1.
Grace,
mercy and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. At a time of grieving like
this, those who are present and I on behalf of this congregation, offer your
family and all who were close to Beverly my deepest sympathy. May our Lord who knows your needs, comfort
and give you strength and faith to uphold each another. Today we’re going to look at two sections of
Scripture from Isaiah 41:8-10 and John 14:1-6, where God our Heavenly Father
and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ tell us to “Fear Not!” In the face of sin, death, and the power of
the Devil, we as Christians have nothing to fear, for Jesus our Good Shepherd
is with us, just as He began watching over Beverly in her baptism on November 6th,
1932 and led her to confess with her lips that Jesus Christ is Lord on the day
of her Confirmation on May 19th, 1946. The message is entitled, “Fear Not,” dear brothers and sisters in
Christ.
2.
The family has many memories of
Beverly. Where Beverly grew up on Shaky
Lake Road between Dale and Reedfield, their farm was on a high hill. So, one thing unique about her childhood was
that in the winter, she would often ride her sled down the hill to Hickory
Grove School. In High School Beverly was
very good at shorthand and typing and after graduation she worked at AAL on the
4th floor of the 222 Building in downtown Appleton. In the early 1950s her salary at AAL was $125
a month and she shared an apartment in Appleton.
3.
But, Beverly gave it all up to be
with her beloved husband Bob and enjoy West Bloomfield for the rest of her
life. Beverly would again put her typing
skills to work as she assisted Bob with the Secretary-Treasurer duties of the
local chapter of AAL Branch 1109 here at Christ Lutheran West Bloomfield. She would type up all the invites for the AAL
insurance policy holders and their families, for the yearly summer picnic, and
wrap all the bingo prizes and other gifts for the kids. She would also organize the annual meeting
and luncheon held in November and bring all the prizes for the drawing. Everyone waited with anticipation, as to who
the top two lucky people would be to win the Butterball Turkeys. But, everybody got at least one prize, even
if it was just a pound of cheese.
4.
But, most notably the Buchholtz
family remembers, all the effort and paperwork Beverly put in to apply for and
maximize the matching funds available through AAL and fundraisers to benefit
those in need or someone with cancer. Also,
many local emergency and fire departments, libraries, non-profits and our own
Church and School received donations through these volunteer projects. Beverly did that for 35 years and was happy
to serve the Lord Jesus and His Church and her fellow neighbor in Christian
love.
5.
The Lord says through the Prophet in
Isaiah
41:8–10—8But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend; 9you whom I took from the ends
of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my
servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; 10fear not, for I
am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will
help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah
shifts our attention away from the unbelieving world to God’s people, “But
you …” God’s people also saw what the nations saw. They noted the victories
of their conqueror and, no doubt, were
filled with fear. But God desired to comfort His people and addressed
them in the most tender way. God called His people, “Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend.” It is these words we need to hear and
remember today as we mourn Beverly’s death.
For God has called Beverly and us too, to be His chosen people, His
friends, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
6.
Each of these terms is important.
When God calls His people “Israel” and “Jacob,” He takes them
back to their origins. God’s people became known as Israel, the name God gave
Jacob when He reissued his promises to Jacob at the Jabbok River, when He
wrestled with Jacob (Genesis 32:22–30). This special nation had become God’s
special servant because of God’s choice. From the very beginning, God had
special plans for this nation. Jesus our Messiah would come into the world
through them. God describes the nation as the “descendants of Abraham my
friend.” That designation took these people back even further to the very
father of the nation. Abraham was God’s special and close friend.
7.
So, no matter what these people saw
in the world, they were to remember God’s grace toward them. And it was grace.
Personally, Abraham was no better than any other ancient man. He was a sinner just like everyone else. He
was great because God chose him. God made him the father of believers. These
verses so clearly indicate that God actively made these people His own. “I
took you.… I called you. I said … ‘I have chosen you and have not rejected
you.’” All this emphasizes God’s grace, undeserved and free, toward sinful
and fearful humans.
