Meditation for Gerda Vandermey's 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 8:33–39 NIV

33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Revelation 21:1–4 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.”

Dear family, extended family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. The family of Gerda asked if I would base my meditation this afternoon on the text of Psalm 23. You will likely not be surprised to hear that Psalm 23 is probably the most frequently requested text for me to reflect on at a Memorial or a Funeral service. Psalm 121 would be a close second. On the one hand a preacher does wonder if there is anything new to say about Psalm 23, especially since it is so well known and so often preached, but on the other hand it contains the kind of truth and comfort that hopefully one never really tires of hearing.

I hope that will be true for all of us this afternoon.

Because this Psalm is so often read in the context of death, many people associate this psalm with dying. And verse 4 most certainly has a strong word of encouragement and comfort to bring to those who are dying or who are in the presence of those who have died. But really this psalm is for the living. It is for those people who need provision, protection, and promise in their lives.... and that of course is everyone.

Provision, protection, and promise. This afternoon I want to draw our attention to a number of things that Psalm 23 has to say about provision, protection and promise.

My first visit with Gerda was in the fall of 2009, in the first few months of my beginning ministry hear at New West Church. She was still living in uptown New West and this was about a year and a half after her husband had died. I remember her being remarkably honest and candid with me. She was not happy. She was lonely. She even talked to me about feeling kind of depressed. She had lost the love of her life. Hank’s death had come very suddenly and unexpectedly, as most all of us know, and they loved to do things together whether it was road trips across the province or frequent trips to the Netherlands. She had lost her soul mate and life was no longer the same.

Those are difficult seasons in life for any of us to go through. I daresay, some of us here this afternoon are in that kind of season now.

Never did Gerda give me any sense that she was losing her faith, or doubting God’s faithfulness, but she did have a hard time experiencing the joy of the Lord or understanding why Hanks sudden death happened the way it did.

Nevertheless she continued to put her trust in the Lord, in His provision, protection and promise.

As difficult as it was for her, she did come to realize that living alone and independently was no longer possible and she needed to move to the Emerald. She had to submit herself to deteriorating eyesight, failing memory, eventual immobility, and finally to full-time nursing care.

I remember a visit with her shortly after she moved to the Emerald. It was a significant downsize and not a move she really wanted, but once the Lord and brought her there she told me, “I know this is the best for me. God doesn’t always give us what we want, but we can trust he will take care of what we need.”

My sense is that that is also the testimony of David in Psalm 23.

Since Hebrew poetry is always very intentionally written and structured, its very important for us to notice how the Psalm begins and ends. It begins and ends the name of our covenant God, Yahweh, the LORD. The LORD is my shepherd.....and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. There are only two instances of that word in the poem and David arranges them like bookends at the beginning and at the end.

What I’d like to do with us this afternoon is to notice how the LORD’s provision, protection and promise stood like bookends at the beginning and ending of Gerda’s long life.... and invite to realize how that can be true in our own lives as well.

On August 31, 1930, in Dutch village of Rijnsburg, Gerda, just one week old, received the sign of baptism.

And I suspect the minister who served that congregation…in Dutch they’d call him the Dominee, probably took some water, not unlike this, poured it into the baptismal font and as Cornelius and Sophia presented young Gerda, he baptized her in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Now some might think of that kind of event as nothing more than religious ritual… a sacred spiritual ceremony that is primarily intended to give the parents a good feeling about themselves as having given their child an early blessing from God. But this afternoon I want for all of us to see that a baptism, be that of an infant of believing parents or of an adult, is a kind of community theatre event.

Now you might say, Pastor Andrew, community theatre hardly describes what took place that day, after all, it was just four people who were involved, the dominee, the two parents and of course baby Gerda. But if that’s how you think about baptism, then you need to see the sacred ritual of baptism from a whole different perspective, from a more Biblical perspective. We need to see it as sacred liturgical drama.

You might think that the water in that baptismal font almost 94 years ago was just tap water. Indeed it probably was water that came from a tap, but for the community of faith that was gathered there on that Sunday, not unlike the community of faith that gathers in this place each Sunday, for that community and this one, and for countless others around the world who identify themselves as the People of God, the Body of Christ, the followers of Jesus, that water was no ordinary water. That was water from the Red Sea… you may remember that story… God, in a mighty act of merciful saving power, delivered the people of Israel from slavery and bondage under the Egyptians , and led his people through the waters of the Red Sea, so that his people could cross safely towards a new life. Some of you will find it interesting that the same Hebrew verb translated “he leads” in v.2 is the verb that describes how the Lord led Moses and the people of Israel through the Red Sea and into the wilderness towards their holy dwelling (Exodus 15:13)....likely that was a very intentional connection the psalmist wanted to make. God in Exodus quite literally delivered them, he rescued them, he gave them a new identity…. in fact you might say he took them through the dark valley of watery death and brought his chosen people safely to the other side.

On that day when young Gerda was brought to the waters…. That’s what the people were intended to see! And when the waters poured over little Gerda’s forehead, the people that day were reminded how God safely delivered them through the waters of the Red Sea…. Little Gerda was part of the community of faith, the Body of Christ, and the whole church gathered that day participated in a bit of community theatre that reminded them they were God’s own people, called for his purpose to bring blessing and hope to many.

