Service of Death & Resurrection
Al “Pop” Fredericksen
December 11, 2018, 11 a.m.
Psalm 91; Matthew 25:31-40
Being on the ball, like he usually was, Mr. Al even
planned many of the details of this service today. He picked the hymns we’re
singing. It was important to him to have military funeral honors. And the last
time I saw him, he asked me to officiate at the service. It was the first time
I’ve been asked by the person and not by their family. But that’s how Mr. Al
was. He took care of what God entrusted to his care. He took care of Ms.
Shirley and his family. He took care of our church, serving this past year as
our head trustee. And he always had a minute to spare to help anyone who needed
help. I heard stories about Mr. Al helping out the customers on his mail route
and the friends he bowled with and he LOVED helping at the Howard County Fair
every August. You wouldn’t see him for two weeks, but you knew where he was. He
kept moving, kept busy, not to keep busy; he kept moving because he kept
serving, just as Jesus calls us to do.
Matthew 25 is what came to mind when thinking about
scripture for Mr. Al. First is the parable about the servants who have been
entrusted with talents, or bags of gold, to take care of while their master is
away. Two of the servants go to work and double the master’s money. When the
master returns he tells them, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have
been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come
and enter into my rest.” Likewise, Mr. Al was faithful with what Jesus
entrusted to him. He worried about everyone else until the day he died, asking
me even when he was in the hospital about things at church and with the
parsonage and trying to take care of things and wrap things up. He was
faithful, and has now entered into his Lord’s rest.
Jesus follows this parable of the servants and bags of
gold with the passage we read this morning about the shepherd separating the
sheep and the goats. “The King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who
are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you
since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to
eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you
invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked
after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ And the people look
askance at him, because to them, it was no big deal to do these things, they’re
not even completely sure they did them. The King replies, ‘Truly I tell you,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine,
you did for me.” I would venture a guess that there is no one here this morning
who was not helped in some way by Mr. Al. He would do anything for anyone.
Now, if he was helping you out of a scrape of your own
making, he would tease you or otherwise make sure you knew you needed to accept
responsibility for it. I had a problem with the garbage disposal at the
parsonage last summer that I tried to fix on my own and ended up calling him
about. He came out, and with my mom’s help, fished out a corn-on-the-cob holder
that had gotten stuck in there, that I hadn’t found on my own. At the next Administrative
Board meeting, during his trustees’ report, he had me tell the story of what
happened. It felt a little bit like getting in trouble at Grandpa’s house and
then having to tell my parents about it!
Mr. Al loved Jesus, he loved his family, and he served
everyone. And because of that attitude of love and service, people loved him.
He looked for the good, and people appreciated that. He was personal, chatting
up about anything and anyone, easy-going. Ms. Shirley told me that when he got
upset with her, he’d go out and chop wood. And then Gary told me that when they
had too much wood, they’d give it away! Even when upset, he figured out a way
to use that energy for something good.
But y’all don’t need me to tell you about Mr. Al. Most of
you knew him better and longer than I did, and that’s what makes the past month
so hard. It was sudden and unexpected for him to go from climbing ladders and
blowing leaves off the driveway to going home to Jesus. We didn’t realize Jesus
was going to call him home already. And yet with the psalmist we are confident
that “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of
the Almighty.” We can also “say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.’ Surely [the Lord] will save you… He will cover you
with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness
will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the
arrow that flies by day… A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your
right hand, but it will not come near you.” What a beautiful psalm of comfort
and reassurance. It’s a reminder that God is there with you, too, no matter
what’s going on. You are not alone. The Lord is with you.
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will
answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” The Lord did it
for Mr. Al. And he will do it for you,
too.
No comments:
Post a Comment