A Grace-filled Life

Ephesians 2:8-10 We gather here today to mourn a family man, a fellow member of the church, and a friend in this community.  Our grief is real.  It’s always difficult to say goodbye to those we love-- but it’s especially difficult when it is someone like Allan who was such a blessing to so many of us.

I know that everyone here today has happy memories of him and what a blessing that is!  To have lived such a life as to inspire the admiration of this great family is a testimony to what kind of man he was!

I know that everyone has a story they would like to tell about a man who was such a squirrel-catching, jackrabbit chasing, domino playing character as he was!

But I would like to take this opportunity to tell you another kind of story—not a story about something that Allan did—but a story about what God did for Allan—a story of God’s grace that is still being told as his soul rests in God’s presence.  The Bible says:

By grace you have been saved through faith.   And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

            Saved.  I would have you know and believe that above all else:  that Allan is saved.  Safe and secure in his heavenly home.  This day is not about the painful news that he is gone from us—but that glad Good News that Allan has gone home.  Saved by grace.

When we hear that word “saved” many Christians think of a moment when they became particularly aware that they were sinners who needed saving and were glad and thankful that Jesus had done that for them in his death and resurrection.

Allan was certainly “saved” in that sense.  He confessed the same each week in this place:  I a poor miserable sinner confess all my sins and iniquities.  Each week he said:  I believe in Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary who was crucified, died and was buried.  Allan knew that he was a sinner and that Jesus was his Savior.

Other Christians, when they hear that word “saved” think about the moment when the saving merits of Jesus Christ became their own, especially in the waters of Holy Baptism and that was true of Allan too. 

He was baptized by his father at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Schroeder, Texas on April 20, 1930.  The Bible says that in that moment he died with Christ and was raised with Christ and is united with Christ in his resurrection.  And so he will be!

But that word “saved” in the Bible includes even more than these moments.  It includes everything that God has done for us (from everlasting to everlasting) to forgive our sins-- and bring us to faith in Jesus-- and lead us to our heavenly home.

The comfort that we have today even as we mourn his passing is that Allan was saved:  God chose him in Christ, sent Jesus to die and rise for him, brought him to faith and sustained his faith in Jesus until that moment Monday evening when God called Allan home, saved by grace—safe and secure in the place Jesus prepared for him.

And so he is even at this moment!  He is saved from the sorrows of this life.  He is saved from illness and disability.  He is saved from worries and cares.  He is saved from failure and sin and eternal death.  The Bible says of the saints who are entering heaven:

“These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb… They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd…and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

So it is for Allan right now--saved by grace.  I recently heard a wonderful little definition of grace that I would like to share with you.  You may already know it but it was new to me and it vividly describes God’s gracious work in Allan’s life.  It goes like this…

Grace is:  God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  I just love that!  How true that was of Allan’s life and he knew it!

During this last month or so of his life, a month full of sickness and pain, Allan could be heard constantly singing “Amazing Grace”—the song we just sang.  “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

You see, the faithful child of God finds no shame in claiming for themselves words like “poor and wretched and blind” –Allan certainly didn’t! 

The words of “Amazing Grace” were a comfort to him because they reminded him of how far God had brought him--that there was something even greater and more powerful than his sins and weaknesses--and that is the mercy and forgiveness that God extends to us in Jesus Christ.

That we are saved-- and that God is gracious towards us-- is all because of Jesus Christ.  We are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  Allan knew that Reformation rallying cry and believed it and built his life upon it.

He knew that Christ had carried his sins to the cross and suffered there in his place and shed his life’s blood to wash them away.  He knew that Christ was raised to give him eternal life.  And his confidence, especially in these last days, was this promise of Jesus:  I am the resurrection and life.  He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

That was Allan’s faith—a faith that was given to him as a gift by the Holy Spirit and sustained in him throughout his life by God’s Word and Holy Sacraments. 

Every time Allan heard the Word of God and received Holy Communion, the Holy Spirit was right there in that moment, through those humble means, strengthening the faith he had first been given as a gift in Holy Baptism—a faith that allowed him to confess that he was, as God’s says, God’s workmanship.

And so he was.  His heavenly Father had created him and Jesus Christ had redeemed him and the Holy Spirit had sanctified him and set him apart as belonging to God.  He was God’s child, blessed by God with countless earthly gifts.

God caused him to be born to Christian parents who loved him and saw that he was brought up in the Christian faith.  God watched over him and protected him during his military service in the navy during the Korean War.  God gave him work to do in the oilfields of West Texas that provided for his family. 

And it was here especially—in Allan’s family-- that God graciously blessed Allan.

By the goodness and grace of Almighty God, Allan and Marie were brought together in Holy Matrimony.  They were married by Allan’s father at Elim Lutheran Church in Kenedy, Texas on June 25, 1955. 

Their love for one another was blessed by God with children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great great-grandchildren—a beautiful heritage from the Lord. 

I can’t tell you what a blessing it was for me to see nearly forty members of Allan’s immediate family fill the hospital room and hallway when he first was admitted to the hospital.

This wonderful family is a testimony to their love for one another-- but more importantly they are a testimony to God’s gracious love for them. 

Allan believed that.  And he knew that as God’s workmanship he had been created and redeemed in Christ Jesus to live a life of good works.

And so he did.  Not only did he work in the oilfield he always had an extra job so that Marie could stay home.  He made time every day to play cards and dominos they both loved so much.  He served our church by helping the men’s group with their golf tournament and Bar-B-Q and fertilizer sales.  Pastor Budewig called him “the fireman” because he kept our fire extinguishers serviced.

Allan understood that being saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus has a purpose and that purpose is to serve God and others. 

His was a grace-filled life and now his earthly purpose has been fulfilled and God has called him home to rest in his presence until that day when Jesus returns and raises our bodies from the grave, never to die again. 

I pray that everyone gathered here today would know and believe what Allan knew and believed and built his life upon:  that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus.  Amen.