Elma Loeppky
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Introduction
Introduction
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 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.
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We have gathered to pay our condolence to the family of Elma Loeppky, who passed away on Thursday, August 8, 2019, to be received by Jesus Christ and enter into her eternal rest in heaven.
We mourn because we will miss her… all our lives have been touched by Elma, in one way or another… We pay our respect to the one who died and to the family that stays behind.
As the chaplain at Fernwood place, I had the privilege to meet and visit Elma at several times in her last earthly home…
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
I got to know Elma as a quiet, soft spoken lady. She had a soft hand shake and always said, “ Oh I’m okay”, when I asked her how she was doing…
Oh, I’m okay…
Oh, I’m okay…
What did Elma say when she said that? What was behind this “Oh, I’m okay”? …
You know, many people go through life, saying, “I’m okay” … because they have either learned to live with their struggles… or they have given up…
Elma was not a “giver upper”… She had a hard life… and excepted her life the way it was at one point… but she was not a “giver upper”…
Elma was tired in the end… she had run her race and in the end she wa looking forward to go home… to her eternal home…
Someone might wonder how I know that she looking forward to go home… Well, she told me!!!
I had the privilege to visit Elma in the hospital several times… we had short but good visits…
Often when Iasked her what we chould pray for… she said that she can go home soon…
One time I looked with her at a picture album, Len had brought to the hospital… She told me about the family and about the people in the pictures…
One time, about a week and a half before she passed away… her niece Gail, who visited daily… told me that Elma had just recited a prayer poem she had learned from her mom years ago… Since it was a German prayer we asked Elma if she would recite it for me…
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This is the children prayer Elma recited…
Müde bin ich, geh’ zur Ruh
Müde bin ich, geh’ zur Ruh
Translation by Margaret Loewen Reimer
Translation by Margaret Loewen Reimer
Müde bin ich, geh’ zur Ruh,
Schliesse meine Augen zu.
Vater, lass die Augen dein
Über meinem Bette sein.
Hab’ ich Unrecht heut’ getan,
Sieh’ es, lieber Gott, nicht an.
Deine Gnad’ und Christi Blut
Macht ja allen Schaden gut.
Weary now, I go to rest,
Close my eyes in slumber blest.
Father, may Thy watchful eye
Guard the bed on which I lie.
Wrong I may have done today,
Heed it not, dear God, I pray.
For Thy mercy and Christ slain
Turns all wrong to right again.
These are the two verses Elma recited that day …
Now, this is a children’s prayer, most often the first night time prayer children learn…
Children pray in their innocent trust… that childlike faith… “Müde bin ich, geh’ zur Ruh, Schliesse meine Augen zu”…”Weary now, I go to rest, Close my eyes in slumber blest.”
trusting God to be there with them… when they go to sleep…
Children love to know that there is a God watching over them from heaven… in the dark bedroom… when they are most volnurable.... in their sleep… “Father, may thy watchful eye… guard the bed on which I lie...”
The prayer goes on : “Wrong I may have done today, Heed it not, dear God, I pray. For Thy mercy and Christ slain Turns all wrong to right again.”
Again… only childlike faith can offer this peace… trusting that God’s mercy and the blood of Christ turn our wrongs of the day into eternal rights…
Now, isn’t that interesting that an 85 year old woman… on her dying bed remembers this children prayer… learned years ago from her mom… and she recites it as if it was yesterday… That is grace…
Now, isn’t that interesting that an 85 year old woman… on her dying bed remembers this children prayer… learned years ago from her mother… and she recites it as if it was yesterday… That is grace…
Here we were… Gail, myself and Elma on her bed…
I stood there with tears in my eyes… and after I translated it, as good as I could to Gail… I turned to Elma and said: “I bet, these words have a totally different meaning today than when you learned them first”…
Then I turned to Elma and said: I bet, these words have a totally different meaning today than when you learned them first…
and she smiled and nodded…
Elma was tired on her bed… and trusted… like a little child that the Lord’s eyes are on her… that all her wrongs had been turned into rights through the blood of Christ…
God, in his unimaginable, unfathomable grace helped Elma remember the words of a children prayer… that had such a different meaning now… on her death bed…
The Lord is My Shepherd
The Lord is My Shepherd
ws one of Elma’s favourite bible passages…
we have heard it read today already… and I wonder how many times it was read to Elma in the hospital…
In God is portrayed as the shepherd who leads, provides and protects… We, God’s children are the sheep…
In God is shepherd who leads, provides and protects… We, God’s children are the sheep…
David, who was a shepherd before he became king, knew that God guided him… and put all his trust into God…
A Home in Heaven…
A Home in Heaven…
David, who was a shepherd before he became king, knew that God guided him…
He remembered his life before the throne and kept the imagery of the fields close to his heart… It is no wonder he said, “The LORD is my shepherd.”
