Bob Thoreson Funeral Sermon Friday, October 16, 2015 1:30 p.m. Pastor Roger Dykstra Calvary Lutheran Church Grand Forks, ND Psalm 23 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. Romans 8 (selected verses) I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. John 14 (selected verses) (Jesus said) Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father s house there are many dwelling places. 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, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.i will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
Sermon A reading from Isaiah, chapter 25, verses 6-9 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death for ever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Marlys. Tim, Leah, Rod, Lisa, Tony Nick, Samantha, Kailey, Hannah, Kandis, Briana, Brenden Audrey, Haedyn All of you I m sorry for your loss I am also and I just want you to know this I m also sorry for this church s loss. For this quiet, always there for you, always seeing the best in you, always loving you unconditionally, always giving to you, always giving for you man whom you knew as your father and grandfather and great grandfather was also a man whom we here at Calvary knew as a man and a brother in Christ who, in his own quiet and faithful ways, helped us be the church we believe we are called by God to be, and that is a church where the Love of the always there for you, always seeing the best in you, always loving you unconditionally, always giving to you, always giving for you God who gave his Son, Jesus Christ, not just to light up our lives, but to light up our hearts, and our souls, and our forevers is known, and worshiped, and loved, and shared, and served, Bob wasn t a years and years and years long member of this church, but he s been a very, very faithful member of this church in the years he has been here. He even developed something of a reputation. He was the guy who brought all the women to church, which he did do, because, being the do for others kind of guy that he was, he saw to it that some women who could only get to church if someone gave them a ride got a ride! He wasn t just a man who believed in Jesus, he was a man who served Jesus; Jesus who told us more than once that the best way to serve him is to serve the needs of others. We who loved and served Jesus with Bob here at Calvary grieve his loss, and will miss him. I also want you to know that I grieve his loss. Your husband, your dad, your grandpa, your great-grandpa our brother in Christ I ll miss him Ironically (and this is an irony he and I actually talked about) ironically, I will miss him even more because of some of the conversations we had and some of the faith, hope, and love we shared after his doctor gave him the news he gave him a few months back. And my colleague Pastor Kristen would say the same thing about the conversations she was privileged to have with them and the relationship she was privileged to build with him in the time since the doctor gave him the news he gave him a few months back. One visit with Bob I don t imagine I ll ever forget is a visit that pretty much turned into a Bible study on Romans 8. The visit didn t start as a Bible study it actually started almost humorously (at least, for those who know Bob very well I think it s kind of humorous) because when I sat down and asked him how he was doing, he said, with quite a bit of enthusiasm, I can still eat! I call that kind of humorous because Bob s love for eating and also for eating slowly, savoring what he was eating was something his children and grandchildren will always remember about him. When Bob married Marlys (and in doing so married into a
family and a house where there didn t just live Bob and Marlys, there also lived two girls 11 and 13 I mean, my gosh, God bless him, he didn t just instantly have a family he had a family of adolescent girls!) and one of the first memories they have from then is that they couldn t go out to see their friends (and of course, at 11 and 13, nobody is more important to you than your friends) but they couldn t leave the table to be with their friends until the table was cleared, which they often tried to start doing while Bob was still eating, because he did take so long eating and savoring his meals! A granddaughter remembers that when he ate ice cream he liked it so much he would literally lick his bowl clean! And everybody remembers the joy and the meticulousness with which he assembled and then savored sandwiches with peanut butter and two different jellies all spread slowly and carefully to the very edge of the bread! So, yeah, it was kind of fun when I asked him how he was doing and he smiled and said with enthusiasm, I can still eat. I didn t tell him then (it wasn t the time then, but I do remind you now) of that passage from Isaiah 25 that I read earlier a passage I thought had Bob written all over it (in fact, I may take the funeral folder and tuck it into my Bible to bookmark Isaiah 25 because in that passage, the prophet Isaiah, in a heavenly vision he had of a heavenly scene on a mountaintop, wrote, On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food