more than 67 years after her wedding day, was a beautiful answer from God to what Walter and Sylvia chose as their wedding text.
When they were just beginning their life together as husband and wife, when the future was completely unknown to them, they pledged themselves to trust in the Lord with all their heart, to lean not on their own understanding, but to submit to him, knowing that He will make their paths straight.... and now just a few weeks before the Lord called Sylvia home, there we sat in their living room and they could say together with us, “Pastor, whatever happens, God is good, we are at peace.” God was faithful to the promises he made in that wedding text.
It’s not that often that you and I think about death, is it? In so many ways we live in a culture that tries to evade the reality of death… and some of that is of course understandable....we were created by God to live!....death is an intruder, death is an enemy, death is not the way its supposed to be. So we try to do all in our power to evade death.... But alas, we all die..... perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “No one gets out of life alive!”
So what a blessing it is when the person we care about dies well.
You may find it strange to hear this, but I do believe that Sylvia, with Walter fully by her side, Sylvia died well. Knowing that she had lived a full life, knowing that God had blessed her in many ways, knowing that her Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ, had fully forgiven all her sin and opened up eternal life for her and for all those who love him, Sylvia could say, “pastor, whatever happens, God is good, and we are at peace.”
I said a moment ago, that in our culture, more and more we get the sense that people are trying to evade death. Less and less families actually have memorial services or funeral services when their loved ones die. Several generations ago, at least in our culture, we moved death out of the home and into the funeral parlor, now rarely do we even go there. I have a book in my library written by an undertaker who ran a funeral home in a small Michigan town (Milford) for many years. His name is Thomas Lynch. The book is titled, “The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade”....well worth the read. He writes something exceedingly important to my mind. In his book he writes all about death and its attendant rituals. But finally he says this is a book about life. Why? Because it is the one that gives meaning to the other. How we deal with death and its attendant rituals gives meaning to our living....and how we go about our daily living gives meaning to our dying.
So, how do we live and die well? That wedding text says it well.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
If you read the entirety of the book of Proverbs you will repeatedly come across the image.... of life having two roads. The way of wisdom is the road to life, and blessing, and peace. The way of folly is the road to death, destruction, and misery.
At one strategic point in the book we are confronted with the picture of lady Wisdom calling out to us: “To you, O people, I call out: I raise my voice to all humankind. Listen, I have trustworthy things to say…I open my lips to speak what is right. My mouth speaks what is true.”
How do we live and die well?.... We listen to the one who speaks what is right.... we listen to the mouth that speaks what is true.
And of course that One is Jesus. And in John’s Gospel 8:14 (The Message) he says, “you can depend on my word being true, because I know where I’ve come from and where I am going. You decide according to what you can see or touch”..... isn’t that so true! we so often decide the fate of our lives based on what we can see or touch… “We want evidence!”… but we narrow that evidence to what we can see or touch not realizing that there is so much about life that you can’t see or touch.... Jesus goes on, “ I don’t make judgement like that because I don’t judge out of the narrowness of my own experience but out of the largeness of the One who sent me, that is my Father in heaven.”
We can live life well, when we listen to His voice.
And he speaks to us in John 10:14-18 as we heard earlier...
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.
Friends gathered here this afternoon....will you listen to the Voice of the Good Shepherd. The voice of Jesus is the voice of Lady Wisdom calling us to Trust in the Lord and lean not on our own understanding.
What does it mean to lean on our own understanding? Well let me draw on something that a spiritual writer of the 16th century talked about. His name was St. John of the Cross. He wrote about the various longings that we all have, longings for pleasure, belonging, security, identity....and we go through our lives trying to fill those longings. And when we try to fill those longings with the things of the world---when we lean on our own understanding---those longings are like what he calls “infinite caverns”.... infinite because they can never be filled. No matter how much we may try to fill our lives with pleasures, with people, with power or with prosperity, they will remain infinite caverns.
But Jesus says, be filled with my Spirit. You see there is only One person who can satisfy the longings of our heart. And it is His voice which is speaking to us today. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life, eat from me and you will never be hungry again. I am the Living Water. Drink from me and springs of living water will flow from with you. And in another passage he says, “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.”
Jesus alone can fill those infinite caverns.
There is something about moments like this when our hearts are tender because we feel like we are in what we might call a thin place. When you come close to death your heart cries out, “is there more to life than this....then this world and all it has to offer.” The reality of death brings us to a thin place where our heart wonders is there more?
Again, Jesus comes to us and invites us to make the words of Psalm 73 that we read earlier, our own words.
23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
How can we know that if we put our hand into the right hand of Jesus, he will guide us with his counsel and when our life is done, take us into glory?
How can we know that to be true? Can we really stake our life on that claim?
Well here’s what Jesus himself says to us.... and again its from John 10, the verses we read earlier:
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.”
What Jesus is saying here is that he has come to offer his life for the sake of the sheep. Because of how much he loves us, he is able to lay down his life for our sake, and then take it up again. Jesus alone can submit himself to death, and in doing so defeat death, conquer it, come back from the dead and tell us....it’s ok....death no longer will have power over you.
That’s quite a claim isn’t it? It is. Even the Jews in Jesus day thought so.
Listen to what John writes, right after Jesus shares these words:
19 The Jews who heard these words were again divided. 20 Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?” 21 But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
…which of course is what Jesus just did in the previous chapter.
Do you remember the two roads in the book of Proverbs.... John writes that even in Jesus’ day the Jews were divided.... some were for Jesus, others against....
Some of the Jews go on to say, “If you are the anointed one of God, tell us plainly.”
And Jesus responds, “I did tell you, but you do not believe! The works that I have done testify about me! My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
This is precisely the power and assurance that comes into our life when we “trust in the Lord with all our heart.”
Today we thank the Lord that this assurance gave Sylvia that steadfast peace that could say, Pastor Andrew, whatever happens, God is good, I’m at peace.
Dear friends, may all of us listen to the voice of the Shepherd. May all of us turn and follow him. Because he says to us… “I will give them eternal life, and they shall never perish....no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
The apostle Paul says in Acts 16, “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
And perhaps it is the very real emotion of grief that we feel most poignantly in that thin place..... grief, loss, sadness, makes us feel like we are in a thin place a vulnerable place..... and you know what, grief too can be another one of those infinite caverns.
talk about a resurgence of trusting in the Lord....Justin Brierley podcast, the Christian revolution.
