In the name of Jesus. Amen.
God is good. God
is good to Alvin Jeske. All his days, God is good. For 91 years, 8 months, and
26 days. God was good to Alvin giving him the new birth, to newness of life
when he was baptized into Christ at Holy Ghost Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. The
Holy Spirit of God was good to Al. He taught him and grew faith in him so on
April 2, 1944, Al publicly confirmed his faith and this was his confirmation
verse: Romans 1:16: I am not ashamed
of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes. God was good to Al, by setting him apart to be a pastor and a
preacher of that Gospel, the power of God for salvation.
God was good
to Pastor Al, giving him a blessed and peaceful death on October 11, 2021.
All along the way, God gave him good gifts. He gave him
people. There’s a woman, who loves him. Four beautiful children. Then
grandchildren and great grandchildren. God gave him congregations, hearers for
his preaching, students of his teaching, sinners to be absolved with that
gospel that he and they need never be ashamed of. I don’t know how to calculate
how many men, women and children over the years have heard Pastor Al preach
God’s Word. I count myself blessed as one who heard his last time preaching
God’s Word, when on his death bed he recited Psalm 130 with strength and breath
that one would think he should have been saving. He spoke that Psalm, including this verb “If
you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” And
with those words he preached the gospel to his family, to me and to himself.
God has been good to Pastor Al. God gave him unique skills. Skills of the hand. Pastor Al made this bail for me. He bailed it from a bailer that he had made, one of the many machines that so many of us have marvelled at and been entertained to watch. I enjoy having this as a keepsake. And I suspect that Pastor Al had more joy in making it and giving it than I do from receiving it.
But I'm getting off topic and Pastor
Al didn’t want me to talk too much about how good he was, what he accomplished.
That wasn't his point shouldn't be ours either today. Pastor Al would rather I
talk to you today about His Savior, Jesus and the gospel of God.
Pastor Al planned ahead, for this day. It’s a
good thing for a godly man or woman to do, to consider what will happen when
your short time in this life is over. Prepare for your funeral. A couple of
years ago, he gave me this outline of the sermon I'm supposed to be preaching.
(Read the outline)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So a truly
wise man will understand himself and status before the Almighty with fear and
reverence. It is wise of Pastor Al to confess his sins, weaknesses and
failures. You who know him better than I, will perhaps know weaknesses and
failures I didn’t witness. If there are any regrets today, any disappointments
that he was everything you thought you needed in a father, a grandfather, a
pastor, a colleague, a friend and neighbor. It’s because he was like you and me
a sinner. Let’s please forgive him. God has. Like the dead body is covered with
the beautiful garment, so weaknesses and failures are covered by the life,
death and resurrection of his Savior, Jesus Christ. When Jesus suffered and died,
the ugly cruel death on the cross, he was wounded for our transgressions. He
was crushed for our iniquities. . . the Lord has laid on Jesus the sins of us
all (Isaiah 53). My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and
righteousness.
That
righteousness of Jesus is for us to have now. This is the righteousness that is
revealed in the gospel of Al’s confirmation verse. “The righteous shall live by
faith.” That’s what we have to believe
now. That the righteous live by faith. As we walk through the valley of death,
as weakness overcomes our mortal body and the ages take their toll, we look
beyond our earthly experience and hear the promise that the righteous live by
faith. Those who believe the gospel, the power of God for salvation, who have
departed from this earthly time, live. Pastor Al, who you can take at his word
when he said what his hope was, he will not perish but has eternal life.
And we who are left will see him again, and share with him
in the joy promised us. Believe that when you place his earthly remains in the
earth, like we sang just now in the hymn:
And so to earth we now entrust
What came from dust and turns to dust
And from the dust shall rise that day
In glorious triumph o’er decay.
That will be the gospel at the cemetery, the gospel we are
not ashamed of. Pastor Al wants you to hear that gospel. The power of God for
salvation to everyone who believes. You got to believe this.
Pastor prayed for those who would hear his
preaching. and he prayed regularly for his beloved parishioners
and his beloved family, that they would believe. Now, none
of us can see who believes. No one can know except
God. Pastor Al was gracious and charitable in thinking about those
he was preaching to at church or at home that they took to heart what was said
and taught. But I know it pained him, when those he loved demonstrated that they cared little about such a powerful thing as the gospel-- the gospel that is power to salvation.
For those who believe.
“Do you believe this?” That’s what Jesus asked Martha at the
time of her brother Lazarus’s death and burial. When Jesus or his preachers ask
that, “Do you believe?” He’s not nagging, not manipulating, not guilting you
into it. The Lord Jesus is inviting, giving the Gospel, the power of God, the
Resurrection and the Life, namely Jesus Christ. With the Gospel, Jesus is
giving Himself and His all to you. “Do you believe this?” He says, inviting
you, calling you by the gospel, to put your trust in him through life, through
death.
If you ever find yourself having trouble believing it,
remember that it is a gift and an invitation the Savior has to give you. When
you get an invitation, you put it on the phone stand or hang it on the
refrigerator where you can see it again later, so you can hear it again if any
of the details get fuzzy or forgotten. You read the invitation again, or play
the voice mail again, and graciousness of the invitation is renewed.
In this way, keep hearing the invitation of Jesus. Keep listening to His preachers.
Hebrews 13 says, “Remember your leaders, those who
spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and
imitate their faith.” Those who have gone before us in this journey of life and
faith, are examples to follow, teaching us how to live and how to die. Imitate
their faith. Share their hope.
O brother Pastor Al.
O blessèd saints in bright array
Now safely home in endless day,
Extol the Lord,
Who with His Word
Sustained you on the way.
The steep and narrow path you trod;
You toiled and sowed the Word abroad;
Rejoice and bring
Your fruits and sing
Before the throne of God.
The myriad angels raise their song;
O saints, sing with that happy throng!
Lift up one voice;
Let heav’n rejoice
In our Redeemer’s song!
Amen.
