+ In Memoriam - Al Pfeiffer, September 19th, 1948 - July 22nd, 2018 +
August 4th, 2018
Zion Lutheran - Auburn, WA (Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton, WA)
Texts: Psalm 121; Isaiah 40:27-31; Philippians 4:8-13; Matthew 6:25-34
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
How can Jesus say that? Doesn’t he know we have bills to pay, meals to prepare, kids or grandkids to drive around town, not to mention a list of household chore that stretches to infinity and beyond?
We know Jesus’ words (to his disciples, and to us) are true, even if they are hard to hear and perhaps harder to understand at times. Still, when the busy-ness of life takes over, when we see local and national disasters on the evening news, and when our own loved ones get sick and die, these words seem to be a bit easier said than done, don’t they?
Anxieties. Worries. Fears. We know these all too well, and so did Al. He knew that life is hard work. He knew the pain of pancreatic cancer and the helplessness we experience when we’re sick. He also knew his sin just as we God’s Word reveals that we are weak, weary, and sinful apart from Jesus.
But more than that, Al believed and confessed with St. Paul that, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Christ crucified was Al’s strength in his weakness, as he is for you.
Al believed and confessed with Isaiah, that, “the Lord does not faint or grow weary; and that the Lord renews our strength” in Jesus crucified for us.
Al believed and confessed Jesus’ words in Matthew 6: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” For this reason, we pray, “Our Father”, knowing that God is our true Father and that we are His true children.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you.
What’s the common thread in these reading? Contentment.
Sadly, I didn’t have the joy of getting to know Al. But from what I have come to know of him from Vicki and other members at Beautiful Savior, Al was content. Content in our Lord’s blessings in his earthly life: helping his neighbors, family, and friends; spending cherished time with his children, grandchildren, and church family; growing up on the farm in Minnesota, fishing, and taking a drive in his ’57 Chevy.
What was the secret of Al’s contentment? Simply this: our contentment is found in the cross of Jesus. Our strength, like Al’s, is in Christ who knew no anxieties, worries, fears, or sin, and yet became our worry, anxiety, and sin and bore it all for us.
That’s why Al was content in Christ’s promises to him in body and soul, even when that body was failing. In his last days, he knew what would bring him true and everlasting contentment; he asked Pastor Gerken to bring the Lord’s Supper for him in his last days. We need not worry about what we eat or drink, for the Lord who provides his body as bread from heaven, and his sacred blood with the wine will feed and care for us in the body as well.
Al received true contentment in Holy Baptism as well. On October 17th, 1948, the Holy Spirit poured out his life-giving, sin-cleansing, grace-bestowing gift of washing and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. In that font at St. Peter’s in Swanville, MN, Al was clothed – as we all are in Baptism – better than all the lilies of the field, and all the kings of the earth. You are clothed with Christ, covered by his death and resurrection, robed in the righteousness of our Crucified King.
Al heard our Lord’s Word of contentment, peace, and promise, just as we heard them today in the sermon on the Mount from Matthew 6. “Are you not of more value than the birds?”
Indeed, we, Al, and all the baptized are of more value than the birds. So much so that our Lord took on human flesh for you, for Al, and for all. The Lord who does not grow weary or faint, became a helpless infant for you, wept at the grave of his friend for you, and became weak and faint to the point of death on the cross for you. Jesus also rose from the dead for you, so that our bodies, like Al’s, wracked by disease and touched by death would rise from the dead one day, just as Jesus did.
The Lord who feeds the ravens when they call swallowed up death for us to bring us eternal contentment in the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Lord who is the Kingdom and Righteousness of God came to give you both his righteousness and his kingdom, freely. He clothed himself in our sin, threw himself into the blazing oven of God’s wrath, and bore every single one of our worries, anxieties, doubts, fears, and sins.
That’s where our contentment rests. Not in our health, wisdom, wealth, or anything we say, think, or do. Our contentment is found in Jesus crucified for you.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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