8.
Verse 10 piles comfort upon comfort.
It begins with words we so frequently hear in the Scriptures: “Do not fear.”
As God’s people endured their captivity, being taken to a foreign land, they
could easily worry. God casts out their fear with the promise that He is with
them and is their God, that is, He is next to them and pledges to remain with
them as a powerful source of help.
9.
Through the Prophet Isaiah, God says
He will do all this with His “righteous right hand.” God’s powerful hand
is righteous. Righteous means, “right, correct, straight, appropriate, and
proper.” In righteousness God had determined to bring about the deliverance
of all humanity from sin, death, and hell. He had promised to do so and would
remain faithful to all those promises. God’s people could depend on His
righteousness to do what was necessary to fulfill all His promises. On the
other hand, those who don’t know the Lord can expect quite another thing from His
righteous right hand. For them God’s righteousness will bring judgment and
punishment.
10.
The terms of these verses, of
course, apply to God’s Old Testament people, but they also apply to God’s
people of all time. All believers are descendants of Abraham by virtue of their
faith in the God of Abraham. When God directed Abraham to look up to the stars
and count the great number of his descendants, God had more in mind than the
little nation of Israel. He had all believers in mind, God had you and Beverly
in mind, as the apostle Paul says so clearly, “Understand, then, that those
who believe are children of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7).
11.
Jesus our Messiah is the fulfillment
of God the Father’s promises to Abraham.
In John 14:1-6, Christ our Lord says, ““Let not your
hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2In 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? 3And 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. 4And you know the way to where I am going.” 5Thomas
said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the
way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
12.
It was going to be a night of doubt
and despair for the Twelve. It was the night of Jesus’ betrayal and trial and
sentence of death. Before 24 hours had passed, Jesus would be crucified, dead
and buried. They would wonder if they could still think of Him as Savior,
whether God was still their loving Father.
13.
They had been so secure in Jesus’
company while He taught the crowds and healed the sick and raised the dead. But
before morning they would see Him arrested and humiliated. To prepare them for
that terrible experience which would tempt them to despair, Jesus said: “Trust
in God; trust also in me.” My Father can be trusted. He has always proved
himself to be trustworthy, just as He did for Abraham. Jesus says, “I can be
trusted.” Place your confidence in me and don’t let panic rob your hearts
of faith. As Beverly’s Pastor, I can
assure you that she placed her trust in Jesus as her Lord and Savior.
14.
There are things in our future which
we can’t foresee. But we know from the Word of God and from human experience
that our lives can change so quickly.
Just like it has done during this Covid-19 Pandemic. Today prosperous
and secure, tomorrow unemployed. Today cheerful and content, tomorrow broken
and weak. Today confident in the loving concern of our Savior, tomorrow
wondering whether God still cares.
15.
Jesus tells us, “Don’t leap to
any false conclusions about Me and My concern for you. I cared enough to join
the human race when I could have just continued in My majesty forever. I
suffered for the human race through My death on the cross for you for the
forgiveness of your sins, suffered more than you will ever suffer. I did my
Father’s will and finished My Father’s work. I carried out His plan for your
salvation as your Representative before His bar of justice.”
16.
God the Father was pleased to raise Jesus
from the dead to demonstrate that His justice is satisfied, and you are
forgiven. Jesus says, see My hands and My side, My empty tomb. Can you doubt My
good will? “You trust in God; trust also in me.” The important
thing to remember here is that Jesus is strong and loving. We quickly find out
how weak our faith is. But our God is strong. It’s not that we’re so good at
trusting, but that He’s trustworthy. Where shall we find confidence for the
future? In Jesus’ cross, in His empty grave.
Because Jesus lives, we too shall live and have eternal life in His
name. He has done that for Beverly, He
has done that for you. Fear not! Amen. The
peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in
Christ until life everlasting. Amen.
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