In memory of Andrew Ryan Schomaker

(February 1, 1992 – March 15, 2013)

Isaiah 55: 6-13

Revelation 21: 1-7

John 14: 1-7

 

                Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

                Although received as an adult member here at St. Luke’s, Andrew never participated in confirmation class.  So I thought I’d share some of the songs we use when we act out the funeral services for Bert and Ernie to better understand the concepts of death and resurrection in the Third Article of the Apostles Creed.  Plus, I thought Andrew might appreciate something from Eric Clapton, that masterful guitarist, who wrote the song, Tears in Heaven, when his four year old son, Conor, died after falling out of a 53^rd story window.  What strikes me so much about the song’s expression of grief, beyond the fact that it proclaims the promise of the 21^st chapter of the book of Revelation that there will be no more tears in heaven, is that, despite his overwhelming desire to be with his son, he strongly asserts that he does not belong in heaven.   I don’t believe that is based on not feeling worthy of heaven but that, while we believe that heaven is a place of peace and rest in God’s glory for those who die, it does not demean nor diminish the value of the gift of life that God grants us now.  He affirms the worth of each individual’s life now.

                Imagine the strength of conviction in the meaning and value of life to be able to commend your infant son to heaven’s glory, but to know that your place is still here – that there is more for you to do, that God still has a plan and purpose for your life.

                I know that for many people life is not easy, nor always enjoyable, nor ever understandable.  This may be as true for you as it was for Andrew and for so many people of Andrew’s age.  No longer a child, but not yet fully an adult; no longer just living life, but looking for meaning and purpose in life; no longer being led by others, but making your own choices and decisions for your future.

                It’s a natural process of maturation, of growing up.  It’s something we all struggle through.  And it’s best to do that with the support of family, friends, and faith.

                What does not belong in this natural process?  The abuse of drugs and alcohol.  They offer only an escape – not a solution.  They offer only an illusion – not a dealing with reality.  And we are gathered here today because they lead to death and not to life.  Voiced quite deliberately by Andrew’s grandmother and felt, I’m certain, by every family member is that Andrew’s death might have some good purpose to it if it serves as a wake up call to all his friends.  If you’re hooked on drugs – get help now.  If you’re not on drugs – don’t do it, ever.  And if you know someone who is on drugs, get them help even if they don’t ask for it.  There are no answers in drugs, only dead ends.

                Dead ends.  Wait, Clapton sings, “Beyond the door there’s peace I’m sure and I know there’ll be no more tears in heaven.”

                Today is not just a “scared straight” warning.  It’s also a hopeful celebration.  For none of life’s frustrations or temptations, not even disease or death, can destroy the promise of life that comes from a God of love and forgiveness, a God of mercy and grace, a God who gave His own Son to experience and to conquer every human temptation and sin, by whose death on a cross and Easter resurrection wins the victory of everlasting life.

                Looking for answers?  Looking for meaning and purpose in your life?  Jesus said, “I AM the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father but through me.”  Andrew was baptized into that faith and God’s promise can never be taken away from him by anyone or anything.  Some of you became a family for him at home, some at school, some at Senior High Camp, to help him always remember God’s promise.  At camp Andrew was a Counselor in Training, a CiT, and I thought I could do something with Andrew being a Child of God, a CoG, but I couldn’t get it to work well. 

That banner over the entryway to church indicates the involvement of our parish in a program called “cherish our children.”  Adults are assigned the names of all the baptized children of the parish and all the Sunday School children up to the age of 21 to hold up regularly in prayer.  Andrew was on my prayer list.  He was, and still is, a child I cherish.  I wish I could have done more than my prayers.  Perhaps many of you are thinking “I should have done more.”  I suppose there will always be more that we could have done, but we can only turn that over to God in confession and in the knowledge of our forgiveness.  But I know my prayers for Andrew were heard by God and answered; not in the way I would have preferred, but in the wisdom of Almighty God.  God’s divine purpose will be accomplished in Andrew’s life and in his death.

And today, despite grief and guilt, we celebrate that Andrew is a child of God, that he will leave a lasting impression on our lives, and that he has been carried on angel wings to heavenly peace and rest where there will be no more tears.  AMEN

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord unto life everlasting.  AMEN.

