Gertrude Teeselink-Funeral
Notes
Transcript
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God,
and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the altar!
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Scripture: Psalm 118:19-24, 29
Gertrude Teeselink Funeral Message
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Gertrude was a woman of many talents throughout her years. There are a couple of her experiences that particularly stick out to me. She told me and I’ve heard from some of you as well of how she worked on the farm. I believe she helped milk cows in her younger years. Just considering her size and frame, that amazes me, but she had the work ethic.
As we heard a few moments ago too, she loved baby-sitting. That seems to be what she is most well-known for in our community. Even in the nursing home, she loved little kids and babies visiting her, and never passed up the chance to hold them. She might not have been able to see them, but she could still express her motherly love through touch. There were times when I did not bring my daughter, Addison, along on visits, and I kind of felt gently scolded when she said I had to bring her around next time. That was okay!
While those things are essential to her character and part of what she is remembered for, it still seems like it barely skims the surface. How can you possibly sum up such a long life? Likely we can’t, at least not in so short a time as we have today. There’s benefit to that. Everyone has different memories, and we make different impacts on each other. In days ahead, I encourage you to keep telling your stories and memories as a way to remember not just Grandma T but how God used her to teach you or mold you for his purposes.
But I do believe there is a way that she summed up her life while still living. Nearly every visit I made, I would hear the refrain, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” If I asked her how her day was going, that was usually her response. If she was tired or not feeling great, she would still say she could rejoice. If we made it through a visit and I did not hear it, she would recite it for me. It never seemed forced, it never felt like that is what the pastor must hear me say. That was her outlook on life—when you think about farming, babysitting, or anything else she did or committed herself to, each day was a day to serve and rejoice in the God who had given it to her.
That is the way of life that each of us is called to live. Our opportunity to be alive on a given day and to be conscious that there is a great God in control, is reason enough to live with joy. To believe that all things do not just happen by chance or that everything will not fall apart if we make one little mistake, reminds us of the sovereignty of God and not us. To be able to go to work and do whatever tasks are before us. To be able to care for children, be they in our family or helping another, or teaching in schools or Sunday Schools. All of those are opportunities to look for what God is doing and what he is accomplishing through and among us.
I think of the Sunday School song that many children have learned using this very verse. “This is the day, This is the day, that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made…” and so on. As we grow up, it is easy to say that, but it takes being intentional to actually live that out. If you look over this psalm in its entirety, it very likely captures the story of the people of God called out of slavery in Egypt and journeying into the Promised Land as the Israelites. These were people who had been held captive and forced into labor. They had no homeland or place to point back to as where they wanted to go.
So as God eventually led them into their new home, they could certainly be thankful. For them to say that the Lord was good was not just a nice word, but it was very real to them. While they faltered throughout their history in their devotion to God, those who had gone through the desert and come to the land “overflowing with milk and honey” knew why thankfulness to God was so important.
Times have changed, there is no doubt about that. Our lives tend to have more things we are required to get done. There seem to always be more activities, and more stuff we have to manage. But will we maintain this as our primary focus and goal? Giving thanks to God, seeing each day as a gift from him, and delighting to live in it. We don’t just work for the weekend, and consider our jobs a necessary evil. No, each part of our lives is part of the calling God has given us. We should be doing things that allow us to use the talents he has given and show appreciation. By trusting and obeying him each day as we sung earlier, we will find joy in him.
That God is God, the Creator of all, is reason enough to praise him. But we also praise him because he has redeemed us from sin and death. When the apostle Peter was preaching as recorded in Acts 4, he refers back to Psalm 118 verse 23. He preached that this pointed to Jesus. He fulfills, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders who thought he could not be the one they were waiting for. Yet after he was crucified, Jesus was raised from the dead. The Lord has done this; it is marvelous. Now Jesus reigns.
So when we say, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it,” we also see it in light of the redeeming work of Jesus. Despite our failures, our sins, the pains we have caused to others, and the ways we will fail in giving God praise and glory due his name, we know he is saving us. When it comes down to it, each and every one of us begins in a place of rejecting Jesus. Even in a wonderful person like Gertrude, she was still a sinner, and yet she was saved by grace. Because of God’s work in her, a work that freed her from sin, and showed her salvation—she came to know and accept Jesus.
If you are willing to say, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it,” do you do so knowing the great joy that believers share? Will you consider receiving the forgiveness that Jesus gives, which made Gertrude the woman of joy that she was? Will you know that the Lord is good and his love endures forever? It never fails; it never depletes! Once you know him, and put your hope in him, you will never have to leave the gates of righteousness again.
If there is one thing that each of us should be known for, to be a daughter or son, adopted by God, is among the greatest. We declare today that Gertrude is with God, because we have seen and heard a testament to that in her life. That is a decision that we all must make, and it comes in relation to the Lord. He is the one who opens our hearts. He leads us into a lifestyle of desiring to glorify him. He gives us the peace that passes all understanding, even in the direst situations of our lives. Regardless of what we have done in our lives, Christ can redeem us. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.
