August 27, 2008. + James Welander +
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord and Beautiful
Savior and Living Redeemer. Amen. Our text is Romans 3:19-28.
"Now we know that whatever the Law says, it says to those who are under
the Law, that every mouth may be silenced, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore by the good actions of the law no person will
be justified in God's opinion, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin."
Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and our Beautiful Savior
Jesus Christ. Roxanne and family, Vera, and today's congregation (of 600+)
here in the new gym gathered to mourn our loss, yet thank God that Jim is
home with the Lord...
This is hard. I don't understand. I don't feel real. It shouldn't have
happened. I wasn't expecting this.
All words from your hearts in these past few days. We expect him to be
making bus schedules or driving a bus. It seems we should see him in the
halls, not this box. Just like we expect cars to start, email to work*, and
food at the cafeteria, we expect him to be alive: here. We feel like he
should be doing something, helping someone: not gone from our midst.
I did not know him as well as you did. I am the fill-in pastor at
Immanuel, his church; and I'm still getting to know people there. His
attendance at God's House was infrequent.
But what I did know about him was that he loved to help others. Even in
death he wanted to be helpful - he was an organ donor. Since I do know his
mother, Vera, to be a soul who is much the same (helping her sister, her
parents, and so many others), that does not surprise me. I have heard many
other compliments about his work; especially in light that two other bus
drivers here at Pomeroy-Palmer Community School suddenly died this summer.
And I hope that you will continue to share them at the luncheon; and also
the weeks to come.
But as good as he was, he was not good enough for God. Not one thing he
did earned him God's love or a place in heaven.
James, like you and me, was born under God's Law. God is holy and
perfect. Nothing that is not pure can enter heaven, and he (like we) are
far from perfect.
If a window gets broken, no amount of duct-tape can make it right. I'm
sure James fixed a window or 2 in his life; not with duct-tape. Consider
God's Ten Commandments like a window. You break them all the time. Oh, you
might be careful to do good most of the time and not break a Commandment, a
window. But it still happens. As helpful as he was, James broke a LOT of
windows life. Broken windows need replacing, not fixing.
That is the confession of faith Saint Paul makes as well in Romans 7.
'The good I should do, I don't. The wrong I shouldn't do, that's what I do'.
In First Timothy 1:15, Paul even claims to be the chief of sinners. James
was not nearly as helpful as Saint Paul! And you and I aren't either.
Our text from Romans 3 says that God's Law is not there to prove how good
we are or to make us better. It is there to shut us up.
Our sinful actions prove our guilt before God. Verse 20 goes so far as
to say NO person can be made right with God by what they do, or say, or
feel.
Later in Romans 6(23), we read 'the wages (what we earn) for sin is
death.' Some feel they can cheat and not get paid, or at least put off
payday for a while, but it does come. And it is hard. Very hard. It doesn't
feel real; but it hurts. We don't expect it; but it is in front of us.
Since we can't be holy, we can't be justified (or declared right) before
God, and not one of us can escape, it seems there is no hope.
"But now (Paul writes) the righteousness of God opposite from the Law is
revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, that is the
righteousness of God, thru faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who
believe...
Unlike the religions of the world which feel they can be good enough and
reach up to heaven, Christian faith is the opposite of the Law, for we
believe God reached down to us. Over thousands of years the Promise of God
was written down and worked thru history. The perfect righteousness of God
would come: the Beautiful Savior Who would be 100% God and 100% Man. He
would live the perfect life no one else could. He would also take our place
and suffer all of God's wrath against sin in our place. He would Rise again
on the third day so Christians would know they will also rise. He Ascended
to be our Advocate; and "He shall Come Again in glory."
Jesus did not come to fix our broken windows. He came to pay for them in
blood. Christ came to replace our shattered panes with His perfect glass &
take our place.
This is the faith James was baptized into on November 2, 1952 and the
faith he confessed as a teen on Palm Sunday, 1966.
Not into a religion of laws, but with a faith that confessed God's
forgiveness for people of every nation, tribe, people, or tongue thru the
cross of Christ.
THAT is the Christian faith. And that is why we can be very sad James is
gone from us, BUT not weep without hope. For in Christ, we will be together
again.
Saint Paul applies that hope to us. "For there is no difference; for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Think of it this way. I could run and jump maybe 10 feet. You may be in
better shape and can jump farther. I think the world record is 29' 4.5"
held by Mike Powell. He is a MUCH better jumper than you or me.
BUT imagine the Grand Canyon in front of you. I've never been there but
I hear it's GORGEous. It is an average 10 miles across. No one can take a
running jump and make that. I might make it farther than you, and others
father than me, but nobody makes that jump. Including James Welander.
In the same way, ALL have sinned, even the best of us. ALL fall far
short of God's glory. No one earns heaven by their efforts.
Paul continues: we are justified freely (declared forgiven) by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a
satisfying payment for sin by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in His mercy God had passed over the sins that were
previously committed.
THIS is the Christian faith. We fall short. The Father sent the Son to
make the jump for us. Then we are credited with His victory jump by the
gift of faith.
"Where is our boasting then? It is excluded. By what Law? By our good
works? Nope. The Law of Faith. We Christians conclude that a person is
justified by faith alone, without any good works." Paul writes.
The Bible says that God's gift of faith will produce good works as surely
as a good tree produces good fruit, and that "we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works", but it is faith that God credits to
us as righteousness (Romans 4:3, etc.).
I credit God for the many good things that came to us thru James. And
also credit God for the certainty of seeing him in eternity.
And it is in Christian faith that we gather here today for a time to weep
on earth, waiting for the time to laugh in heaven; for our time to mourn,
waiting for God to turn it into dancing.
It is NOT our strong faith that we trust to get us thru the difficult
days and tough times ahead. It is rather our compassionate and strong God
getting us thru. One other outcome of God's gift of faith is my certainty
the Welander family and Christian friends will reach out and be there for
each other, bearing each other's burdens (Galatians 6:2, 10).
There are tears to weep, but also other shoulders to cry on. There are
thousands of memories to share, and lots of folks to share them with at the
luncheon and in the time to come.
But THIS service is the time and has the purpose under heaven to thank
God for the victory over sin and death which is ours in the old rugged cross
of Christ, and praise God for what He has done for James and for us,
swallowing up death forever on Calvary.
The Lord is working thru His Word today to give you the faith you need.
God grant you the grace to be faithful unto death, then receive the crown of
life. May the power of Jesus Christ, the Resurrection and the Life,
strengthen and support your faith, and fill you with the courage and
compassion you need today and always. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
*several inside "jokes". I was told one person's new car didn't want to
start. The bulletin was emailed at least a dozen times to the school for
printing, but didn't get there. Lunch was not in the cafeteria - it was in
the old gym, which confused a few people. Etc.
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