Rev. James H. Slater

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church – Valatie

March 21, 2013

 

In memory of Raymond Frederick Seiger

(June 1, 1962 – March 13, 2013)

Psalm 130

I Thessalonians 4:13—5:11

John 11: 17-26

                Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

                Scripture tells us that God never gives us anything beyond what we are able to handle.  Many people find great comfort and strength from that promise.  It gives them the confidence to face each new day, one day at a time, one step at a time.

                But others – too many others – find the promise lacking in their lives.  They feel overwhelmed by difficult situations.  The suffering of consequences due to poor choices force them into a downward  spiral of increasingly bad decisions until it seems to them like a well too deep to climb out of.  They are trapped by addictions over which they can gain no control.  This was the negative side of Freddy’s life.

                But there was a wonderful, positive side as well.  He grew up with adoptive parents who chose him to be their own and raised him with equal measures of military discipline and unconditional love.  He knew the family relationship of having two sisters.  He fathered children who are now growing to the age of making their own life choices and deciding which part of their father they will work to redeem and what parts of Freddy they will cherish and treasure.  He always had best intentions and sincere desire to turn his life around and make something of himself.  And from time to time Freddy would return to worship, to acknowledge the God he had learned about in church and through the teaching and examples of his family.

                Then why, after fifty years, did it seem more than he could handle?  Why, after fifty years, did his life come to an end?  Often we assign blame to three separate sources.

                It may come as no surprise to you at all that the first place we go to is to blame ourselves.  Have you said to yourself in the days after Freddy’s death, “If only I would have…?”  There is always more we each could have done.  We need to confess that before God and rely on our Savior’s love and forgiveness.  If there is something you did that led Freddy in the path of temptation and destruction of his body, then that’s between you and God.  But ultimately, Freddy was responsible for himself and his own choices.

                So, secondly, it’s only natural to direct the blame towards him.  “Poor Fred was just too weak, too susceptible, too faithless.  He refused to hold on to the good and the positive influences in his life,” we may be saying.  But if that is what we’re thinking, then we don’t fully understand the power of addiction – that it is not simply a matter of moral will but it is physical and it is physiological.  And it begins to control you; and it begins to destroy you.

                The, thirdly, out of frustration more than anything else, we blame God.  Even Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus, accused Jesus saying, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.”  And yet God never prevents us from dying.  That is a fact of human finiteness.  We will all die.  Even Lazarus, raised from the dead by Jesus, would still die.

                Instead, Jesus had a message, a promise, for Martha and Mary beyond human death that pointed to resurrection life.  “Your brother will rise again,” he said to Martha, “because I AM the resurrection and the life.  All who have faith in me, even though dead, yet shall live.  And all who live in faith in me will never die the death of hell and destruction.”

                Now there are some who would want you to believe that faith is something you have to do: that Jesus offers us salvation but, unless we grab on to it, we will forfeit it.  I find that disturbing and quite hopeless because none of us are able to fully live out the life God would have us lead.

                When Jesus confronted Satan in the wilderness and three times resisted the temptations of the devil, he did not mean for the message to be, “If I can do it, then you can do it.”  Instead it was, “I did it because I know that you cannot.”  That’s why he took up the cross, bore it for our sakes, and willingly gave his life so that we, who never could, would never be expected to.

                I have deliberately chosen Scripture today that affirms God’s unconditional love, grace and salvation for all of us; whether Deadheads, or Alive in Christ, or Deadheads for Jesus.  Jerry Garcia knew of God’s “Amazing Grace” and was able to sing about it, and now lives in it.  Freddy knew about God’s “Amazing Grace” and now lives in it in heavenly peace and rest from his troubles.  And we know about God’s “Amazing Grace.”  Can we now live in it?  Not just in the future; but now; in the choices we make, with the family and friends we love, with the demons and temptations we face.  Trusting in the promise of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can live our lives in the confidence of the prophet Isaiah: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?  ²⁸Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.  ²⁹He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.  ³⁰Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; ³¹but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40: 27-31)  AMEN.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord unto life everlasting.  AMEN.

Rev. James H. Slater

Emanuel Lutheran Church – Stuyvesant Falls

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church – Valatie

March 19, 2013