He remembered his life before the throne and kept the imagery of the fields close to his heart… It is no wonder he said, “The LORD is my shepherd.”…
David knew the principle of the shepherd leading the flock, leading and protecting them… that God guided him and God would lead him to green pastures… and provide strength and comfort, even when he walked “through the valley of the shadow of death.”…
David knew the principle of the shepherd leading the flock… that God guided him and God would lead him to green pastures… and provide strength and comfort, even when he walked “through the valley of the shadow of death.”…
God went before him and that is all he needed to know… That is faith…
God went before him and that is all he needed to know… That is faith… A Home in Heaven…
It is no wonder that this psalm is being read at weddings, in hospital rooms, and at funerals…
This psalm is so full of promise… so full of comfort… so full of the Lord’s presence… even through the most difficult times in our lives… even death…
A home in heaven…
A home in heaven…
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
Psalm 23:
Like the children prayer, this psalm gives comfort in the darkest times of life… You are with me… Your rod and your staff they comfort me…
Like a little child… we find comfort in knowing that God is watching over us…
Like a little child… we find comfort in knowing that God is watching over us…
It is this childlike faith that opens to us the gates of the kingdome of God…
2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matt 18:
The shepherd theme carries over to the New Testament with Jesus in the center…
John, in his gospel, presents Jesus as the loving shepherd who will give up his life for the sheep. (ch.10)
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:
Jesus is the Good Shepherd who died for his sheep...
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
It is the Christian belief that Jesus layed down his life on the cross of Calvary for Whoever believes…
That is why I can say, “ even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
I will not fear becasue I know that the Good Shepherd has gone before me.
He has faced death, the punishment of death,in my place.
And by His resurrection Jesus has conquered death.
There is more… Jesus promised us an eternal home in heaven:
In , after the last supper… Jesus comforted his troubled disciples… and promised them a home in heaven…
This promise stands still for us today
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 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.
John 14:
This promise still stands today:
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus went to heaven… to the Father’s house… to prepare a place for you and me…
And he promised that when the place is ready He will come and take us to him… “that where I am you may be also.”…
In Jesus said,
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” And Then he said: “Do you believe this?”
It is the Christian’s belief in Christ as the Resurrection and the Life… and it is Christ’s own death and resurrection from the grave that so encourages our hearts as we face the loss of our loved ones and face our own mortality…
Conclusion
Conclusion
As Elma recited the children prayer, which she had learned from her mother… as she listened and recited … and meditated on it… as she cited and listened to someone read … she prepared to leave this earth...
I am sure that Elma did not fear the valley of the shadow of death… She knew that Jesus would come and take her home… to the place he had prepared for her…
Elma has run her race and won her crown of glory… After a life that was not easy… she recited a children prayer, asking God to keep a watchful eye on her as she lay there… and acknowledging that all her wrongs have been turned into rights…
all of earth’s discords have been changed to heaven’s harmonies, from all that is bad to all that is good, from all that hurts to all that brings happiness and comfort...by God’s mercy and the blood of Christ…
You know, Elma believed in eternal life even after physical death here on earth. She knew that Jesus himself would come and take her home, according to his promise in …
I am confident that she is right now in the very presence of God… without pain or any ailments…
But we are still here… we live on… we don’t know how long… but we are still here…
And this is my question for you today… As you ponder about your own mortality… do you believe that Jesus is preparing a place for you?… Do you believe in him? …