Carmen Larsen Funeral
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The first time I met Carmen was when he and Diane came for something we were doing at the church. Some event I believe. If I remember it right, we talked a bit before the event, but there wasn’t too much said. After though, Carmen came over to me and we chatted for a while. Then he started telling me about the front door on the church. It had been sagging for a while and I honestly just kind of thought “yeah, we’ll deal with it later” every time I looked at it. Little did I know I was talking to the guy who could fix pretty much anything and like to help pretty much everyone. Carmen figured he knew how to fix the church door. Not really knowing him, I was a bit like “uh, ok, who is this guy?” But he asked me for a screw driver, and we agreed to give it a try. I think it took him all of 30 seconds to fix the door and set it back to rights. And so began a friendship with a man who became a friend.
In talking with Diane this week, she told me that Carmen loved the seasons. Actually her words were “He loved all the seasons, except summer because his blood pressure always bothered him.” Of course, summer is also camping season - so I guess it wasn’t all bad.
This got me thinking: Seasons. It’s a word to describe the weather, and the life of a person. Each of us goes through many seasons in our lives.
Has anyone ever heard the saying:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
That comes from the bible, and here’s how the rest of that passage goes:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Seasons. For all of us there are seasons, which come their their proper time.
Certainly there is the season of birth. All of us were born, at one time or another. And there is also the season of death. Whether long or short, death comes for each person. It is part of the human experience.
But there are many seasons in between these two. There are here today people from many different seasons of Carmen’s life. Some, such as his siblings, or Diane his wife could tell stories from some of Carmen’s earliest seasons. Perhaps seasons of learning, or seeking. Perhaps seasons of love and of planting the kind of roots that stick for a lifetime. Certainly in Carmen’s case this lasted much of a lifetime. I had the privilege of being at Carmen and Diane’s 50th anniversary a couple of months ago. We were laughing the other day about how excited Carmen was for that. After 50 years, he still very much loved his wife, and it showed!
Some here would know other stories, such as his sons Terry and Danny, or old friends who have known Carmen a long time. These might include seasons of work and rest, of changes and challenges. Perhaps these might include seasons of pain, hurt, or loss, along with some of the best memories of life.
Some, such as myself, represent the latter seasons of Carmen’s life. Perhaps here we recall seasons of rest, perhaps even retirement. Unless you were Carmen and then it just looked like change, a good challenge, and fun projects I think! Hence the church door…
Seasons. Today, we celebrate Carmen’s life and mourn his passing as we remember his seasons and thank God’s for the gift of Carmen. All of us here represent different seasons of Carmen’s life and the people he touched.
But let us zero in for a moment on that very first statement. There is a time for what? Birth, and death. One of the very first seasons, and the very last in a person’s life. Can any one person claim to know someone so well that they have been with them from before birth until death? No, for those who knew us at birth maybe well gone by the time our own death comes. And those who know us at death most likely wouldn’t remember us at birth, so we pray.
Yet there is One who does know us throughout all our seasons. You see, from the moment of conception until we take our last breath there is One who knows us completely. It is He of whom we read in the book of Psalms, where King David wrote:
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
David is talking about God, the Creator. God Himself superintends over the creation of life. Similarly in death, God is also there. The Bible also tells us:
… the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
So God knows us from the moment we’re conceived until we die, and into eternity. No one else can truly claim this. Perhaps this at once is comforting and frightening. That’s some kind of knowledge! And yet does God simply show up long enough to see us come into existence, and then again to pass on to eternity?
This would seem hardly the case, or why would David also write:
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
Far from being an impersonal, arbitrary deity, God is actively involved in our lives! He knows our earliest moments, and our final breath, and everything in between. He is so present that we cannot escape Him! Now consider, how much must God love us and value us, that He would choose to stay actively involved in our lives the whole time?
Here’s the reality: every one of us has value to God. Tremendous value in fact. Let me share with you an excerpt from another message that talks about this:
Every man, woman, and child living on this earth bears the image of the Creator. This image gives us worth that is far beyond the value of just our physical bodies or how we lived in the seasons of our life. Rich, poor, healthy, or handicapped—the worth is the same to God the Creator. And that worth is great because we all bear His image.
It is that worth, and God’s tremendous love for us, that caused Him to send His only Son to this earth so long ago to die for us so that we might have life beyond this life.
As John 3:16 says,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Then we read in John 14:1-3
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Jesus has prepared a place for each of us to spend eternity with him—that where he is, we may be also… talk about value!
Now consider:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
I don’t know what season of life you might be in right now. Perhaps it is early seasons, or late. But all of us will come to this place, or one like it, again someday. Only that time the memories and the service will be for us. People will remember our lives and share stories of the seasons they remember.
The question becomes for us, where is our hope in, for when that moment comes?
Consider what Jesus - the one who knows us from beginning to end - said when he found out about the death of one of His good friends:
"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die." - John 11:25-26
Jesus’ promise to us is this: that for everyone who will place their faith - their trust in Jesus Christ, they can know with certainty that death is not the end. They can, when the seasons of life are done, look forward to the best season to come: Eternal life. God made that possible through Jesus Christ - because He valued you that much.
Do you know today that you are loved by God with an everlasting love? So great is that love that God - and only God - truly knows you from before we are born until you die. You, like Carmen and every other person in this room, have a divine value that is priceless. You are so well known and loved that you cannot escape it! Today we say our goodbyes to Carmen as we celebrate and remember his life. We thank God who gave us Carmen for almost 70 years. But these truths live on. I challenge each one here today to live from the heart, and to live knowing God’s heart for you… He is calling out to you. He wants you to know Him throughout the seasons of your life. He wants you to know that when this life is done, your hope is sure - in Him. Our loving God meets us in this moment. He calls out to us with a message of love, and one that is greater than death. That is how much He values you. How will you respond? You can respond by saying no thanks. Or you can respond with faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. Friends, take time to celebrate Carmen’s life, to grieve, and to ask God to bring faith so that you might have comfort in this time, and peace for eternity.
Pray
