“Our Creating & Redeeming Savior” Revelation 21.1-7 & John 10.10b-15, 27-30, Harland Hansen Funeral Sermon

1.      Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Dear family and friends of Harland.  On behalf of the congregation here at Christ Lutheran we offer to you our deepest sympathy.  But, we know as Christians that this isn’t the end for Harland, but just the beginning.  The beginning of eternal life with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Life may have begun for Harland at his birth in Pine River on August 15, 1918, but he entered into God’s heavenly Kingdom through the waters of holy baptism when he was baptized at St. John's Lutheran Church in Saxeville.  It was the power of God’s Word and the water in baptism that cleansed Harland of his sin and gave to him the assurance that he was a follower of Jesus Christ.

2.      There are a lot of things that we can remember about Harland.  But, one of the things that stands out the most is that he was a hard worker.  His biography gives us a good summary of his work ethic.  Harland grew up on a farm and farmed throughout his life.  He served in the CCC.  Harland served his country in the U.S. Navy in W.W. II.  He worked for many years as a machinist for Rockwell International in Oshkosh.  He was a lifetime member of the American Legion.  Harland enjoyed hunting, fishing, trapping, travel, woodworking, family and his dogs.  And, he was an active church member here at Christ Lutheran Church in West Bloomfield.

3.      People who knew Harland know that he loved to work with his hands.  He learned this from growing up on a farm and enlisting in the Navy.  He would carry that strong work ethic throughout his whole life.  It’s because of Harland that we have the wooden individual cup dispensers up here near our altar.  Harland was the one who helped to treat the wooden floors that we have in our Christ Lutheran gymnasium.  He was also gifted in making beautiful wooden clocks as well.  His life exemplified the importance of hard work and laboring for the Lord.  Through his hard work he was able to show how much he cared for his family, friends, and his church. 

4.      I recently read a story that exemplifies Harland’s love to work with his hands and to show through his labors how much he loved those around him.  The story begins with a young boy seeing his grandfather look at his hands while seated on a patio bench outside.  The boy recounts what his grandfather said to him after he asked why he was looking at his hands:  “Yes, I’m fine, thank you for asking,” said Grandpa.  “I didn’t mean to disturb you, grandpa, but you were just sitting here staring at your hands and I wanted to make sure you were OK.” The boy said.  “Have you ever looked at your hands?” grandpa asked.  “I mean really looked at your hands.”  I slowly opened my hands and stared down at them.  I turned them over, palms up and then palms down.  No, I guess I had never really looked at my hands as I tried to figure out the point he was making.  The boy thought.

5.      Grandpa smiled and related this story:  Stop and think about the hands you have, how they have served you well throughout your years.  These hands, though wrinkled, shriveled and weak have been the tools I have used all my life to reach out and embrace life.  They braced and caught my fall when as a toddler I crashed upon the floor.  They put food in my mouth and clothes on my back.  As a child my mother taught me to fold them in prayer.  They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent.  They were uneasy and clumsy when I tried to hold my newborn sons and daughters.  Decorated with my wedding band they showed this world that I was married and loved someone special.  These hands wrote the letters home and trembled and shook when I buried my parents and spouse and walked my daughter down the aisle.  These hands have held children, consoled neighbors and shook in fist of anger when I didn’t understand.  They’ve covered my face, combed my hair, and washed the rest of my body.  They’ve been sticky and wet, bent and broken, dried and raw.  To this day when not much of anything works well, these hands hold me up, lay me down and continue to fold in prayer.  MOST IMPORTANTLY it will be these hands that God will reach out and take when he leads me home.  And with my hands, He will lift me to His side and there I will use these hands to touch the face of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

6.      What powerful words this grandfather spoke to his grandson.  Yet, the story that this elderly man spoke speaks so eloquently of the life that Harland Hansen lived.  He too loved to work with his hands—woodworking, farming, hunting, and fishing, and praising Jesus his Lord and Savior.

7.      Someone else loved to work with his hands. He was born the son of a carpenter.  But, this carpenter, Joseph, wasn’t His real father.  Jesus left the glories of heaven to live among us and the sin that he so greatly detested.  He did it out of love for you and for me.  His hands probably built many different pieces of furniture and houses for people in the town of Nazareth where he lived.  Jesus’ hands showed love to his mother Mary and his father Joseph.  When he entered His public ministry Jesus’ hands were raised up to heaven to praise His heavenly Father for the baptism He received from John.  Jesus’ hands did so much.  They healed the sick, raised the dead and stilled a storm.  They caused the blind to see, the deaf to hear and healed people of their leprosy.  And his hands also were stretched out one day.  They were pierced for our sins and were lifted up one last time so that He could breathe his last breath.  And with those same hands He rolled away the stone on Easter Sunday proclaiming His victory over sin, death and the power of the devil for us and for Harland.

8.      Jesus’ hands showed the labor of love that He had for you and for me in the same way that Harland showed his love for his family and friends by the work that he did.  Let us never forget the love that our Savior has for us.  Romans 6:23 tells us that, “23 the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  This is a love that God our Creator gives to us, even though we were rebellious against Him, that sent His own Son to win for us eternal life and for our dear brother Harland.  Revelation 21 tells us that because of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins the hands of Jesus will wipe away every tear from our eyes.  “¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 

9.      It’s because of Jesus our Good Shepherd that nothing will be able to snatch us out of God our Heavenly Father’s hands as Jesus tells us in John 10.  Jesus says in John 10, “¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. ²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  Jesus showed His hands to His disciples after He had risen from the dead to prove of the sacrifice on the cross He had made for the forgiveness of their sins, our sins, and the sins of Harland.  And, when Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples wasn’t with them Jesus showed his hands again to Thomas to prove that He had truly risen from the dead.  John 20 tells us, “²⁴Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”  ²⁶Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

10.  Even though Harland didn’t see Jesus in His earthly life, he still believed in Him as His Creating & Redeemer Savior, for Paul reminds us in Romans 10:17 that, “faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.”  Let us thank God for the life that Harland lived in praise to God His Heavenly Father and to His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  May Harland go with God and rest in peace.  AMEN.