and wonderfully aged wines And he will swallow up death for ever (and) wipe away the tears from all faces And it will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Heaven imagined as a feast of rich food, with forever to enjoy it. I kind of wish I had done a little Bible study on that passage with Bob; he d have smiled; as I m sure he s smiling now! The short Bible study he and I did get into that day was on Romans 8. We started with Romans 8:18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. Then we moved to Romans 8:26 which says (and this is my paraphrase) it says that sometimes in life we aren t even exactly sure what we want to pray for what words to say how to pray but Romans 8:26 says That s OK, because the Holy Spirit of God within us knows us even down to those hurts in our lives we don t know the words for, and the Holy Spirit takes them to God the Father and gives them to the Father for us using sighs and groans that are too deep for words. I told Bob of the times when I had an adolescent daughter who was hurting, and, you know, that s a complicated time in life and I didn t the answers to the hurts and couldn t fix them either, and so I didn t the words for the prayers I wanted to pray for her then, but what I can literally remember doing some of those times is just thinking of her, in the direction of God, and going Ahhhh. And what Romans 8:26 promises is that that is a prayer that God understands. Sometimes, in the grieving you have yet to do, sometimes you won t know the words there are sometimes no words! Remember the promise of Romans 8:26: the Holy Spirit of God within you prays to God the Father for you with sighs and groans deeper than words. Then Bob and I moved to Romans 8:28 which says, we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. We talked about the fact that the Bible doesn t say that all things are good things like cancer, for example, are not good! They are not of God! But God, that verse promises, our good and great God is a God who is as ever at work to accomplish and lead us in the direction of things that are good even in the midst of things that aren t. I won t talk about that a lot with you now, but I want you to know that Bob and I talked about that a whole lot then as he told me about things, a number of things, good things (good things spiritually, good things in his family, good things with his neighbors and friends) that had happened and that he wasn t sure would have happened except for the fact that he d been diagnosed with cancer. Not all things are good, but there s no thing that God can t bring good from. Our God, after all, I reminded Bob and I remind you, our God is a God who took the most not good
thing in the history of ever an old, rugged, and bloodied cross and from there did the goodest thing in the history of forever: Easter, and the promise that neither sin nor death nor anything not good is as powerful as the goodness, and the mercy, and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which led us to the end of Romans 8 Which I read to him then, and I let it speak for itself: What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It wasn t the last conversation I had with Bob, but it might have been the best. Pastor Kristen, who wanted to be here today but couldn t be, told me she had some really good conversations with Bob too. Deep, deep faith conversations, she said. He was so honest, she said. Honest about his questions. Honest about some fears. Honest about really wanting to know to know for sure what was next (and the next he was talking about was the next thing and the next life after his last thing his last breath in this life). And of course, the fact is when it comes to everything about what is to come we can t know for sure. We can, as the song says, we can only imagine. But as Christians, we do our imagining with our eyes on Jesus, our faith in Jesus, and our ears tuned to the promise of Jesus Promises like this promise: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father s house there are many dwelling places. 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, so that where I am, there you may be also Because I live, you will live too!...for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Monday morning a little after three here s what I believe and imagine: in a moment as peaceful as one breath not followed by another, Jesus kept his promise He came again, and he whispered, Bob, my child, it s time to go home. And if by chance Bob then said I don t know the way! I didn t get it all figured out! Jesus then whispered, Bob, I m the driver of this taxi! I am the way! And he showed him then to the place he d prepared And Bob being Bob, and Jesus being Jesus and knowing and loving Bob, I imagine they started in the dining room. And, well, it s only been 4 days Maybe they haven t gotten to the rest of the tour even yet! Rest in peace, Bob. We will follow in faith. We will care for others the way you cared for us. We will love one another the way you loved us. And we will, we will, we will when it s time see you again. Amen.
Borning Cry (Bob s favorite hymn)