[Texts: Is 25:6-9 / Rev. 14:13 / John 10:27-30]
Cheryl, Gerald and Dennis, family and friends of Edward Ahrens, the first time I heard your father do his auction thing, my jaw was on the floor. I didn’t know it was possible for a person to talk that fast! And what a contrast to his usual speed of conversation! But a mouth going that fast has to be matched by a brain going faster – and you know it was.
How utterly sad, then, for him to be robbed of his voice. Not of his mind, but of his ability to communicate. He was as sharp as a tack up to the very end, you know that. But not to be able to speak anymore – at least with force or clarity, I imagine that must have been a singular trial for a man like him.
But if he could not use his voice terribly well, he still used his ears. And what he wanted to hear with his ears above all things were the words of His Lord. “My sheep hear my voice” said Jesus. So listening to Jesus is a mark of being one of His own sheep, one of the little lambs to whom He promises: “I know my own and my own know me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.”
Such a little lamb was Edward. Graven in my memory is the visit I had with him shortly after Jason’s death. I gave him the sacrament – he always hungered for that. And then we sat in silence for a while, and like a little child he asked me: “Would you read me some psalms.” I said, “Sure.” And remembering an incident with your mother I offered to read Psalm 23. You see, I shared a long devotion on sickness and death with Elsie and I’ll never forget how patiently and kindly she listened, only to end up by saying: “That’s so nice, Pastor, but you know what really helps is Psalm 23, would you mind reading it to me?” So I offered the Good Shepherd psalm to Edward that day. But you know, he didn’t want me to read that. Why? He said: “I can say that one to myself anytime. Read me another one.”
And so I did. Several psalms, and you could watch this man soaking up the words of God, drawing from the the strength that is faith. A faith in the goodness and mercy of God that is stronger than any of the darkness of death or despair we face in this valley of tears.
So of Edward today we shout for joy and say: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed, for they rest from their labors and their deeds follow them.”
Note the follow. The deeds don’t go before to open heaven’s door to Edward anymore than your deeds go before you to open heaven’s door to you. No! Heaven’s door was opened once and for all by that Great Good Shepherd who gave Himself into death, shouldering the load of your sin and mine and Edward’s. And He took it away completely in His suffering and by His death and resurrection He has blown wide open the gates of the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Their deeds follow them, not precede them.
You know the deeds of this man. Oh, he was a sinner too and he freely admitted it – that’s why he hungered so much for that feast of the Eucharist that celebrated the overthrow of death itself. But he was also a man of incredible kindness and gentleness, a simple man whose life shown with love.
Today we mourn for all that we’ll miss of him. His warm smile, his little horses, his sharp mind and his kind words. But we rejoice that we have NOT lost him. For he is and remains in the arms of the Good Shepherd. And today we plant His body into the earth. As a farmer he would tell you what that’s all about. You can’t get a harvest without planting the seed. So into the earth his body – which was fed and nourished with the Body and Blood of the Savior – into the earth it goes. And as Christ stood alive again on Easter morning, so Edward’s body will rise when the Springtime of a New Age breaks upon this world. “They who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow will doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them.” Amen.
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