This was the sermon from Ione Christensen’s funeral on November 13th, 2011. There is a piece of the sermon missing, as it came from a devotional that was Ione’s. The portion of the devotional was a little exegesis about what Martin Luther thought of the Gospel Passage of Matthew.
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Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff– they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.
Psalm 71:17-21
O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come. Your power and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will increase my honor, and comfort me once again.
Romans 8:31-39
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? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” 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.
Matthew 6:25-33
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you– you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
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Grace to you and peace, from God our Creator, and from Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord and Savior, Amen.
We are gathered together here today to remember Ione Christensen. Mother, Sister, Grandmother, Friend. Fellow worker in the kingdom for Jesus Christ. Now we have four different pieces of scripture before us today, and I am going to paint an image of each one, using a story from Ione’s life.
The first text is Psalm 23. We are all very familiar with the 23rd psalm. It is the shepherding psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, he is going to take care of me. Now in Ione’s life, the shepherding psalm is pretty important. Ione was a shepherd! It started back when both Joy and Linda when they had a couple of sheep for a 4-H project. Joy and Linda’s 4-H project ended, but Ione kept on with raising sheep! She ended up with a herd of about 60 sheep at any given time. She loved to care for her sheep. Her death rate was very low. When a mother would abandon a lamb, she would bottle feed it until it was time for it to be weaned. Every four hours she would bottle feed. If she was sleeping, she would get up to care for lambs. During the winter when it was cold, if necessary she would even create a place in the house for the sheep. This gives a whole new meaning to the 23rd psalm… “I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.” The sheep literally did dwell in Ione’s house! That is how much she cared for them.
The 71st Psalm is a psalm about how God cares for us in times of trouble. “You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will increase my honor, and comfort me once again.”
God cared for Ione deeply during the trials she witnessed and underwent. Health-wise she had a very difficult time. In the 70’s she was in ill health and came near to death. She had her adrenal glands removed… and as a result, had a very difficult time feeling emotions. She witnessed both her daughter Connie and her husband Kenny die within two months of each other. These are difficult things. And her health started to fail in more recent years, as it was very apparent that she had a form of dementia. She had seen troubles and calamities. But like the psalmist said, “you will revive me again.” And God did.
How did God do this? Ione still remained connected. She still remained connected to her family, to her friends, and to her community of faith. One of her family members said to me “You have to include how much of a joy in her life it was to go to the yearly Lutefisk feed at Ellsbourough Lutheran Church.” Now, keeping in line with the Psalm, I think a Lutefisk feed does sound like trouble and calamity to many. Joking aside, God did revive her. She had always maintained a connection to Ellsbourough, as well as to First English… and to many friends and
I now want to turn to Matthew’s Gospel.
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you– you of little faith?”
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. Ione was a gardener. She loved to grow vegetables. She would ferociously can food. Her flowers though were here highlight. She loved to plan and care for flowers. She cared deeply for them. Her flowers neither toiled nor spun. She made them look beautiful.
Now… it might not be apparent the images I have painted for you. Shepherding. God seeing us through troubles and calamities. Flowers and birds being cared for. These scriptures, they are not for Ione. Ione is doing just fine. These scriptures are for us.
Psalm 23 is for us. Much in the way Ione cared for lambs without a mother, carrying milk out to them in the middle of the night… God cares for us.
Psalm 71 is for us. Death hurts. Death stings. When we lose someone we love, it is hard. But Psalm 71 is for us to hear. “You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will increase my honor, and comfort me once again.”
Matthew’s Gospel – it is for us. Much in the way Ione cared for her flowers, God cares for us.
Paul’s Letter to the Romans, it isn’t for Ione… it is for us. “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.” Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not anything. Not our own death. Not even Ione’s.
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