They not only saw the waters of the Red Sea…but they saw Jordan River waters…. Just as the people of Israel long ago passed safely through the waters of the Jordan into the promised land, just as the Lord Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River… so too the waters of Jordan were poured out that day and all present knew that they too had been brought into the Promised Land of God’s provision, protection and promise. They too had been baptized with Jesus….buried in the waters with him and raised up with him. And they knew that this coming out of the waters was a sacred bit of theological theatre that showed them they had been resurrected with Jesus Christ… and because of that historical resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth some 2000 years ago…. They too would be both spiritually and physically raised from the dead to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

All that, from a baptism ceremony? Well, yes, actually.

You might say, Pastor Andrew, what does all this talk about baptism have to do with a funeral? What does all this have to do with Gerda’s death? I’m glad you asked.

Promise extended to Gerda….and the whole community at her baptism…. “The Lord is your Shepherd. I will provide for you all the days of your life. I will protect you wherever you go, and in me you will always have promise.I shall be your God and you shall be my people”….. with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm I delivered you, I rescued you….because I love you and want to give you life…..

We read earlier from Romans 8....perhaps this is how the apostle Paul might summarize those great OT words, “I am convinced that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Those were words we could imagine at the beginning of her journey…. And now they come at the end of her earthly journey….

Just as the community of faith gathered at the beginning…. So we gather at the end…… for another sacred bit of theological community theater.

For we too, on this day are communally participating in worshipful drama. Just as the company of the faithful were there at Gerda’s baptism to begin her journey of faithful Christian witness, so too the company of the faithful are here to carry Gerda at the end.

Some years ago I was very blessed by a book that helped clarify for me what we are doing here together as a community of faith at a funeral. Now its more visibly apparent at a funeral when the body is in the room with us, but it’s true at a Memorial service as well.

Listen to what the author writes: “In baptism, new Christians are “buried with Christ by baptism into death” and they come up from the waters raised to “walk in newness of life.” In funerals, these same Christians, having traveled the pilgrim way, are once again buried with Christ in death in the sure confidence that they will be raised to new life. In baptism, the faithful sang them into this new way of life; now they gather around to sing them to God in death…As the church has been travelling with the baptized saint along the road of faith, the church now walks with the deceased on “the last mile of the way” to the place of farewell.” (Thomas Long, The Christian Funeral, 81).

I love that picture.

You see, the LORD is at the beginning and the end of Psalm 23. He was at the beginning and the end of Gerda’s life too.

And at the beginning and the end the LORD brings words of Provision, Protection, and Promise.

Not let me ask all of us this question: Isn’t that something all of us want?

Provision: the Lord gives us nourishment (green pastures and quiet waters). the Lord gives us rest (he refreshes our soul), the Lord gives us guidance (he leads us in paths of righteousness).

The psalmist has the boldness and the confidence to say that because the Lord is his Shepherd, he lacks nothing. I’m guessing that assertion makes all of us pause. What might that mean? We all experience some sense of lack in our lives? Towards the end, Gerda lacked eyesight, memory and mobility. In the psalm, those sheep going through the valley of the shadow of death, lacked light, perhaps even lacked a sense of safety. Surely the sheep and we with them have some sense of lack?

But we’ve already established, God leading them. God lead his people through the Red Sea, he guides them along right paths, and even through darkest valley, “you are with me.”.

What the psalmist seems to be saying is that we lack nothing, because the Lord Himself--his faithful presence--is always with us.

I wonder if another way to think about this is that the provision of the Shepherd is such that we never lack anything that the Shepherd thinks will be good for us.

And that seems like a very good way to think about God’s protection. God always provides what he knows will be good for us so that we are always protected from ultimate harm.

And That brings us to Protection.

He protects us when we face death....he protects us when we face any kind of evil....even in the presence of enemies around us, we can find a table of hospitality and fellowship.

Did you notice the change in pronouns from verses 1-3 compared to verses 4-6. He makes, he leads, he refreshes, he guides....all third person pronouns. But then as he goes through hardships and difficulties and challenges....through the valley of the shadow of death; through darkest valleys, the pronoun changes from he to you.....

you are with me, you comfort, you prepare a table, you anoint, your goodness and love pursue me.....

There’s a shift from saying things about God, he leads, he refreshes, to saying this directly to God, you are with me.....one person calls this a shift from theology (words about God) to prayer (words to God).

And in doing that the psalmist invites us to a lived experience WITH God… a lived experience with a Shepherd who never leaves our side.

Recall what we read earlier from John 10.

John 10:14–15 (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—that’s a remarkably intimate relationship......[say more]....and I lay down my life for the sheep.

The ultimate protection we experience from evil and death comes because our Shepherd has laid down his life for us....he has absorbed evil and death on the cross, defeating its power over us and ensuring that in Him we can experience great PROMISE.

Jesus says in John 10,

John 10:10 NIV

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

This promise of full life, according to Psalm 23 is experienced in at least two ways....

We will always have his gracious love.....your goodness and love PURSUE me all the days of my life....., and one day we will dwell with Him fully and completely.

So this afternoon all of us are invited to bookend our lives with the provision, protection and promise of the Lord. And in order to do that, perhaps we can take our cue from the pronoun change in Psalm 23.

It is one thing to know and confess things about God....he leads, he refreshes, he guides....and dont misunderstand me for a moment, these are beautiful life changing things to be able to know and say..... but it is another thing to know God personally, and intimately.

Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me....just like I and the Father know each other......... you see in that kind of relationship you will know deep in your heart the hopefilled PROMISE of God where he says....

Revelation 21:1–4 (NIV)

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.”

Thanks be to God for his generous PROVISION, PROTECTION, and PROMISE.